Bible Version: New International Version (NIV)
Application Notes: Life Application Study Bible (NIV)
EPHESIANS 5
1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Instructions for Christian Households
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 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.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Application Notes
5:1-2 Just as children imitate their parents, we should imitate God. We do that by modelling our lives after Jesus, who, as the Son of God, was the incarnation of God on earth. His great love for us led him to sacrifice himself so that we might live. Our love for others should be of the same kind--a love that goes beyond affection to self-sacrificing service.
5:4 Obscenity and coarse joking are so common that we begin to think they are fine and normal. Paul cautions, however, that improper language should have no place in the Christian's conversation because it does not reflect God's gracious presence in us. How can we praise God and remind others of his goodness when we are speaking crudely?
5:5-7 Paul does not forbid all contact with unbelievers. Jesus taught his followers to befriend sinners and lead them to him (Luke 5:30-32). Instead, Paul writes against the lifestyle of people who continue in their sinful, immoral behaviour and encourage such practices in others--whether they are in the church or outside it. Such people quickly pollute the church and endanger its unity and purpose. When we befriend unbelievers, we must be wary of those who oppose all that Christianity stands for. Such people are more likely to influence us for evil than we are to influence them for good.
5:8-10 As people who have light from the Lord, our actions will reflect our faith. Jesus stressed this truth in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:15-16). Our pasts may have dark times of cynicism, despair, shame, or self-doubt. Satan desires to lead us back into that darkness. We must reject him by intentionally living out what pleases the Lord (see Romans 12:2; 1 John 1:5). In this way, Christ's light will keep shining brighter in us.
5:10-14 It is important to avoid the "fruitless deeds of darkness· (any pleasure or activity that results in sin), but Paul urges us to go even further. He instructs us to expose these deeds, because our silence may be interpreted as approval. God needs people who will take a stand for what is good. Christians must lovingly speak out for what is true and holy.
5:14 This was probably taken from a hymn well-known to the Ephesians. The hymn seems to have been based on Isaiah 26:19; 51:17; 52:1; 60:1; and Malachi 4:2. Paul was appealing to the Ephesians to wake up and realise the dangerous condition into which some of them had been slipping. Because Ephesus was such a crossroads of cultures and religions, nonbelievers could easily bring their ideas into the church. Assimilating these beliefs would be dangerous. We, too, must be alert to false beliefs infiltrating our churches.
5:15-16 By referring to these days as evil, Paul was communicating his sense of urgency because of evil's pervasiveness. We need the same sense of urgency because our days are also difficult. We must keep our standards high, act wisely, and do good whenever we can.
5:18-21 The effects of alcohol are obvious, but what happens when we are under the influence of the Holy Spirit? Paul lists four by-products of the Spirit's influence in our lives: singing, making music, giving thanks, and submitting to one another. Paul was not suggesting that believers only discuss religious matters but rather that whatever we do or say should be permeated with an attitude of joy, thankfulness to God, and encouragement of others. Instead of whining and complaining--which our culture has raised to an art form--we are to focus on the goodness of God and his mercies toward us. How can your words and attitudes show your focus on the Lord Jesus Christ?
5:18 Paul contrasts getting drunk with wine with being filled with the Spirit. Getting drunk is a symptom of the old way of life and its selfish desires. Ephesus was a centre for pagan worship, so some of the Ephesian believers may have previously participated in pagan worship rituals involving drunken debauchery. Paul describes being filled with the Holy Spirit as a choice. not a complex process. Being filled with the Holy Spirit means that we submit to his authority, welcome his guidance, and accept his correction. live under his restraint, rely on his power, and allow him to unify us with other believers. Living by the Spirit does not mean having a casual. part-time relationship with him. We must fill our lives with the cleansing and invigorating love and power of the Holy Spirit.
5:20 When you feel like life has worn you down, you may find it difficult to give thanks. Take heart--in all things God works for our good if we love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). Thank God--not for your problems, but for the strength he is building in you through the difficult experiences of your life. At first, thanking him may feel forced or artificial, but your gratitude will grow. You can be sure that God's perfect love will see you through any difficulty.
