|
[1]Be ye therefore imitators of God, as dear children:
[2]and walk in love; as the Messiah also hath loved us, and hath given up himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet odor.
[3]But whoredom, and all impurity, and avarice let them not be at all heard of among you, as it becometh the saints;
[4]Neither obscenities, nor words of folly, or of division, or of scurrility, which are not useful; but instead of these, thanksgiving.
[5]For this know ye, that every man who is a whoremonger, or impure, or avaricious, or a worshipper of idols, hath no inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God.
[6]Let no man deceive you with vain words; for it is on account of these things that the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.
[7]Therefore be ye not like them.
[8]For ye were heretofore darkness, but now are ye light in our Lord: therefore, as the children of light, so walk ye.
[9]For the fruits of the light are in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth.
[10]And search out what is pleasing before our Lord:
[11]And have no commerce with the works of darkness which are unfruitful, but reprove them.
[12]For the things they do in secret, it is nauseous even to mention.
[13]For all things are exposed and made manifest by the light: and whatever maketh manifest, is light.
[14]Wherefore it is said: Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and the Messiah will illuminate thee.
[15]See therefore, that ye walk circumspectly; not like the simple,
[16]but like the wise, who purchase their opportunity; because the days are evil.
[17]Therefore, be not lacking in understanding; but understand ye what is the pleasure of God.
[18]And be not drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness; but be ye filled with the spirit.
[19]And converse with yourselves in psalms and hymns; and with your hearts sing to the Lord, in spiritual songs.
[20]And give thanks to God the Father, at all times, for all men, in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
[21]And be submissive one to another, in the love of the Messiah.
[22]Wives, be ye submissive to your husbands, as to our Lord.
[23]Because the husband is the head of the wife, even as the Messiah is the head of the church; and he is the vivifier of the body.
[24]And as the church is subject to the Messiah, so also let wives be to their husbands in all things.
[25]Husbands, love your wives, even as the Messiah loved his church, and delivered himself up for it;
[26]that he might sanctify it, and cleanse it, by the washing of water, and by the word;
[27]and might constitute it a glorious church for himself, in which is no stain, and no wrinkle, and nothing like them; but that it might be holy and without blemish.
[28]It behooveth men so to love their wives, as [they do] their own bodies. For he that loveth his wife loveth himself.
[29]For no one ever hated his own body; but nourisheth it, and provideth for it, even as the Messiah the church.
[30]For we are members of his body and of his flesh, and of his bones.
[31]For this reason, a man should quit his father and his mother, and adhere to his wife; and the two should be one flesh.
[32]This is a great mystery; but I am speaking of the Messiah, and of his church.
[33]Nevertheless, let each of you severally so love his wife, even as himself: and let the wife reverence her husband.
|