"22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Saviour. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.[a]28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."
Ephesians 5:22-33
Paul's words speak of the illustration that marriage is meant to give of the grace of the gospel. In a right marriage, he means something of the glory and the beauty and the mystery of Christ and His redeeming love will be communicated and will shine forth. This is very wonderful. It should be a man's first and prior concern that his relationship to his wife and in his home should somehow, in some measure, reflect this. And when this really grips him, he will have too much on his heart to be over-concerned about lording it over his wife in any unworthy and caricaturing sense, and the wife will see to it that she reverence and respect her husband because it is part of her duty to Christ. How Christ-centred Paul is in all his teaching!
The wealth of Paul's words in 25-27 is impressive indeed, and there is a breadth and sweep about them that is scarcely equalled anywhere in the New Testament. The whole of the work of grace is covered by them - justification (25), sanctification (26), glorification (27) - life through Christ (cf 1 John 4:9), living unto Him (cf 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15), and ultimately, living together with Him (1 Thessalonians 5:9, 10). The AV translation of 26 is misleading; it should rather read: 'That He might sanctify it, having cleansed it in the laver of water in the word'. The reference is to baptism - not that baptism justifies us or makes us Christians, but rather what baptism signifies. The 'word' does not refer to the Word of God - although the Bible teaches elsewhere that the 'Word' cleanses and sanctifies - but the 'word of faith', the confession we make at baptism (cf Romans 10:9). The main emphasis in the verse is upon Christ's final purpose and design in His people, and the work of justification and of sanctification alike is wrought with this in view, that He might 'present unto Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing'. What a glorious prospect!