5 1You are God's dear children, so try to be like him. 2Live a life of love. Love others just as Christ loved us. He gave himself for us - a sweet-smelling offering and sacrificea to God.3But there must be no sexual sin among you. There must not be any kind of evil or selfishly wanting more and more, because such things are not right for God's holy peopleb. 4Also, there must be no evil talk among you. Don't say things that are foolish or filthy. These are not for you. But you should be giving thanks to God. 5You can be sure of this: No one will have a place in the kingdom of Christ and of God if that person commits sexual sins, or does evil things, or is a person who selfishly wants more and more. A greedy person like that is serving a false god. 6Don't let anyone fool you with words that are not true. God gets very angry when people who don't obey him talk like that. 7So don't have anything to do with them. 8In the past you were full of darknessc, but now you are full of lightd in the Lord. So live like children who belong to the light. 9This light produces every kind of goodness, right living, and truth. 10Try to learn what pleases the Lord. 11Have no part in the things that people in darkness do, which produce nothing good. Instead, tell everyone how wrong those things are. 12Actually, it is shameful to even talk about the things those people do in secret. 13But the light makes clear how wrong those things are. 14Yes, everything is made clear by the light. This is why we say,
22Wives, be willing to serve your husbands the same as the Lord. 23A husband is the head of his wife, just as Christ is the head of the churchf. Christ is the Savior of the church, which is his body. 24The church serves under Christ, so it is the same with you wives. You should be willing to serve your husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives the same as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. 26He died to make the church holyg. He used the telling of the Good Newsh to make the church clean by washing it with water. 27Christ died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be holy and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other thing wrong in it. 28And husbands should love their wives like that. They should love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself, 29because no one ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church 30because we are parts of his body. 31The Scripturesi say, "That is why a man will leave his father and mother and join his wife, and the two people will become one."j 32That secret truth is very important - I am talking about Christ and the church. 33But each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself. And a wife must respect her husband. asacrifice To offer a gift to God as an expression of worship, thanksgiving, or payment for sin. Also, the gift that is offered. In the Old Testament it was usually a special animal that was killed and burned on an altar. The Old Testament sacrifices offered for sins were symbolic of the perfect sacrifice that God himself would provide through Jesus Christ. Jesus gave his own life as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of all people. See Heb. 10:1-14. bholy people Literally, “saints” or “holy ones,” a term used in the New Testament to describe followers of Jesus Christ as God’s special people. They are holy because they have been made pure through Christ and belong only to God. See “holy.” cdarkness A symbol for the kinds of things that describe Satan’s kingdom, such as sin and evil. dlight A symbol for the kinds of things that describe God or his kingdom, such as goodness and truth. eSpirit See “Holy Spirit.” fchurch Literally, “assembly” or “community,” the people who have been brought together as God’s family through their common faith in Jesus Christ. The word often refers to a group of believers who meet together or who live in the same area, but it is also used to mean the worldwide community of all believers in Christ. gholy When referring to people or things, holy means set apart or chosen for a special use; especially, belonging to God or used only for him. It can also mean pure or perfect, worthy of God and fit for his service. When God is called holy, in addition to the idea of pure and perfect, it often means he is completely separate or different from and above everything else that exists. In the New Testament God’s people are holy because they have been made perfect and pure through Christ and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, keep themselves away from sin and live only for God. hGood News In the Gospels this is usually the news about the coming of God’s kingdom (see above) or its representative Jesus the Messiah. In other places it is, more specifically, the news or message of God’s grace - that he has made a way through Jesus Christ for people to be made right with him and enjoy his blessings now and forever. iScripture Part of the Scriptures or “Holy Writings” - the Old Testament. j5:31 Quote from Gen. 2:24. |