Ephesians 5:1-33, NLT

Ephesians 5

Living in the Light

1Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.

2Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us*5:2 Some manuscripts read loved you. and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

3Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.

4Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. 5You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.

6Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.

7Don’t participate in the things these people do. 8For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

10Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.

11Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. 12It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. 13But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, 14for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said,

“Awake, O sleeper,

rise up from the dead,

and Christ will give you light.”

Living by the Spirit’s Power

15So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.

16Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 17Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. 18Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, 19singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. 20And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Spirit-Guided Relationships: Wives and Husbands

21And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

23For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

25For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her

26to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.*5:26 Greek washed by water with the word. 27He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30And we are members of his body.

31As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”*5:31 Gen 2:24.

32This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.