Eph 5:32. Μέγα, great) Paul felt more than those to whom he wrote could comprehend. It is not a marriage among men that is called a mystery,[92] Eph 5:33, but the union itself of Christ and the Church.[There are in all three kinds of duties which the Law prescribes to the husband, Exo 21:10. The apostle had mentioned the two former in a spiritual sense, Eph 5:29; now the order would lead him to the third, of which that expression of Hosea is a summary, Eph 2:20 (see Eph 5:19 also), Thou shalt know the Lord. But the apostle suddenly breaks off. Minds of the rarest character and capacity are required.[93]-V. g.]
[92] Or sacrament, as the Romanists argue from this passage.-ED.
[93] To appreciate spiritually the third of the three duties, “food, raiment, the duty of marriage,” requires a spiritual mind. A carnal mind cannot comprehend it save carnally.-ED.