Ephesians 5-6

Common English Bible

5 Therefore, imitate God like dearly loved children. ² Live your life with love, following the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. He was a sacrificial offering that smelled sweet to God.

³ Sexual immorality, and any kind of impurity or greed, shouldn’t even be mentioned among you, which is right for holy persons. ⁴ Obscene language, silly talk, or vulgar jokes aren’t acceptable for believers. Instead, there should be thanksgiving. ⁵ Because you know for sure that persons who are sexually immoral, impure, or greedy—which happens when things become gods—those persons won’t inherit the kingdom of Christ and God.

Be children of light

⁶ Nobody should deceive you with stupid ideas. God’s anger comes down on those who are disobedient because of this kind of thing. ⁷ So you shouldn’t have anything to do with them. ⁸ You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, so live your life as children of light. ⁹ Light produces fruit that consists of every sort of goodness, justice, and truth. ¹⁰ Therefore, test everything to see what’s pleasing to the Lord, ¹¹ and don’t participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead, you should reveal the truth about them. ¹² It’s embarrassing to even talk about what certain persons do in secret. ¹³ But everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light. ¹⁴ Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper!^[a] Get up from the dead,^[b] and Christ will shine on you.^[c]

Be filled with the Spirit

¹⁵ So be careful to live your life wisely, not foolishly. ¹⁶ Take advantage of every opportunity because these are evil times. ¹⁷ Because of this, don’t be ignorant, but understand the Lord’s will. ¹⁸ Don’t get drunk on wine, which produces depravity. Instead, be filled with the Spirit in the following ways: ¹⁹ speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; sing and make music to the Lord in your hearts; ²⁰ always give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; ²¹ and submit to each other out of respect for Christ. ²² For example, wives should submit to their husbands as if to the Lord. ²³ A husband is the head of his wife like Christ is head of the church, that is, the savior of the body. ²⁴ So wives submit to their husbands in everything like the church submits to Christ. ²⁵ As for husbands, love your wives just like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. ²⁶ He did this to make her holy by washing her in a bath of water with the word. ²⁷ He did this to present himself with a splendid church, one without any sort of stain or wrinkle on her clothes, but rather one that is holy and blameless. ²⁸ That’s how husbands ought to love their wives—in the same way as they do their own bodies. Anyone who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ No one ever hates his own body, but feeds it and takes care of it just like Christ does for the church ³⁰ because we are parts of his body. ³¹ This is why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two of them will be one body.^{[d] 32} Marriage is a significant allegory,^[e] and I’m applying it to Christ and the church. ³³ In any case, as for you individually, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and wives should respect^[f] their husbands.

6 As for children, obey your parents in the Lord, because it is right. ² The commandment Honor your father and mother is the first one with a promise attached: ³ so that things will go well for you, and you will live for a long time in the land.^{[g] 4} As for parents, don’t provoke your children to anger, but raise them with discipline and instruction about the Lord.

⁵ As for slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling and with sincere devotion to Christ. ⁶ Don’t work to make yourself look good and try to flatter people, but act like slaves of Christ carrying out God’s will from the heart. ⁷ Serve your owners enthusiastically, as though you were serving the Lord and not human beings. ⁸ You know that the Lord will reward every person who does what is right, whether that person is a slave or a free person. ⁹ As for masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Stop threatening them, because you know that both you and your slaves have a master in heaven. He doesn’t distinguish between people on the basis of status.

Put on the armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his powerful strength. ¹¹ Put on God’s armor so that you can make a stand against the tricks of the devil. ¹² We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens. ¹³ Therefore, pick up the full armor of God so that you can stand your ground on the evil day and after you have done everything possible to still stand. ¹⁴ So stand with the belt of truth around your waist, justice as your breastplate, ¹⁵ and put shoes on your feet so that you are ready to spread the good news of peace. ¹⁶ Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.

¹⁸ Offer prayers and petitions in the Spirit all the time. Stay alert by hanging in there and praying for all believers. ¹⁹ As for me, pray that when I open my mouth, I’ll get a message that confidently makes this secret plan^[h] of the gospel known. ²⁰ I’m an ambassador in chains for the sake of the gospel. Pray so that the Lord will give me the confidence to say what I have to say.

Final greeting

²¹ Tychicus, my loved brother and faithful servant of the Lord, can inform you about my situation and what I’m doing. ²² I’ve sent him for this reason—so that you will know about us. He can reassure you.

²³ May there be peace with the brothers and sisters as well as love with the faith that comes from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ May grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ forever.