5Ephesians 5

1Therefore be imitators of God, as His dear children.Select Ephesians 5:1

2And live and act lovingly, as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up to death on our behalf as an offering and sacrifice to God, yielding a fragrant odor.Select Ephesians 5:2

3But fornication and every kind of impurity, or covetousness, let them not even be mentioned among you, for they ought not to be named among God's people.Select Ephesians 5:3

4Avoid shameful and foolish talk and low jesting--they are all alike discreditable--and in place of these give thanks.Select Ephesians 5:4

5For be well assured that no fornicator or immoral person and no money-grubber--or in other words idol-worshipper--has any share awaiting him in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.Select Ephesians 5:5

6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is on account of these very sins that God's anger is coming upon the disobedient.Select Ephesians 5:6

7Therefore do not become sharers with them.Select Ephesians 5:7

8There was a time when you were nothing but darkness. Now, as Christians, you are Light itself.Select Ephesians 5:8

9Live and act as sons of Light--for the effect of the Light is seen in every kind of goodness, uprightness and truth--Select Ephesians 5:9

10and learn in your own experiences what is fully pleasing to the Lord.Select Ephesians 5:10

11Have nothing to do with the barren unprofitable deeds of darkness, but, instead of that, set your faces against them;Select Ephesians 5:11

12for the things which are done by these people in secret it is disgraceful even to speak of.Select Ephesians 5:12

13But everything can be tested by the light and thus be shown in its true colors; for whatever shines of itself is light.Select Ephesians 5:13

14For this reason it is said, "Rise, sleeper; rise from among the dead, and Christ will shed light upon you."Select Ephesians 5:14

15Therefore be very careful how you live and act. Let it not be as unwise men, but as wise.Select Ephesians 5:15

16Buy up your opportunities, for these are evil times.Select Ephesians 5:16

17On this account do not prove yourselves wanting in sense, but try to understand what the Lord's will is.Select Ephesians 5:17

18Do not over-indulge in wine--a thing in which excess is so easy--Select Ephesians 5:18

19but drink deeply of God's Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and offer praise in your hearts to the Lord.Select Ephesians 5:19

20Always and for everything let your thanks to God the Father be presented in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;Select Ephesians 5:20

21and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.Select Ephesians 5:21

22Married women, submit to your own husbands as if to the Lord;Select Ephesians 5:22

23because a husband is the Head of his wife as Christ also is the Head of the Church, being indeed the Saviour of this His Body.Select Ephesians 5:23

24And just as the Church submits to Christ, so also married women should be entirely submissive to their husbands.Select Ephesians 5:24

25Married men, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up to death for her;Select Ephesians 5:25

26in order to make her holy, cleansing her with the baptismal water by the word,Select Ephesians 5:26

27that He might present the Church to Himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle or any other defect, but to be holy and unblemished.Select Ephesians 5:27

28So too married men ought to love their wives as much as they love themselves. He who loves his wife loves himself.Select Ephesians 5:28

29For never yet has a man hated his own body. On the contrary he feeds and cherishes it, just as Christ feeds and cherishes the Church;Select Ephesians 5:29

30because we are, as it were, parts of His Body.Select Ephesians 5:30

31"For this reason a man is to leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall be as one."Select Ephesians 5:31

32That is a great truth hitherto kept secret: I mean the truth concerning Christ and the Church.Select Ephesians 5:32

33Yet I insist that among you also, each man is to love his own wife as much as he loves himself, and let a married woman see to it that she treats her husband with respect.Select Ephesians 5:33