Ephesians 5:31Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Yet he does not grieve over it or cut it off. Often he cares for it more than the others. And rightly so, for it is his member.

Therefore the Apostle wants us to have toward our wife the same love each of us has for himself. This is not only because we share one nature with her. We have a far greater reason regarding the wife.

The reason is that husband and wife are not two bodies, but one: he is the head, and she is the body. But how does he say elsewhere, “the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor 11:3)?

This is what I too say: as we are one body, so Christ and the Father are one. Thus it follows that the Father also is our head.

The Apostle sets forth two comparisons, one with the body and one with Christ. Therefore he adds, “This mystery is great; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” (v. 32).

In fact, this testimony is written in Genesis thus: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be in one flesh" (Gen 2:24). But in the present place the Apostle, instead of the words found there, eneken toutou, that is, "for this reason," used anti toutou, which cannot be expressed in Latin by other words.

Then, in the words that follow, he removed the pronouns "his" and "his," leaving only "father and mother." What stands in the middle, "and shall cleave to his wife," he entirely omitted. He joined only the words that follow with those already cited and set them down thus: "and the two shall be in one flesh."

We have noted all this so that, in other places where testimonies seem to be borrowed by the Apostles from the prophets and the Old Testament, yet are not found in our copies of the sacred books, we should not hasten toward the absurdities and ravings of hidden books, the apocrypha.

Rather, we must know that what is written in their writings is in the Old Testament, only not set forth by the Apostles in the same words. The meaning alone is taken, so that only careful investigators can find where the borrowed passage is written.

Therefore the Apostle, in order to persuade husband and wife to mutual love, took the example of Adam and Eve. As the rib is taken from Adam and changed into a spouse, and the woman is again brought into unity of flesh with the husband, for he who loves his wife loves himself, so we also must love our wives.

The same thing is explained in a figurative meaning with respect to Christ and the Church. Adam prefigures Christ, and Eve the Church, for the last Adam was in the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor 15:45).

As the whole human race is born from Adam and his wife, so the whole company of believers has come from Christ and the Church. It has become one body of the Church, and is again placed in the side of Christ. It fills the place of the rib and becomes one body of the husband.

Concerning this the Lord Himself asks in the Gospel: "Father, grant that these also may be one in Us, just as I and Thou are one" (Jn 17:21).

Let us now ask Marcion: on what ground, qua consequentia, does he dare, queat, to explain this passage taken from the Old Testament, Instrumentum, as applying to Christ and the Church, if in his opinion the whole Old Testament Scripture does not refer to Christ?

For as the body cannot live without its head, so the Church, the assembly of believers, that is, of the sons of God written in heaven, cannot be a whole and perfect body without her head, Christ our God.

Nor can she live the true and eternal life unless she is fed daily by Him with the daily bread. From Him all who love Him receive true life and grow into a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of His fullness.

Since the Church is the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the great world, and the temple of God, and since all the saints are members of His body, while not all have yet been born and shown themselves pleasing to God, this is clear.

The body of Christ is not yet wholly complete. The world above has not yet been filled. That is, the whole company of men has not yet entered the Church of God.

Even now there are still many unbelievers in the world who are to believe in Christ. There are many sinners who must repent. There are many disobedient who must submit to Christ.

Many still must be born and please God before the last trumpet sounds. Therefore all those foreknown by God must be born.

The measure of the Church of the firstborn, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is above this world, must be filled. Then the fullness of the body of Christ will be completed.

It will receive into itself those predestined by God to be conformed to the image of His Son. These are the sons of light and of the day.

One may ask why the Apostle cites this law when speaking about marriage. Clearly, he wishes to instill reverence for this first law, given after the creation of the wife and implanted in human nature.

He does this in order to dispose married people toward a firm union with one another. He also shows how unnatural and opposed to God marital disagreements are, and still more divorces.

“This mystery is great; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” (Eph 5:32). What, then, is mysterious in marriage? Chrysostom explains it thus.

“It is truly a mystery that a man leaves the one who produced him, begot him, and raised him, and the one who conceived him, suffered for him, and bore him in travail.

“He leaves those who have shown him so many benefits and to whom he has become accustomed. He is joined to one whom he had not seen before, who has nothing in common with him, and he prefers her to everything.

“Truly this is a great mystery, containing some hidden wisdom.”

“I speak concerning Christ and the Church.” By this addition the Apostle wishes to impress upon us the closeness of husband to wife and their mutual union in blessed Christian marriage.

This closeness is so great, and contains such a mystery, that it can be the best and clearest likeness of the mystical union of Christ with the Church. In that union marriage also has its highest prototype.

“There is no little mystery even in natural marriage between husband and wife,” the Apostle seems to say. “But I speak of Christian marriage, contracted in the image of the union of Christ with the Church.

