25 Husbands, you should love your wives in the same way as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. 26 He made it holy, he made it clean by washing in the water of the word,* 27 so that he could make the church his own, with no flaw or blemish or any kind of fault, but holy and blameless. 28 Husbands should love their wives just like this, as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself— 29 for no one ever hated his own body, but feeds it and looks after it, just as Christ does for the church,