¹ Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children,

² and walk in love, just as Christ loved us¹ and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.

1. NE and WH Christ loved you

³ But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.

⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving.

⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

⁷ Therefore do not be partakers with them.

Children of Light

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,

⁹ for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

¹⁰ Test and prove what pleases the Lord.

¹¹ Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

¹² For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.

¹³ But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,¹ for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself.

1. SBL begins verse 14 after visible,

¹⁴ So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

¹⁵ Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,

¹⁶ redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

¹⁹ Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,

²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wives and Husbands

(Song of Solomon 1:1–17; 1 Peter 3:1–7)

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.¹

1. Or in the fear of Christ.

²² Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.

²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her

²⁶ to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,

²⁷ and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

²⁸ In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

²⁹ Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.

³⁰ For we are members of His body.¹

1. BYZ and TR include —of His flesh and of His bones.

³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”¹

1. Genesis 2:24 (see also LXX)

³² This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church.

³³ Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.