Bible Strands
Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The author addresses husbands in the letter to the Ephesian church, placing the directive within a broader discussion of marital and ecclesial relationships.
The words — The Greek term ἀγαπᾶτε (agapate) commands husbands to actively love their wives, while καθὼς (kathōs) establishes the standard for that love as the self-sacrificial giving of Christ for the church.
The thread — This pattern of wifely submission paired with husbandly love recurs in Colossians 3:19 and 1 Peter 3:7, while Ephesians 5:28 later reinforces the command by equating love for one's wife with love for oneself.
Why it lands — The text explicitly commands husbands to love their wives with the same self-giving measure that Christ demonstrated for the church. Readers must apply this concrete standard of sacrificial action to their own marriages without reducing the command to mere emotional affection.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 3:7 Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
- Colossians 3:19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
- Ephesians 5:28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
- Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
- Ephesians 5:33 Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
- Ephesians 5:2 and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
- Galatians 1:4 who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
- Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
- Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
- Proverbs 5:18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth: