Efésios 5

¹ Bee yee therefore followers of God, as deare children,

² And walke in loue, euen as Christ hath loued vs, and hath giuen himselfe for vs, to be an offering and a sacrifice of a sweete smelling sauour to God.

³ Now he comes to another type of affections, which is in that part of the mind which men call covetous or desirous: and he reprehends fornication, covetousness, and jesting very sharply.But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

⁴ Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, norJests which men cast at one another: that no lightness is seen, nor evil example given, nor any offence made by evil words or backbiting.jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

⁵ Because these sins are such that the most part of men do not consider them to be sins, he awakes the godly to the end that they should so much the more take heed to guard themselves from these sins as from most harmful plagues.For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is anA bondslave to idolatry, for the covetous man thinks that his life consists in his goods.idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

⁶ Let no man deceiue you with vaine wordes: for, for such thinges commeth the wrath of God vpon the children of disobedience.

⁷ Because we are most ready to follow evil examples, therefore the apostle warns the godly to always remember that the others are but as it were darkness, and that they themselves are as it were light. And therefore the others commit all evils (as men are accustomed to do in the dark), but they ought not to follow their examples, but rather (as the property of the light is) reprove their darkness, and to walk in such a way (having Christ that true light going before them) as it becomes wise men.Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

⁸ For ye were sometimes darkness, but now [are ye]The faithful are called light, both because they have the true light in them which enlightens them, and also because they give light to others, insomuch that their honest conversation reproves the life of wicked men.light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

⁹ (For the fruit of theBy whose power we are made light in the Lord.Spirit [is] in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

¹⁰ Approuing that which is pleasing to the Lorde.

¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but ratherMake them open to all the world, by your good life.reprove [them].

¹² For it is shame euen to speake of the things which are done of them in secret.

¹³ But all thinges when they are reproued of the light, are manifest: for it is light that maketh all things manifest.

¹⁴ WhereforeThe scripture, or God in the scripture.he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from theHe speaks of the death of sin.dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

¹⁵ The worse and more corrupt that the manners of this world are, the more watchful we ought to be in every situation, and give regard to nothing but the will of God.See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

¹⁶ This is a metaphor taken from the merchants: who prefer the least profit that may be before any of their pleasures.Redeeming the time, because theThe times are troublesome and severe.days are evil.

¹⁷ Wherefore, be ye not vnwise, but vnderstand what the will of the Lord is.

¹⁸ He sets the sober and holy assemblies of the faithful against the immoral banquets of the unfaithful, in which the praises of the only Lord must ring, whether it is it in prosperity or diversity.And be not drunk with wine, wherein isEvery type of disorder, together with every manner of filthiness and shamefulness.excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

¹⁹ Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in yourWith an earnest affection of the heart, and not with the tongue only.heart to the Lord;

²⁰ Giuing thankes alwaies for all thinges vnto God euen the Father, in the Name of our Lorde Iesus Christ,

²¹ A short repetition of the end to which all things ought to be referred, to serve one another for God's sake.Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

²² Now he descends to a family, dividing orderly all the parts of a family. And he says that the duty of wives consists in this, to be obedient to their husbands.Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands,The first argument, for they cannot be disobedient to their husbands except by also resisting God, who is the author of this subjection.as unto the Lord.

²³ A declaration of the former saying: because God has made the man head of the woman in marriage, as Christ is the head of the Church.For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church:Another argument: because the good estate of the wife depends on the man, so that this submission is not only just, but also very profitable: as also the salvation of the Church depends on Christ, although to a far greater degree.and he is the saviour of the body.

²⁴ The conclusion of the wives' duties towards their husbands.Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in every thing.

²⁵ The husbands duty towards their wives is to love them as themselves, of which love the love of Christ towards his Church is a graphic image.Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

²⁶ Because many men pretend the infirmities of their wives to excuse their own hardness and cruelty, the apostle wishes us to mark what manner of Church Christ received, when he joined it to himself, and how he does not reject her for all her filth, and uncleanness, but ceases not to wipe it away with his cleanness, until he wholly purifies it.That he mightMake it holy.sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by theThrough the promise of free justification and sanctification in Christ, received by faith.word,

²⁷ That he might present it to himself a glorious church,The Church as it is considered in itself, will not be without wrinkle, before it come to the mark it aims at: for while it is in this life, it runs in a race. But if it is considered in Christ, it is clean and without wrinkle.not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

²⁸ Another argument: every man loves himself, even by nature: therefore he strives against nature that does not love his wife. He proves the conclusion, first by the mystical knitting of Christ and the Church together, and then by the ordinance of God, who says that man and wife are as one, that is, not to be divided.So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

²⁹ For no man ever yet hated hisHis own body.own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

³⁰ For we are members of his body,He alludes to the making of the woman, which signifies our union with Christ, which is accomplished by faith, but is signified in the ordinance of the Lord's supper.of his flesh, and of his bones.

³¹ For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall{{See Mat_19:5}}be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

³² That no man might dream of natural union or knitting of Christ and his Church together (such as the husbands and the wives is) he shows that it is secret, that is, spiritual and such as differs greatly from the common capacity of man. And it consists by the power of the Spirit, and not of the flesh, by faith, and by no natural bond.This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

³³ The conclusion both of the husband's duty toward his wife, and of the wife's toward her husband.Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife [see] that she reverence [her] husband.