Ephesians 5 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 60-62
Location
Letter written from Rome to Ephesus, a major port city in the Roman province of Asia (modern-day Turkey)
Audience
Christians in Ephesus, including both Jewish and Gentile believers who had converted from paganism
Situation
Paul writes from prison to address practical Christian living in a city dominated by pagan worship, particularly the cult of Artemis. Chapter 5 focuses on moral purity, Spirit-filled living, and household relationships.
Key Background
Ephesus was known for sexual immorality connected to temple prostitution and pagan revelry. The household codes Paul presents would challenge both pagan Roman family structures (which gave absolute power to the patriarch) and the loose sexual ethics of the culture, while also elevating the status of wives by comparing marriage to Christ's sacrificial love for the church.
So be of God, like children copying their father.
And in just like The loved us and gave himself up for us — an and to God that was like the most
But any kind of or — don't even let these be mentioned among you. That's what's fitting for people for
And there should be no or — none of that is appropriate. Instead, let there be
Because you can be absolutely sure of this: no sexually immoral person, no one living in impurity, and no one by — which is really the same as a — has any share in the of The One and of
Don't let anyone deceive you with because it's exactly these things that bring down on those who to
So don't with them in any of that.
Because you used to be itself, but now you are in the So live as people of
(Because the that light produces is found in everything that's and true.)
out what pleases the Lord,
and don't get involved in the that belong to the darkness. Instead, them for what they are.
Because the things people do in secret are too to even talk about.
But everything exposed by the light becomes because it's the nature of light to make everything clear.
That's why it says: up, from the and The One will on you."
So be very how you live — not like people who don't think things through, but like people who are
the most of every because we're living in
So don't be Instead, understand what the Lord wants.
And don't get on — that's just a path to Instead, be filled with the of
Speak to one another with and from the Sing and make music to the Lord from your heart,
always to God the Father for everything, in the of our Lord Jesus, The One.
to out of for The
Wives, own as you do the Lord.
Because a husband is the of his wife in the same way that The One is the of the — and he is the of this
But just as the gathered community The One, wives should do the same with their husbands in everything.
Husbands, your wives in the same way The One loved the gathered community and up for her —
to by with through the
so that he could the gathered community to himself in all her — stain, wrinkle, or any flaw — completely and a
In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own A man who loves his wife is really loving himself.
After all, no one has ever hated their own body. Instead, they it and of it, just like The One does for the gathered community,
because we are of
"This is why a man his father and mother and is to his wife, and the two become
This is a — but I'm talking about The One and the gathered community.
In any case, each one of you should his wife as himself, and the wife should her husband.