Live in love1Therefore, because you are His dearly loved children, seek to be like God your Father.2Live a life full of love. Christ has commanded us to love others as He has loved us by giving His life in sacrifice for us, an offering to God that was totally pleasing to Him.3To live in such love means that there must not be any sexual immorality among you, nor any kind of impurity in your hearts. There is to be no greed. You see, all these things are totally out of order for people who belong to God, His holy people.4You should be careful how you use your mouths, so you do not speak in any obscene or foolish way and you avoid all jokes with improper innuendos. All these things are so out of place that you should not even want to be involved in any of them. How much better to use your mouth to thank God for His amazing love and blessings!5You see, it is absolutely certain that there is no inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ for any immoral, impure or greedy person!6So do not be deceived by the empty platitudes of those who say that everyone will go to heaven. Such deception hides the truth that God's anger will come on the disobedient.7This is why you are not to align yourself with those who live in such ways.Walk in the light of truth8Yes, you lived in darkness in your old life, but now you are the children of light, living in the One who is the Light. So live as children who walk in the light of God's truth.9-10What is the evidence of such a walk? That you express God's goodness, righteousness and truth; that you know what to do to please Him.No compromise11You cannot compromise. Have absolutely nothing to do with the things God regards as darkness. These things are sinful and produce nothing good in your lives. You should expose sin, not walk in it.12It would be shameful for you even to talk about the things disobedient people do, often in secret.13The time will come when everything will be exposed by the light, even the things people have tried to hide.14By its very nature, light exposes things and there should be nothing in your lives that you would be ashamed of when everything is exposed. Such a time will come which is why we are told: "It is time to wake up if you are asleep spiritually; rise up from a life of dead works and Christ will shine on you with His light."Be wise about the way you live15This causes you to realise that you will have to be very careful about the way you live; to be wise, not foolish.16Make use of every opportunity to please God by the way you live, especially as there is so much evil in the world around you.17How much better to understand what God wants of you than to live in a sinful, foolish manner.18For example, if you think there is nothing wrong in getting drunk you have an ungodly mindset and a depraved lifestyle. How much better to be filled with God's Spirit.19He will inspire you to rejoice together using psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing because there is a song of praise for God in your hearts. That is infinitely better than drunkenness or bawdy revelling.20In fact, if you rejoice in the Lord you will always be thanking your heavenly Father for the way He orders your life, because you are so grateful that you live in Christ Jesus, your Lord.Marriage between Christ and His church21What you are to do, then, is this: because you want to honour Christ in your life, submit to one another.22-23Wives, be submissive to your husbands in the same way that you would be towards the Lord. Christ is Head of the church which is His body, those whom He has saved. God's order is that your husband is responsible for you in the same way that Christ is responsible for His church.24So as the members of the church submit to Christ, it is only right that wives should submit to their husbands in everything.25-26However, this does not mean that husbands are to dominate their wives. No, they are to love them in the same way that Christ has shown His love for His church. He did this by serving and then giving His life for His body. This sacrifice has made the church a holy body, a people set apart for His purposes; a people made pure because they have been cleansed by the purifying power of God's Word.27His intention is that all who belong to His body will become a radiant people, revealing His glory; a church set free from the imperfections that so clearly exist at present. In fact, He is preparing for Himself a church without any blemishes, holy and blameless in His sight.28When you consider these truths, you can see how husbands need to love their wives. Christ loves His church as His own body; so husbands love your wives as you would your own bodies. You see, the husband who loves his wife also loves himself.29-30So treat your wife in the same way that you would treat your own body. You do not hate your body by willingly inflicting any harm on it; instead you feed and care for it, even as Christ feeds and cares for us because we are members of His body, the church.31In order to love your wives in the way God intends, it is written clearly that a man will leave his father and mother and become one with his wife. Husband and wife become one flesh.32This is a profound truth about Christ and His church that not everyone understands.33Yet in the same way, every one of you must love his wife as he loves himself; and a wife should always show respect for her husband because he cares for her.
Scripture quoted by permission. The passage above is taken from THE TRUTH VERSION. Copyright © 2009 by Colin Urquhart. All rights reserved worldwide. (The Truth New Testament)