5:21-22 Submitting to another person is an often-misunderstood concept. Though submission seems strange to modern attitudes, Christian marriages are held to a higher standard. Submission does not mean becoming a doormat. Christ--at whose name ·every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth" (Philippians 2:10)-submitted his will to the Father, and we honour Christ by following his example. When we submit to God, we become more willing to obey his command to submit to others-that is, to subordinate our rights to theirs. In a marriage, both husband and wife should mutually submit to each other. For the wife, this means willingly following her husband's leadership in Christ. For the husband, it means putting aside his own interests in order to care for and serve his wife. Submission is rarely a problem in homes where both spouses have strong relationships with Christ and where each works for the well-being and happiness of the other.
5:22-28 Why did Paul tell wives to submit and husbands to love? Perhaps Christian women, newly freed in Christ, found submission difficult; perhaps Christian men, used to the Roman custom of giving unlimited power to the head of the family, were not used to treating their wives with respect and love. Of course, both husbands and wives should submit to each other (5:21), just as both should love each other.
5:22-25 Although some people have distorted Paul's teaching on submission by giving unlimited authority to husbands, we cannot get around these clear words in Scripture--though we must make every effort to understand them properly and in their context. One way to disarm the antagonism that the external culture may inject into marriage is to remember that while wives have to submit, husbands have to die. In other words, a Christian husband must kill his desire to put himself and his personal desires ahead of his wife's. According to the Bible, the man is the responsible spiritual head of the family, and his wife should acknowledge his leadership. But real spiritual leadership involves loving service (a form of dying to oneself). Just as Christ served the disciples, even to the point of washing their feet, husbands should serve their wives. A wise and Christ-honouring husband will not take advantage of or abuse his leadership role, and a wise and Christ-honouring wife will not try to undermine her husband's leadership. Either approach causes disunity and friction in marriage.
5:22-24 In Paul's day, women, children, and slaves were to submit to the head of the family: Slaves would submit until they were freed, male children until they grew up, and women and girls their whole lives. Paul emphasised the equality of all believers in Christ (Galatians 3:28), but he did not suggest overthrowing Roman society to achieve it. Instead, he counselled all believers to submit to one another by choice--wives to husbands and also husbands to wives; slaves to masters and also masters to slaves; children to parents and also parents to children. This kind of mutual submission preserves order and harmony in families while it increases love and respect among family members. A wife can easily submit to her husband when she believes that he serves her, cares for her, and holds her needs above his own. When someone feels secure in a loving relationship, submitting is usually not a problem.
5:25-33 Some Christians have thought that Paul was negative about marriage because of his counsel in 1 Corinthians 7:32-38. These verses in Ephesians, however, show that he had a high view of marriage. Paul wanted Christians to show the world through Christian marriages that something new and good was taking place. He saw marriage not as a practical necessity or a cure for lust but as a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church. Why the apparent difference between these two passages? Paul's message in 1 Corinthians was designed for a state of emergency during a time of persecution and crisis. Paul's counsel to the Ephesians teaches the biblical ideal for marriage. Marriage, for Paul, was a holy union, a living symbol, a precious relationship needing tender, self-sacrificing care.
5:25-30 Paul devotes twice as many words to telling husbands to love their wives as to telling wives to submit to their husbands. How should a man love his wife? He should be willing to (1) sacrifice everything for her, (2) make her well-being of primary importance, and (3) care for her as he cares for his own body. No wife needs to fear or resist submitting to a man who treats her in this way.
5:26-27 Christ's death makes the church holy and clean. He cleanses us from the old ways of sin and sets us apart for his special sacred service (1 Corinthians 1:30; Hebrews 13:12). Christ cleansed the church by the washing of baptism. Through baptism, we are prepared for entrance into the church just as an ancient Middle Eastern bride would be prepared for marriage by a ceremonial bath. It is God's Word that cleanses us (John 17:17; Titus 3:5).
5:31-33 The union of husband and wife merges two persons in such a way that there isn't much that can affect one without also affecting the other. Oneness in marriage does not mean losing your personality in the personality of the other. Instead, it means caring for your spouse as you care for yourself, learning to anticipate his or her needs, and helping the other person become all he or she can be. The Creation story tells of God's plan that husband and wife should be one (Genesis 2:24), and Jesus also referred to this plan (Matthew 19:4-6).
Taken from Life Application Study Bible - Third Edition - (NIV)