• Be Imitators of God

  • 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;
  • 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
  • 3 But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints;
  • 4 and there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
  • 5 For this you know with certainty, that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, which amounts to an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
  • 6 See that no one deceives you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
  • 7 Therefore do not become partners with them;
  • 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 as you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
  • 11 Do not participate in the useless deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;
  • 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
  • 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
  • 14 For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.”
  • 15 So then, be careful how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise,
  • 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
  • 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
  • 18 And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
  • 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord;
  • 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father;
  • 21 and subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.

  • Marriage like Christ and the Church

  • 22 Wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
  • 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
  • 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
  • 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
  • 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
  • 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
  • 28 So husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
  • 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
  • 30 because we are parts of His body.
  • 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
  • 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
  • 33 Nevertheless, as for you individually, each husband is to love his own wife the same as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.