Colossians 3:19 - Exposition

Ye husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them ( Ephesians 5:25-31 ; 1 Peter 3:7 ). "Love" is ἀγαπάω , the word which expresses the highest spiritual affection—"even as Christ loved the Church" ( Ephesians 5:25 ). Here, first and most of all, the "new commandment" of John 13:34 applies. St. Paul only uses the verb πικραίνω ("to make bitter") here, but he has the noun πικρία ("bitterness") in a wider application in Ephesians 4:31 . It denotes "exasperation," prompting to hasty severity. Bengel defines it as "odium amori mixtum"—hatred infused into love.