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"Let all things be done in love," saith the apostle. If all thy actions towards others, then, much more all things that concern thy wife, should be done in love. Thy thoughts should be thoughts of love; thy looks should be looks of love, thy lips, like the honeycomb, should drop nothing but sweetness and love; thy instructions should be edged with Jove; thy reprehensions should be sweetened with love; thy carriage and whole conversation towards her should be but the fruit and demonstration of thy love. Oh, how did Christ, who is thy pattern, love His spouse! His birth, life, and death were but, as it were, a stage whereon the hottest love imaginable, from first to last, acted its part to the life. It was a known, unknown love. Tiberius Gracchus, the Roman, finding two snakes in his bed, and consulting with the soothsayers, was told that one of them must be killed; yet, if he killed the male, he himself would die shortly; if the female, his wife would die. His love to his wife, Cornelia, was so great, that he killed the male, saith Plutarch, and died quickly.

(George Swinnock.)

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KJV: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

WEB: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it;