So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loves himself.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
The example proceeds to wives from the church and to husbands from Christ…. He urges the husbands on the basis of something inferior, namely, their own body, not only from the superior, that is, their Lord.
Yet he adds, and says: "Because he who loves his wife, loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ the Church."
He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. St. Paul would have this a love like that which a man hath for himself, or for his own flesh, when they are now joined in wedlock, and are become as it were one flesh and one person, as to a civil life and society. See Matthew xix. 5. The wife is to be considered as a part of the husband, as a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. The words are to be taken with an allusion to what Adam said, (Genesis ii. 23.) This is now bone of my bones And so, according to the apostle, speaking figuratively, the Church, which is the spouse of Christ, is framed as it were of his bones and of his flesh sacrificed on the cross. (Witham)
What, again, means this? To how much greater a similitude, and stronger example has he come; and not only so, but also to one how much nearer and clearer, and to a fresh obligation. For that other one was of no very constraining force, for He was Christ, and was God, and gave Himself. He now manages his argument on a different ground, saying, so ought men; because the thing is not a favor, but a debt. Then, as their own bodies. And why?
Has he moved on to a greater image and a more vivid illustration? No, but to something more homely and plainer, with a different justification. Now he takes up the argument from a moral point of view, saying “so ought husbands love their wives.” .
Chapter I.-Passages of Holy Scripture Compared.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church."
