Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

The marriage relationship is now set out as being a reflection of the relationship between Christ and his church. This raises it to an unimaginably lofty level. In 1 Corinthians 11:12 Paul had already marked out a hierarchy in which God is seen as the head of Christ, Christ as the head of the man, and the man as the head of the woman. Here he looks at it from another angle. If the head of the woman is the man and the head of the church is Christ (Ephesians 1:22; 4:12, 16), then it is permissible to draw an analogy between the wife’s relationship to her husband and the church’s relation to Christ. Marriage is thus interpreted in the sublimest terms; it is compared with the marriage of the Lamb to his bride.

Unless we take the next comment as an aside that bears no relation to the analogy Paul is presenting, it must be assumed that there is an intended parallelism. It remains true, of course, that Christ is the Savior of his body, the church, in a unique manner. The word “Savior” is never used in the NT except of Christ or God. But having recognized and safeguarded that vital truth, we may legitimately pursue the analogy and assume that Paul regards the husband, even if to an infinitely lesser degree, as the protector of his wife (cf. vv.28–29).