| New Living Translation | Berean Study Bible |
| 1Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. | 1Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, |
| 2Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. | 2and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God. |
| 3Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. | 3But 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. |
| 4Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. | 4Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving. |
| 5You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. | 5For 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. |
| 6Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. | 6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. |
| 7Don’t participate in the things these people do. | 7Therefore do not be partakers with them. |
| 8For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! | 8For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, |
| 9For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. | 9for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. |
| 10Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. | 10Test and prove what pleases the Lord. |
| 11Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. | 11Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. |
| 12It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. | 12For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. |
| 13But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, | 13But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself. |
| 14for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” Living by the Spirit’s Power | 14So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” |
| 15So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. | 15Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, |
| 16Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. | 16redeeming the time, because the days are evil. |
| 17Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. | 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. |
| 18Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, | 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. |
| 19singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. | 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, |
| 20And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Spirit-Guided Relationships: Wives and Husbands | 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. |
| 21And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. | 21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. |
| 22For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. | 22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. |
| 23For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. | 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior. |
| 24As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. | 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. |
| 25For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her | 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her |
| 26to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. | 26to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, |
| 27He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. | 27and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. |
| 28In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. | 28In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. |
| 29No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. | 29Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. |
| 30And we are members of his body. | 30For we are members of His body. |
| 31As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” | 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.” |
| 32This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. | 32This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. |
| 33So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. | 33Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. |
|
