God’s Word Translation
Ephesians 5:28
28So husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself.
Ephesians 5:28 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
- New International Version (NIV)In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
- English Standard Version (ESV)In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
- New King James Version (NKJV)So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.
Context of Ephesians 5:28
26He did this to make the church holy by cleansing it, washing it using water along with spoken words. 27Then he could present it to himself as a glorious church, without any kind of stain or wrinkle—holy and without faults. So husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself. 29No one ever hated his own body. Instead, he feeds and takes care of it, as Christ takes care of the church. 30We are parts of his body.
Read all of Ephesians 5Ephesians 5:28 word by word
οὕτως ὀφείλουσιν καὶ οἱ ἄνδρες ἀγαπᾶν τὰς ἑαυτῶν γυναῖκας ὡς τὰ ἑαυτῶν σώματα. ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα ἑαυτὸν ἀγαπᾷ·Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Ephesians 5:28
- Ephesians 5:31That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will be one.
- Genesis 2:21So the Lord God caused him to fall into a deep sleep. While the man was sleeping, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
- Matthew 19:5and that he said, ‘That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and will remain united with his wife, and the two will be one’?
Commentaries on Ephesians 5:28
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 28As their own bodies - For the woman is, properly speaking, a part of the man; for God made man male and female, and the woman was taken out of his side; therefore is she flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone; and therefore, he that loveth his wife loveth himself, for they two are one flesh. The apostle, in all these verses, refers to the creation and original state of the first human pair.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 28So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies - Because they are one flesh; Ephesians 5:31. This is the subject on which Paul had been speaking, and from which he had been diverted by the allusion to the glorified church. The doctrine here is, that a husband should have the same care for the comfort of his wife which he has for himself. He should regard her as one with himself; and as he protects his own body from cold and hunger, and, when sick…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 22-33Verses 22-33 The duty of wives is, submission to their husbands in the Lord, which includes honouring and obeying them, from a principle of love to them. The duty of husbands is to love their wives. The love of Christ to the church is an example, which is sincere, pure, and constant, notwithstanding her failures. Christ gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify it in this world, and glorify it in the next, that he might bestow on all his members…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 28-29Husbands should value and care for their wives as they do themselves. In marriage, the two become one (see 5:31). This means that caring for one’s wife is like caring for one’s own body.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2828. Translate, "So ought husbands also (thus the oldest manuscripts read) to love their own (compare Note, see on Ep 5:22) wives as their own bodies." He that loveth his wife loveth himself--So there is the same love and the same union of body between Christ and the Church (Ep 5:30, 32).Read the comment
Topics related to Ephesians 5:28
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Ephesians 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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