Ephesians 5
Imitators of God
¹ Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children,
² and walk in love, just as Christ loved us 1 and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
³ But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.
⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving.
⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
⁷ Therefore do not be partakers with them.
Children of Light
⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
⁹ for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.
¹⁰ Test and prove what pleases the Lord.
¹¹ Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
¹² For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
¹³ But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,2 for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself.
¹⁴ So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
¹⁵ Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
¹⁶ redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
¹⁹ Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,
²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wives and Husbands
(Song 1:1–17; 1 Peter 3:1–7)
²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.3
²² Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.
²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
²⁶ to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
²⁷ and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.
²⁸ In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
²⁹ Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.
³⁰ For we are members of His body.4
³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”5
³² This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church.
³³ Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.