<p>5:30 <i>Because we are members of his body</i>- The man represents Christ, and the woman the ecclesia. But the ecclesia, all of it, <i>is</i> the body of Christ; so in this sense husbands should love their wives &quot;as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh&quot; (5:28,29). The more we appreciate the strength and power of typology, the more we will realize the spiritual unity which there should be between brethren and sisters. The physical body of Christ is not divided- there is only one Jesus in Heaven. If brethren represent Christ and sisters typify His body, then there should be no division- either between husbands and wives, or amongst brethren and sisters within Christ's body. Thus marriage breakdowns and internal ecclesial strife are equally wrong- they both spoil the typology presented in Eph. 5. They effectively tear Christ's body apart, as men tried to do on the cross. We say&nbsp;tried to&quot; because ultimately Christ's body is indivisible- in the same way as in a sense His body was &quot;broken&quot; (as it is by division in the body), whilst in another sense it remained unbroken, in God's sight. Likewise, the ecclesial body in God's sight is even now not divided- we are one in Christ.</p><p>The figure of <i>being</i> somebody's body could not be more intense and personal, indeed it almost alludes to the sex act itself. You touch your own body, feel your bones beneath your flesh- that's fundamentally <i>you</i>. Whilst of course Christ does have a separate bodily existence, we are fundamentally Christ. Without us and our sin, Christ would not have come into existence, nor would He now exist. Joseph&rsquo;s brothers said: &quot;He is our brother and our flesh&quot; (Gen. 37:27). And some manuscripts here add: &quot;We are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones&quot; (Eph. 5:30 AV).</p>