Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 5:23

"For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the church, [being] himself the saviour of the body." — Ephesians 5:23 (ASV)

For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.—It is instructive to compare this with the partly similar passage in 1 Corinthians 11:3. There the head of the woman is the man, as here; but the head of every man (individually) is Christ, considered in His human nature; and finally, the Head of Christ, as the Son of Man, is God.

There, accordingly, “headship” is simple lordship; the woman is subject to the man, the man is subject to Christ alone; Christ as the Son is subject to the Father. Here, on the other hand, we note, first, that in accordance with the general idea of the Epistle, the headship of Christ over the Church at large takes the place of His headship over the individual; next, that from the idea of His headship so conceived is derived the further idea of a spiritual unity, involving self-sacrifice in the head, as well as obedience to the head; and, lastly, that since the very idea of unity in Christ is unity with God, there is nothing to correspond to the third clause in the former Epistle.