WeBible

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 - <FO>"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."<Fo>

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.