Ephesians 5
CHAPTER 5
The inevitable judgment for sin
Therefore, as beloved children, be imitators of God, 2 and walk in love- just as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you- as is appropriate among saints; 4 nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor crude joking, which are not befitting saints; but rather the giving of thanks. 5 For this you know for sure, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things comes the anger of God upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not associate with them! 8 For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 proving what is well-pleasing to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But all things when they are reproved are revealed by the light. For everything that is revealed then becomes light. 14 Therefore it is said: Awake, you that sleep, and arise from the dead and Christ shall shine upon you.
15 Therefore, look carefully how you walk, not as the unwise but as the wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; 21 Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Husbands and wives
22 Wives, submit to your husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife and Christ is the head of the church- himself being the saviour of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so the wives should also be to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it, 26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, 27 that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and blameless. 28 Thus husbands ought also to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his own wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ also the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great, but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Commentary
5:2 The death of Christ on the cross isn’t just something for us to look at from a distance; we should let there be a direct bridge of influence and inspiration between it and our lives today; loving others in practical ways because He, there, so long ago, on a Friday afternoon, on a day in April, on a hill just outside Jerusalem- died for me.
5:3 Not even be named- Just as the Jews were not to even mention the names of other gods (Ex. 23:13).
5:23-32 The husband is the head of the wife in the context of being her saviour. The man isn’t simply the head of the woman in any context just because he’s a male. A saviour has to be the leader and be accepted as such; Christian marriage is to role play the relationship of Christ to the church. The husband should therefore be willing to die for the wife, to love her as Christ loved the church; and the wife in recognition of this should in this context be acceptive and obedient to that (v. 24). Thus Christian marriage is connected to very high ideals; human dysfunction of course means that neither husband nor wife totally fulfil the roles they are called to, but the height of the challenge, if seriously accepted, will ennoble marriage and lift it to a very high plane. The reasoning of these verses shows that a choice to marry an unbeliever can never be marriage as God intends.
