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Ephesians 5

Paul connects life as God’s beloved children with holiness, Spirit-filled worship, and marriage shaped by Christ’s self-giving love.

Paul urges the believers receiving his letter to imitate God as beloved children, with Christ’s sacrifice shaping their love. He warns against sexual immorality and greed, then contrasts their former darkness with their life as light in the Lord. Instructions about wise conduct and being filled with the Spirit lead into shared worship, thanksgiving, and submission. Paul then addresses wives and husbands, explaining their duties through the bond between Christ and the church.

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1Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.
2Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
3But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;
4nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate, but rather giving of thanks.
5Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man (who is an idolater), has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.
6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
7Therefore don’t be partakers with them.
8For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
9for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
10proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
11Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
12For it is a shame even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
13But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
14Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
15Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise,
16redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17Therefore, don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
18Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
19speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
21subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.
22Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body.
24But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for her,
26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without defect.
28Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
29For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly,
30because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.
31“For this cause a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife. Then the two will become one flesh.”
32This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and the assembly.
33Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
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Key verses
Ephesians 5:2Christ’s offering of himself establishes the pattern of love that governs the chapter and returns in the instructions to husbands.
Ephesians 5:8The change from darkness to light in the Lord grounds Paul’s call for conduct that pleases God.
Ephesians 5:6The warning about empty words confronts any attempt to dismiss the sins Paul names or the judgment they bring.
Where this chapter reaches

Colossians shares instructions about singing, thanksgiving, and marriage, while 1 Thessalonians also links belonging to the light with wakefulness and sober conduct. John shares the contrast between light and darkness, and 1 Corinthians shares the image of believers as Christ’s body.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What does Paul’s contrast between darkness and light help you notice about what pleases the Lord?

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How does Christ’s self-giving love shape both the opening commands and the instructions about marriage?

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Questions people ask about Ephesians 5

What does Ephesians 5 mean when it tells wives to submit?

Paul places marriage instructions after the call to mutual submission in reverence for Christ. He tells wives to submit to their husbands and husbands to love with Christ’s self-giving care. These commands give no permission for abuse or coercion. A person facing harm should seek safety and help from trusted people.

What is Paul quoting in Ephesians 5:14?

The source of verse 14 is uncertain. Its call to wake and rise echoes Isaiah’s language of awakening and light. Some readers understand it as an early Christian hymn or baptismal saying, though the chapter does not identify it. Paul uses it to urge a break with darkness.

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Ephesians · 6 chapters
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What the Bible says about marriage →What the Bible says about temptation →What the Bible says about worship →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).