5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as His dear children.

5:2 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.

5:3 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.

5:4 Avoid shameful and foolish talk and low jesting--they are all alike discreditable--and in place of these give thanks.

5:5 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.

5:6 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.

5:7 Therefore do not become sharers with them.

5:8 There was a time when you were nothing but darkness. Now, as Christians, you are Light itself.

5:9 Live and act as sons of Light--for the effect of the Light is seen in every kind of goodness, uprightness and truth--

5:10 and learn in your own experiences what is fully pleasing to the Lord.

5:11 Have nothing to do with the barren unprofitable deeds of darkness, but, instead of that, set your faces against them;

5:12 for the things which are done by these people in secret it is disgraceful even to speak of.

5:13 But everything can be tested by the light and thus be shown in its true colors; for whatever shines of itself is light.

5:14 For this reason it is said, "Rise, sleeper; rise from among the dead, and Christ will shed light upon you."

5:15 Therefore be very careful how you live and act. Let it not be as unwise men, but as wise.

5:16 Buy up your opportunities, for these are evil times.

5:17 On this account do not prove yourselves wanting in sense, but try to understand what the Lord's will is.

5:18 Do not over-indulge in wine--a thing in which excess is so easy--

5:19 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.

5:20 Always and for everything let your thanks to God the Father be presented in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

5:21 and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

5:22 Married women, submit to your own husbands as if to the Lord;

5:23 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.

5:24 And just as the Church submits to Christ, so also married women should be entirely submissive to their husbands.

5:25 Married men, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up to death for her;

5:26 in order to make her holy, cleansing her with the baptismal water by the word,

5:27 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.

5:28 So too married men ought to love their wives as much as they love themselves. He who loves his wife loves himself.

5:29 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;

5:30 because we are, as it were, parts of His Body.

5:31 <"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.">

5:32 That is a great truth hitherto kept secret: I mean the truth concerning Christ and the Church.