New Living Translation | Christian Standard Bible |
1Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. | 1Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved 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, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. |
3Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. | 3But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. |
4Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. | 4Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks. |
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 know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an 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 arguments, for God's wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things. |
7Don’t participate in the things these people do. | 7Therefore, do not become their partners. |
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. Live 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 of all goodness, righteousness, and truth-- |
10Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. | 10testing what is pleasing to the Lord. |
11Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. | 11Don't participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead 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 is done by them in secret. |
13But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, | 13Everything exposed by the light is made visible, |
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 | 14for what makes everything visible is light. Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and 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 live--not as unwise people but as wise-- |
16Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. | 16making the most of the time, because the days are evil. |
17Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. | 17So don't 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, | 18And don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit: |
19singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. | 19speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart 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 | 20giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, |
21And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. | 21submitting to one another in the fear of 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. | 23because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. |
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 are to 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 for her |
26to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. | 26to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by 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. | 27He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, 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 are 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. | 29For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, |
30And we are members of his body. | 30since 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.” | 31For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined 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 talking 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. | 33To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband. |
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. |
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