| 1 | Therefore be imitators of God, as His dear children. |
| 2 | And 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. |
| 3 | But 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. |
| 4 | Avoid shameful and foolish talk and low jesting--they are all alike discreditable--and in place of these give thanks. |
| 5 | For 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. |
| 6 | Let 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. |
| 7 | Therefore do not become sharers with them. |
| 8 | There was a time when you were nothing but darkness. Now, as Christians, you are Light itself. |
| 9 | Live and act as sons of Light--for the effect of the Light is seen in every kind of goodness, uprightness and truth-- |
| 10 | and learn in your own experiences what is fully pleasing to the Lord. |
| 11 | Have nothing to do with the barren unprofitable deeds of darkness, but, instead of that, set your faces against them; |
| 12 | for the things which are done by these people in secret it is disgraceful even to speak of. |
| 13 | But everything can be tested by the light and thus be shown in its true colors; for whatever shines of itself is light. |
| 14 | For this reason it is said, 'Rise, sleeper; rise from among the dead, and Christ will shed light upon you.' |
| 15 | Therefore be very careful how you live and act. Let it not be as unwise men, but as wise. |
| 16 | Buy up your opportunities, for these are evil times. |
| 17 | On this account do not prove yourselves wanting in sense, but try to understand what the Lord's will is. |
| 18 | Do not over-indulge in wine--a thing in which excess is so easy-- |
| 19 | but 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. |
| 20 | Always and for everything let your thanks to God the Father be presented in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; |
| 21 | and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. |
| 22 | Married women, submit to your own husbands as if to the Lord; |
| 23 | because 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. |
| 24 | And just as the Church submits to Christ, so also married women should be entirely submissive to their husbands. |
| 25 | Married men, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up to death for her; |
| 26 | in order to make her holy, cleansing her with the baptismal water by the word, |
| 27 | that He might present the Church to Himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle or any other defect, but to be holy and unblemished. |
| 28 | So too married men ought to love their wives as much as they love themselves. He who loves his wife loves himself. |
| 29 | For 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; |
| 30 | because we are, as it were, parts of His Body. |
| 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.' |
| 32 | That is a great truth hitherto kept secret: I mean the truth concerning Christ and the Church. |
| 33 | Yet 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. |