5 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. ² Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

³ Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. ⁴ Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. ⁵ You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.

⁶ Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. ⁷ Don’t participate in the things these people do. ⁸ For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! ⁹ For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

¹⁰ Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. ¹² It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. ¹³ But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, ¹⁴ for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said,

“Awake, O sleeper,
    rise up from the dead,
    and Christ will give you light.”

¹⁵ So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. ¹⁶ Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. ¹⁷ Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸ Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, ¹⁹ singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. ²⁰ And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²¹ And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

²² For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³ For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. ²⁴ As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

²⁵ For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her ²⁶ to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. ²⁷ He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. ²⁸ In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. ²⁹ No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. ³⁰ And we are members of his body.

³¹ As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” ³² This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. ³³ So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Ephesians 5

Dear God, the verse of the day for Bible Gateway is verse 25. And it’s a great verse, but I think I want to take a look at this husbands and wives passage (which we had read at our wedding nearly 34 years ago) and put it in context with the overall Paul as making. Even going back to verse 1 of chapter 5, it says to imitate you in everything I do because I am your dear child. Paul tells me to be filled with love, following Jesus’s example. He goes into avoiding sexual immorality, impurity and greed. Baudy talk is to be avoided as well. It reminds me to be thankful to you. It describes a greedy person as an idolater and will not inherit the kingdom of Jesus.

I find it ironic that verse 6 criticizes those who excuse the sins. And while I can be critical here of others who have accepted sinful people as being part of the fold just because they like their leadership style, I need to turn the lens on myself and ask if I’ve accepted the sins of others I worship with or have I even accept them into my own life?

Verse 10 calls me to “carefully” discern what pleases you and to expose darkness. There are some more words about how to live, and then we get to verse 21. It starts with submitting to one another. How wives should submit and how husbands should submit. For wives, Paul certainly suggests a subservient attitude for women towards their husbands that I know is debatable. And I struggle with that as well. I’ve seen couples take that too far because they miss verses 25-30. Paul tells me that I basically have to be like Jesus. No pressure!

Father, I happen to be writing this prayer on a day when my wife is returning from the longest we’ve been apart in a long, long time. She’s been at a conference, and I hope it’s been a good, renewing time for her. I pray that it is. I hope she made friends, gained confidence, and is now feeling a sense of purpose in what you’re calling her to do next. I’ve perceived she’s been at a bit of a crossroads in who she is as a writer and poet, and then in her role in the music ministry at our church. I pray that this trip has given her confidence that she can be very capable of caring for herself. Traveling by herself. Managing other parts of her life. I pray that this was a life-giving week for her. And I pray that you’ve been working in me too. Help me to love her life you love me. Help me to give up my life for her. Help me to wash her and make her holy and clean, through the use of your Word. Help me to love her better, but, going back to verse 5:1, because I am becoming life you in everything.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen