- Mat
- Mar
- Luk
- Jon
- Act
- Rom
- 1Co
- 2Co
- Gal
- Eph
- Php
- Col
- 1Th
- 2Th
- 1Tm
- 2Tm
- Tts
- Phm
- Heb
- Jms
- 1Pt
- 2Pt
- 1Jn
- 2Jn
- 3Jn
- Jud
- Rev
Ephesians
5:1So imitate God as dearly loved children,5:2and walk in love just as the Anointed loved us and gave himself up for our sake as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
5:3As is fitting for holy people, let there be no grounds for charges of promiscuity, dirtiness, or even greed to be brought against you—5:4and no filth or stupid talk or innuendo. Instead of being those things, be thankful.5:5For you know and understand that no promiscuous or dirty or greedy people (who are idolaters) will have a share in the inheritance of the kingdom of the Anointed and of God.
5:6Let no one fool you with hollow words about all this, because the rage of God is coming upon those who stubbornly resist him.5:7No, do not join in with them!5:8For you were once darkness but now, unified with the Master, you are light.5:9So act like people of the light, since light produces all goodness and justice and truth,5:10testing to see what is most pleasing to the Master.5:11And do not join in with the unproductive acts of darkness, but instead expose them.5:12It’s shameful to even talk about what they do.5:13But everything is being exposed under the light appearing everywhere, for light is indeed appearing.
5:14This is why it says, “Wake up, sleeper! Get up, and the Anointed will illuminate you.”5:15So make sure that you are keeping pace— not with the unwise but with the wise,5:16making good use of the time in these evil days.5:17For that reason, do not become dimwitted but intelligent regarding the will of the Master.5:18And don’t get drunk with wine, which shows a lack of discipline, but be filled in spirit:1
- 5:19talking among yourselves with praise songs, festive songs, and spiritual songs,
- singing and playing music in your hearts to the Master,
- 5:20always giving thanks to God for everything in the name of our Master Jesus the Anointed,
- 5:21being supportive of each other because you fear the Anointed5:22(wives, to your own husbands, as to the Master.5:23Since the man is the source of the woman just as the Anointed is the source of the Congregation, which is the Body he saved,5:24the wives are to support their husbands in every way, just as the congregation supports the Anointed.)
5:25Husbands, love your wives in the same way that the Anointed did when he gave himself up for the Congregation,5:26to make her special and bathed clean by his pronouncement.5:27This way he could present the Congregation with himself as esteemed— not blemished, wrinkled, or any other such thing, but special and flawless.5:28Likewise, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. After all, a husband is really loving himself when he loves his wife,5:29since nobody ever hates their own body; they feed it and take care of it. That’s what the Anointed does for the Congregation,5:30a Body of which we are all parts.5:31In this same way, a man leaves his parents to join completely with his wife, and they become one flesh.5:32This is a big secret, but I’m talking about the Anointed and the Congregation.5:33To emphasize: every husband must love his wife as he loves himself, or a wife may live in fear of her husband.
- 1The list items all refer back to being “filled in spirit,” and in the last item Paul is using a play on words which is difficult to convey in English: the body holds up (supports) the head, and the head (source) in turn feeds and nourishes the body. This is a picture of unity and interdependence, not hierarchy.