“Such a marriage is already the greatest mystery. It is already a sacrament of the Church.”

What is the union of Christ with the Church? It is the closest union, permeated with love, holy and indissoluble. Such also must be conjugal union, if it is not to lose its exalted meaning and sacred spiritual significance.

Where and how are the powers for such union given? Invisibly and mystically in Christian marriage, when the spouses stand beneath the crowns at the Lord’s altar.

The fact that many bad marriages often occur in Christianity should disturb no one. Nor should the fact that there are generally many unworthy and bad Christians.

In Baptism, all are given the power and possibility of being good Christians. The Apostle is speaking about what Christian marriage is in its essence and what it should be according to its idea.

He is not concerned here with what it sometimes becomes among Christians in actual fact.

“Imitate the Master’s solicitude. Show toward those who live with you in marriage the same care that the Lord showed toward the Church. For Christ the Master did not refuse even to die for His bride.

“He did this to cleanse her, make her glorious, wipe away the marks of age from her, and present her free from every blemish. Therefore you too must have the same love for your wives and care for them as for your own body” (Blessed Theodoret).

“Do not turn away from your wife because of her unattractiveness. She is God’s creation. Do not praise her because of beauty. Such praise, such hatred, and even passionate love itself belong to corrupt souls.

“Seek beauty of soul. Imitate Christ the Bridegroom. Let us seek neither money nor outward nobility, but nobility of soul.”

“But how is the wife the husband’s flesh? Listen: ‘Behold now,’ Adam says, ‘bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’ (Gen 2:23). Eve is flesh from Adam’s flesh.”

“As the whole human race was born from Adam and Eve, so the whole multitude of believers is born from Christ and the Church. Forming one body, it is again placed into Christ’s side, becoming one flesh with Him.”

“The Lord Himself prayed concerning this: ‘that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us’ (Jn 17:21)” (Chrysostom).

The Apostle does not explain here exactly how love of a conjugal character appears in Christ’s relation to the Church. Yet this can already be seen in part from what he said above (vv. 26, 27, 29).

Moreover, it fully accords with the Apostle’s teaching to explain this point as follows. Christ is now in heaven as in His parental home, yet from there He is constantly drawn by love toward His spouse, the Church, who dwells on earth.

Like a husband, He will not find perfect rest until He again leaves heaven, comes down to earth, and receives the Church, His pure bride, into full communion with Himself.

Yet it seems closer to relate them to the immediately preceding discourse about the close living union of believers with Christ the Lord. It was said: we are of His flesh and of His bones. Therefore the law which was spoken by God after the same words spoken by Adam also applies to us.

Adam said, "This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh," and God sealed this with the law: "For this reason a man shall leave," and so forth. Thus it shall be from then on, throughout all generations of the age.

Having cited Adam's words to explain the union of believers with the Lord, the holy Apostle also cites that law concerning the joining of husband and wife. But if we must understand the words "of His bones and of His flesh," taken from Adam's speech, as referring to the union of believers with Christ, then why must the law spoken after Adam's words be understood directly, and not as applied to the union of believers with Christ?

There is no necessity for this, especially since immediately afterward the Apostle himself defines the direction of his discourse: I say this with respect to Christ and the Church. Therefore nothing prevents us from understanding the words of this text as indicating the law by which Christ the Lord is united with believing souls, and believing souls with Christ the Lord.

It seems the Apostle chiefly had in view this latter side of the union, namely, the union of souls with the Lord. The aim of his word is this: "the two are one flesh" means that believers and the Lord are one.

For this reason the Apostle has anti toutou, "instead of this." He said earlier: the Lord nourishes and warms us, since we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones. Now he says: instead of this, we must be so attached to Him as to make one. For He has already so shared in us that He has given His whole Self to us.

One may find an indication of such a thought in the words of Chrysostom: "Thus we also become one flesh with Christ, through communion." A little below he says: here there occurs "a spiritual union, in which the soul is joined to the Lord by an ineffable union, as He alone knows. Therefore it is also said: 'He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord' (1 Cor 6:17)."

The Psalmist also says this: "Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear; forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty" (Ps 44:11-12).

The words of blessed Jerome also lead to this: "These words refer, in a figurative sense, to Christ and the Church. Adam prefigured Christ, and Eve the Church. As the whole human race was born from Adam and Eve, so from Christ and the Church the whole multitude of believers was born and is being born. This multitude, forming one body, is again placed into the side of Christ and fills the place of the rib, becoming one flesh with Him, as with a husband.

"Concerning this the Lord Himself prayed in the Gospel: 'that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us' (Jn 17:21)." With this thought, the following words also become intelligible: