Ephesians 5:30

30 because we are members of his body.

Ephesians 5:30 Meaning and Commentary

Ephesians 5:30

For we are members of his body
Not of his natural body, for this would make Christ's human nature monstrous; Christ, as man, is of our flesh and of our bones, or a partaker of the same flesh and blood with us; or otherwise, his incarnation would have been of no service to us; and had our human nature been from Christ, it would not have been corrupted; but our bodies, flesh, and bones, are from the first, and not the second Adam, and so corrupt and sinful; Christ indeed, as God, is the former of all human nature, and, as man, was set up in God's thoughts as the pattern of it; but the apostle is here speaking of the saints, not as men, but as Christians, as new creatures in Christ; and of what is peculiar to them; and therefore this must be understood of Christ's mystical body the church; which is his by the Father's gift, and his own purchase; and of which he is the head, and which is united to him; now of this saints are members; see ( Romans 12:5 ) ( 1 Corinthians 12:12 1 Corinthians 12:18 1 Corinthians 12:27 ) .

Of his flesh and of his bones:
for so the church may be called, his own flesh, his flesh and bones, on account of the marriage relation she stands in to him, and that spiritual union there is between them, which these phrases are expressive of; and which the near relation of man and wife is an emblem of; these words are wanting in the Alexandrian copy, and in the Ethiopic version.

Ephesians 5:30 In-Context

28 Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself:
29 for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church;
30 because we are members of his body.
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
32 This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.
The American Standard Version is in the public domain.