Live as Children of Light
Imitate our Father the way children copy a parent, and let love look like Christ handing himself over. Paul contrasts darkness with light, drunkenness with the Spirit, then applies mutual submission to marriage — with husbands told to love as Christ loved the church.
5 1Therefore be imitators of our Father, as beloved children. 2Walk in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to our Father.
3Sexual immorality, all impurity, or greed must not even be named among you, as fits saints. 4Filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking have no place among you—give thanks instead. 5Know this: no sexually immoral, impure, or greedy person—an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and our Father.
6Let no one deceive you with empty words - because of these things our Father's wrath comes on those who disobey. 7Therefore do not become partners with them;
8for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord—live as children of light. 9(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11Don't share in the fruitless works of darkness, but expose them. 12For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14for anything that becomes visible is light. So it says: "Wake up, sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." a a v14 This is likely an early Christian hymn or baptismal call — it does not quote directly from the Old Testament.
15Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18Don't get drunk on wine—that's reckless living—but be filled with the Holy Spirit. 19Speak psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to each other, singing and making melody to the Lord in your heart, 20giving thanks always and for everything to our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Love as Christ Loved
22Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is head of the wife, as Christ also is head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26to make her holy, washing her clean with water through the word, 27so he could present the church to himself glorious—no stain, wrinkle, or anything like that—but holy and flawless. 28So husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. Loving his wife, he loves himself. 29No one has ever hated their own body—they feed and tend to it, as Christ does the church, 30because we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man leaves his father and mother, joins his wife, and the two become one flesh." 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33But each of you must love his wife as himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
