"For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones."To show this truth, Paul has switched analogies. He now begins talking about a man and his care for his own body. But this still fits the symbolism of Christ and the church. Christ is portrayed in the Scriptures as the head of the body, and His spiritual body is the church.
This is what Paul taught in Ephesians 1:22-23,
"And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."God the Father put Jesus in charge of the church as her head. Do you see this? The church is the body of Christ. This passage from Ephesians 5:29-30 is still all about how Jesus relates to the church - in this case, symbolically as His body. Remember what we said? Ephesians 5:32 tells us, "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church." That's been the topic of this long passage on the husband and the wife. Paul was just using them as a springboard to talk about Christ and the church. The husband and the wife are earthly pictures to the world in which the husband pictures Christ and the wife pictures the church.
So now apply this to these next few verses in Ephesians 5. When we read Ephesians 5:28, "So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself," we are still using Christ as our example. He is the example in the way he loves His own body, the church. Husbands, therefore, still must treat their wives with the same kind of love just as Christ loves His own body, the church. That is the requirement for every husband.
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