5
About living in the light
1 You are God's children whom he loves very much. So you must keep trying to be like him. 2 You must love each other all the time, just as Christ loved us. He loved us so much that he died on the cross for us, and God was very pleased with him.
3 So don't think about wrong things. Don't take other people's wives or husbands, don't think about running off with women and don't be greedy, always wanting what belongs to someone else. Don't even talk about those things, because you belong to God. 4 And never use bad language. You should only speak good words and give thanks to God.
5 Don't forget this. If you do wrong and take other people's wives or husbands or run off with other women and if you are greedy, always wanting what belongs to someone else, you can't go to God. Wanting other people's things is like obeying idols instead of obeying God. If you do wrong things like that you can't have fellowship with people who God and Christ rule over.
6 So don't take any notice of people who want to trick you with silly words. They want you to do wrong, but God will be angry with you if you don't obey him and you keep on doing wrong all the time. 7 So stay away from people like that and don't go with them.
8 Before you belonged to God, you were doing bad things, just as though you were in the dark. But now you belong to him, and that is just like being in the light. So stay in the light, 9 because when you stay in the light you can be good, righteous and true. 10 And find out what the Lord Jesus Christ wants.
11 You should refuse everything bad that people do who walk in the dark. But you should say to them, “What you are doing is wrong.” 12 We should be ashamed when we hear the things that bad people do in secret. We are really very ashamed and we shouldn't even talk about those things. 13 When those bad people hear you, it will be just as though you are bringing the wrong things they have been doing out of the dark into the light. 14 That light makes everything clear. Because of that this word has been written.
“You people are asleep.
You are like dead people,
but get up now!
Then Christ will be a light for you.”
15 So you should think carefully about what you should do and how you should live. Don't be like people who don't know about doing good, but be sensible like wise people. 16 Work for God now all the time. Don't be lazy about following him, because many people are doing all kinds of bad things. 17 So don't be silly, but find out what the Lord wants you to do.
18 Don't get drunk with beer, because it will spoil you. Don't fill yourselves with it, but be filled with God's Spirit.
19 When God's people talk together you should tell each other about God. Rejoice and sing songs to him, not carelessly but from your hearts. 20 You should thank God our Father all the time. When you worship him you should use the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
About men and women
21 Don't think of yourselves but obey other people because you respect Christ.
22-23 Wives, let your husbands lead, but you follow them. That is right. Christ leads and God's people follow him, so it is all right for the husband to lead. Christ saves us. He leads and controls us, and that is good. So it is right when a man leads and controls his wife. 24 God's people obey him. So a woman should obey her husband.
25 Husbands, love your wives in the same way that Christ loved God's people. Christ loved us and he died for us, 26 so that we would become God's people. And he gave us his word that makes us clean. We make our clothes clean when we wash them with water. That is like Christ making us clean. 27 Christ died so that he could make us perfect and so that he could give us to himself, just as a husband gives himself his beautiful wife. He died so that all God's people will be without sin.
28 Christ really loves us very much. And you men should love your wives. You love your bodies and look after them all the time. So you should love your wives all the time. When you love them, you are really loving yourselves.
29-30 Do you men hate your own bodies? Of course not! You love your bodies and you look after them. Of course you love yourselves. And Christ loves God's people. We are like his arms and his legs, so he loves us and he looks after us all the time.
31 Long, long ago, God said,
“When a man marries, he leaves his father and mother and goes to his wife. Then when the man and the woman are together, they are like one person.” 32 This word of God's tells us about Christ and God's people in this world. At first that word was hidden but now I am making it clear for you.
33 You men must each love your wife in the same way as you love yourself. And you wives must obey your husbands.