1In a word, as God's dear children, try to be like him, 2and live in love as Christ loved you, and gave himself up on your behalf as an offering and sacrifice whose fragrance is pleasing to God.
3Fornication and indecency of any kind, or ruthless greed, must not be so much as mentioned among you, as befits the people of God. 4No coarse, stupid, or flippant talk; these things are out of place; you should rather be thanking God. 5For be very sure of this: no one given to fornication or indecency, or the greed which makes an idol of gain, has any share in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
15Be most careful then how you conduct yourselves: like sensible men, not like simpletons. 16Use the present opportunity to the full, for these are evil days. 17So do not be fools, but try to understand what the will of the Lord is. 18Do not give way to drunkenness and the dissipation that goes with it, but let the Holy Spirit fill you: 19speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and songs; sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord; 20and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ give thanks every day for everything to our God and Father.
21Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22Wives, be subject to your husbands as to the Lord; 23for the man is the head of the woman, just as Christ also is the head of the church. Christ is, indeed, the Saviour of the body; 24but just as the church is subject to Christ, so must women be to their husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it, 26to consecrate it, cleansing it by water and word, 27so that he might present the church to himself all glorious, with no stain or wrinkle or anything of the sort, but holy and without blemish. 28In the same way men also are bound to love their wives, as they love their own bodies. In loving his wife a man loves himself. 29For no one ever hated his own body: on the contrary, he provides and cares for it; and that is how Christ treats the church, 30because it is his body, of which we are living parts. 31 [ Gn.2.24. ] Thus it is that (in the words of Scripture)
'a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become a single body'.
32It is a great truth that is hidden here. I for my part refer it to Christ and to the church, 33but it applies also individually: each of you must love his wife as his very self; and the woman must see to it that she pays her husband all respect.
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