Weymouth - Ephesians - 5

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.

5:33  Yet I insist that among you also, each man is to love his own wife as much as he loves himself, and let a married woman see to it that she treats her husband with respect.