What does Ephesians 5:28-29 say about loving your wife and your own body?
Ephesians 5:28 teaches that men ought to love their wives as their own bodies, and that he who loves his wife loves himself. It adds that no man ever hated his own flesh. Paul also teaches that believers are responsible for caring for their physical bodies as God's temple.
Les explains that Paul wrote Ephesians around 62-64 AD, way ahead of the times, and it remains a basic truth. Ephesians 5:28 says men ought to love their wives as their own bodies; loving one's wife is loving oneself because no man ever hated his own flesh. Les notes this is practical and ties it to the believer's responsibility to care for the physical body as God's temple, though he admits it's hard not to doubt when someone abuses their body.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
More Questions
Where does Paul teach that we are responsible for taking care of our physical bodies?
Paul teaches the believer's responsibility to care for his physical body in Ephesians 5, where he says men ought to love their wives as their own bodies, since he who loves his wife loves himself and no man ever hated his own flesh.
What does Paul do in Ephesians 5:28 after describing the Church as the Bride?
In Ephesians 5:28 Paul returns from the Christ-and-Church picture back to the physical analogy of the husband and the wife.