Ephesians Chapter 5
Eph 4:25-32
Imitating God
5:1 So imitate God like children he loves. 2 Live in love like Christ loved you and gave himself for you as an offering, a sacrifice to God for a sweet fragrance. 3 Don’t let immorality, impurity, or greed even be mentioned among you, as is appropriate for saints. 4 Don’t allow any indecency or foolish, vulgar talk among you; express gratitude instead. 5 Know for certain that no immoral, impure, or covetous person—covetousness amounts to idolatry—will inherit anything in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Eph 5:1-5
Resisting Human Influence
6 Don’t let anybody deceive you with meaningless words. Because of things like that, God measures out his anger on disobedient people. 7 So don’t take part in their disobedience. 8-9 At one time you were in the dark; now you’re in the light that comes from the Lord. (Light produces goodness, uprightness, and truth.) Live like enlightened children 10 and demonstrate what pleases the Lord.
11 Don’t take part in deeds done in darkness; they don’t produce anything; expose them for what they are. 12 It’s disgraceful even to talk about what some people do secretly. 13 Everything exposed by light becomes visible; 14 light makes everything visible. So he says,
“Wake up up, sleeper” (Rom 13:11);
“arise from the dead” (Is 26:19),
and Christ will give you light” (Is 60:1).
Eph 5:6-14
15 So be careful to live like wise people. 16 Make the most of every opportunity because this is a sinful time. 17 Don’t be foolish; know what the Lord’s will is. 18 Don’t get drunk on wine in reckless living; be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make melody in your hearts to the Lord. 20 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, always thank the Father for everything.
Eph 5:15-20
Family Virtues
21 Defer to one another out of respect for Christ. 22 Wives defer to your husbands the way you do to the Lord, 23 because a husband is responsible above the wife like Christ is responsible above the church and Savior of the body. 24 As the church defers to Christ, wives defer to husbands in the over-all order of the home.
25 Husbands, love your wives the way Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. 26 He did it to sanctify the church and cleanse it by washing it with water and the word. 27 He did it so he could present the church to himself without stain or wrinkle or anything like that—so it would be holy and blameless. 28 Husbands, love your wives like your own bodies. Loving your wife amounts to loving yourself. 29 Nobody neglects his own body; he feeds it and takes care of it. Christ does that with the church 30 because we’re parts of his body: 31 “That’s why a man is to leave his parents and unite with his wife, and they’ll become one” [Gen 2:24]. 32 That’s a profound matter, but the main thing I’m talking about is Christ and the church. 33 But, each one of you needs to love his wife like he loves himself, and wives need to respect their husbands. Eph 5:21-33