Ephesians 5

Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children,

and walk in love, as also Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma. \*

But sexual immorality and every impurity or greed must not even be named among you, just as is proper for saints,

and filthiness and foolish talk or crude jokes—which are not fitting—but instead, thanksgiving. \*

Indeed, know this for certain, that every sexually immoral or unclean or greedy {person}—that is, an idolater—has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore, do not become partners with them, \*

because formerly you were darkness, but now {are} light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),

carefully testing what is pleasing to the Lord.

And do not take part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even expose {them}.

For it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret. \*

But everything exposed by the light is revealed, for everything that is revealed is light.

Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” \*

Watch carefully, therefore, how you walk—not as unwise but as wise,

redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Because of this, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord {is}. \*

And do not get drunk with wine, in which is recklessness. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,

speaking to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and singing psalms in your heart to the Lord,

giving thanks always for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father,

submitting yourselves to one another in reverence for Christ— \*

wives, to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

For a husband is the head of the wife as Christ also {is} the head of the church—he himself {is} the savior of the body.

But as the church is subject to Christ, so also {are} wives to their husbands in everything. \*

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her,

so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word,

so that he might present the church to himself as glorious, not having stain or wrinkle or any of those things, but so that she might be holy and blameless. \*

In the same way, the husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. The one loving his own wife loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and treats it with care, just as Christ also {does} the church,

because we are members of his body. \*

“Because of this a man will leave his father and his mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

This mystery is great—but I am speaking about Christ and about the church.

Nevertheless, you also—each one of you—must love his own wife in this way—as himself, and the wife must respect her husband. \*