Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Ephesians 5
Walk in Love and Light
Therefore imitate God as beloved children,
and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
But sexual immorality and every kind of impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is fitting for holy people,
nor obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
For know this clearly: no sexually immoral, impure, or greedy person—who is an idolater—has an inheritance in Christ’s and God’s kingdom.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, because because of these things God’s wrath comes on the children of disobedience.
Therefore do not become partners with them.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—
for the fruit of the light consists in every kind of goodness, righteousness, and truth—
testing what is pleasing to the Lord.
Do not participate in the fruitless works of darkness; instead, expose them.
For it is shameful even to speak about the things they do in secret.
But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
for everything made visible is light. Therefore it says,
“Wake up, sleeper,
and rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
Walk Wisely and Be Filled with the Spirit
Therefore watch carefully how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. For this reason do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in reverence for Christ.
Marriage and the Mystery of Christ and the Church
Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is head of the wife as Christ also is head of the church—he himself being Savior of the body. But as the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, so that he might make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. The one who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated their own flesh, but nourishes and cares for it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This mystery is great, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you must love his own wife as himself, and the wife must respect her husband.