Reflections on Ephesians 5

Ephesians 05 (Contemporary English Version)


1. Do as God does. After all, you are his dear children.
2. Let love be your guide. Christ loved us and offered his life for us as a sacrifice that pleases God.
3. You are God's people, so don't let it be said that any of you are immoral or indecent or greedy.
4. Don't use dirty or foolish or filthy words. Instead, say how thankful you are.
5. Being greedy, indecent, or immoral is just another way of worshiping idols. You can be sure that people who behave in this way will never be part of the kingdom that belongs to Christ and to God.
6. Don't let anyone trick you with foolish talk. God punishes everyone who disobeys him and says foolish things.
7. So don't have anything to do with anyone like that.
8. You used to be like people living in the dark, but now you are people of the light because you belong to the Lord. So act like people of the light
9. and make your light shine. Be good and honest and truthful,
10. as you try to please the Lord.
11. Don't take part in doing those worthless things that are done in the dark. Instead, show how wrong they are.
12. It is disgusting even to talk about what is done in the dark.
13. But the light will show what these things are really like.
14. Light shows up everything, just as the Scriptures say, "Wake up from your sleep and rise from death. Then Christ will shine on you."
15. Act like people with good sense and not like fools.
16. These are evil times, so make every minute count.
17. Don't be stupid. Instead, find out what the Lord wants you to do.
18. Don't destroy yourself by getting drunk, but let the Spirit fill your life.
19. When you meet together, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as you praise the Lord with all your heart.
20. Always use the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to thank God the Father for everything.
21. Honor Christ and put others first.
22. A wife should put her husband first, as she does the Lord.
23. A husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is the head and the Savior of the church, which is his own body.
24. Wives should always put their husbands first, as the church puts Christ first.
25. A husband should love his wife as much as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it.
26. He made the church holy by the power of his word, and he made it pure by washing it with water.
27. Christ did this, so that he would have a glorious and holy church, without faults or spots or wrinkles or any other flaws.
28. In the same way, a husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself. A husband who loves his wife shows that he loves himself.
29. None of us hate our own bodies. We provide for them and take good care of them, just as Christ does for the church,
30. because we are each part of his body.
31. As the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother to get married, and he becomes like one person with his wife."
32. This is a great mystery, but I understand it to mean Christ and his church.
33. So each husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself, and each wife should respect her husband.
    
    

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    Paul continues in chapter five with his practical application of the gospel which he began in chapter four. He begins this section with an exhortation to "be imitators of God." (5:1) How is it possible to imitate God? By walking in love. Though verse two seems to begin another thought, the "and" should be understand as "that is." So we could read it as "be imitators of God . . . that is, walk in love." As God's "dearly loved children," we should naturally imitate His love for us. Our example of God's love toward us is the Messiah who loved us supremely by giving Himself for us.
    
    What follows in chapter 5 are not additional thoughts but a continuation of this thought to be imitators of God's love. Therefore, Paul's caution against impure living contrasts his exhortation to walk in love. The two lifestyles are incompatible. The impure lifestyle that includes sexual immorality, greed, etc., is a lifestyle of self-gratification rather than of love. Self-gratification is not even love toward oneself. It is a lifestyle harmful to oneself and others and disqualifies one from "an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God." (5:5) Not only should those in Christ walk in love, but they should be who they are, which is children of light. Rather than living a lifestyle of impurity, which is a lifestyle of darkness, those in Christ should "walk as children of light" (5:8) resulting "in all goodness, righteousness, and truth-- discerning what is pleasing to the Lord." (5:9-10) Walking in the light will make everything clear.
    
    Following Paul's discussion of a lifestyle that is contrary to imitating God's love, he gives an example of walking in love. How does one walk in love? By living in mutual submission to others. We best understand this by considering the greatest act of love, which is to give one's life for another. This is what Christ did for us. The next greatest act of love is to give up one's will on behalf of another. This is what is involved in mutual submission. Thus, Paul applies our walking in love to a lifestyle of mutual submission, making the application in three different relationships. The first of these is that of husband and wife. The other two relationships follow in chapter six. First, he tells wives to submit to their husbands. Their primary motivation in doing so is as a submission to the Lord. This teaching of wives submitting to their husbands has been so misapplied that many avoid this and similar passages or consider the teaching irrelevant or even erroneous. But the concept of wives submitting to their husbands cannot be taught apart from the concept of husbands loving their wives as "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her." (5:25) Together it is a beautiful expression of God's love. But the submission without the love often becomes abusive.
    
    Paul's comments to the husband are actually more extreme than those to the wife, though this is not always considered. The wife is to submit to her husband and respect him. Looking to him as her head as Christ is head of the church. The husband, on the other hand, is to love the wife enough to give his own life for her and enough to put his relationship with her before his relationship with his own parents. Historically, this teaching has been greatly ignored by many if not most cultures.