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1 Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children,
2 and walk in love, as also Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God giving a fragrant aroma.
3 But sexual immorality and any kind of impurity or of greed must not even be named among you, just as is proper for saints,
4 and filthiness and foolish talk or crude jokes— which are not fitting— but instead thanksgiving.
5 Indeed, you can be sure of this, that every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person— that is, an idolater— has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the anger of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.
7 Therefore, do not become partners with them,
8 because formerly you were darkness, but now are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
10 carefully considering what is pleasing to the Lord.
11 Do not take part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even expose them.
12 For it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret.
13 But everything exposed by the light is revealed, for everything revealed is light.
14 Therefore it says, “Awake, you sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Watch carefully, therefore, 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 will of the Lord is.
18 Do not get drunk with wine, in which is recklessness. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to each other in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
20 giving thanks always for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father,
21 submitting yourselves to one another in reverence for Christ—
22 wives, to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church— he himself being the savior of the body.
24 Then just as the church is subject to Christ, so also are wives to husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 so that he might make her holy, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 so that he might present the church to himself as glorious, not having stain or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that she might be holy and without fault.
28 In the same way husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and treats it with care, just as Christ also does the church,
30 because we are members of his body.
31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
32 This mystery is great— but I am speaking about Christ and about the church.
33 Nevertheless, you also— each one of you— must love his own wife in this way— as himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians