without blame (blemish) before Him in love" (1: 4) and it is only through the redemptive

work of the Son, providing this holiness, that this great goal can be realized.

Paul now returns to the married relationship "Even so ought husbands also to love

their own wives as their own bodies" (28 R.V.). From the standpoint of the Word, a

believer's wife is an extension of himself and "no man ever hated his own flesh, but

nourisheth and cherisheth it" (29 R.V.), and this is an illustration of the relationship

between Christ and the Church, His Body (30). How strange that with the argument so

clearly expressed, some will persist in teaching from this passage that this Church is the

Bride! The Apostle goes back to Eden to stress the oneness of Adam and Eve, where

Adam greets Eve, not so much as his bride, but "bone of my bones, and flesh of my

flesh" (Gen. 2: 23), "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall

cleave to his wife: and the twain shall become one flesh" (31 R.V.). The teaching of

these verses is perfectly plain. Husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies, as

Christ loved the Church, His Body. Here is perfect balance in argument which is upset if

one introduces the bridal Church, and Paul is careful to do no such thing. Symbols and

figures are used with precision and accuracy by the Holy Spirit, and He certainly does not

"mix His metaphors", as many make Him do, by confusing these two callings.

Paul's thought now travels back to the great revealed Secret (Mystery) of chapter 3:

That there is underlying truth in the marriage relationship is perfectly true. "But (note the

disjunctive: Paul is not now referring to husband and wife) I speak in regard of Christ

and of the church" (32). This is the great Secret which he was privileged to receive from

the Lord by revelation and commissioned to make known from his prison (Eph. 3: and

Col. 1:). "Nevertheless (he concludes) do ye also severally love each one his own wife

even as himself" (33), and the thought is still that the man is to love his wife, not because

she is his bride, but because she is, as it were, part of himself, as the church, the Body, is

to the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. "And let the wife see that she fear (reverence or

respect) her husband."

The Apostle now passes to the duties of children and parents and he still has the

Christian home in view. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right."

Disobedience, the refusal to be controlled or to exercise self-control, is typical of past

degeneracy (Rom. 1: 30) and the terrible darkness of the perilous times of the last days of

this age (II Tim. 3: 2). One great characteristic of these times, which we now see all

around us, is lawlessness or rebellion. The Lord marked this out as a sign of the end of

the age.  "Lawlessness (iniquity) shall abound", He said (Matt. 24: 32) and this

characteristic is not confined to any one country, but is world-wide at the present

moment. All this is but a prelude to the revelation of the final Satanic world dictator, the

man of lawlessness (II Thess. 2: 3, 4) who will sum up in himself this terrible

characteristic. Christian parents who allow disobedience to enter their homes are only

contributing to this terrible state of affairs, and if a child never learns the meaning of

obedience, how is he ever going to learn to obey the Lord?

Paul now quotes the fifth commandment, the importance of which is emphasized

because it not only is the first commandment with a promise attached, but the only one in