Ephesians 5:22-33
New Catholic Bible
25 Love One Another in Christ. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her 26 in order to sanctify her by cleansing her with water and the word,[a] 27 in order to present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such flaw, but holy and without the slightest blemish.
28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own body; rather, he nourishes it and cares for it, even as Christ does for the Church, 30 because we are members of his body.
31 For this reason
a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
32 This is a great mystery. Here I am applying it to Christ and the Church. 33 However, each one of you should love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife should respect her husband.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ephesians 5:26 Cleansing her with water and the word: a reference to Baptism (pouring of water and sacramental formula). Perhaps Paul had in mind the Oriental practice in the purification of a wife.
