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Ephesians 5

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1
Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; ​
2
and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell. ​

Rejecting Immorality and Greed 3–7

3
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints; ​
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nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks.
5
For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ​
6
Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. ​
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Be not ye therefore partakers with them;

Walk as Children of Light 8–14

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for ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light ​
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(for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
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proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord;
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and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them;
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for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of.
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But all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light.
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Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee. ​

Living Wisely in the Spirit 15–21

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Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; ​
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redeeming the time, because the days are evil. ​
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Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
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And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; ​
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speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
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giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
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subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. ​

Christ and the Church: The Marriage Standard 22–33

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Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. ​
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For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. ​
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But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.
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Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; ​
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that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, ​
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that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
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Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself:
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for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church;
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because we are members of his body.
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For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. ​
32
This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church. ​
33
Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she fear her husband. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Ephesians 5

Verse 1

followers of God — Mimetes, an imitator, the word Paul uses of himself in 1 Cor 4:16 and 11:1, 'followers of me'; here the pattern is God himself. The 'therefore' looks back to 4:32, 'forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' The ground of the call is sonship: 'dear children' (agapetos, beloved).

Verse 2

an offering and a sacrifice — Prosphora and thusia, the two words Heb 10:5 quotes from Ps 40:6: 'Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.' The 'sweetsmelling savour' is the language of the burnt offering, 'of a sweet savour unto the LORD' (Lev 1:9). Christ's giving of himself is the pattern of the 'love' in which believers walk.

Verse 3

let it not be once named — Onomazo, to name: these things are not even to be mentioned among believers as belonging there. 'Covetousness' (pleonexia) is desire for more; Col 3:5 calls it 'idolatry'. What 'becometh' (prepo, is fitting for) 'saints' (hagios, holy ones) is holiness, not the conduct of those outside.

Verse 5

an idolater — The covetous man is counted an idolater, as Col 3:5 says: 'covetousness, which is idolatry.' Eidololatres occurs seven times in the New Testament (1 Cor 5:10–11; 6:9; 10:7; Eph 5:5; Rev 21:8; 22:15). The same exclusion from the kingdom is stated in 1 Cor 6:9–10. The 'inheritance' is kleronomia, an heirship.

Verse 6

vain words — Kenos logos: empty speech, with nothing in it, that makes these sins sound light. Against it stands 'the wrath of God' (orge), which 'cometh on the children of disobedience', as Col 3:6 repeats. Eph 2:2 names the same people, 'the children of disobedience', as those in whom 'the spirit that now worketh' is at work.

Verse 8

light in the Lord — The verse says what the readers are as well as where they live: 'ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light'. 'Sometimes' is pote, once. The light is 'in the Lord', who said 'I am the light of the world' (John 8:12). 'Children of light' is Paul's phrase again in 1 Thess 5:5.

Verse 14

Awake thou that sleepest — Introduced by 'he saith', but the words stand in no single Old Testament verse; they gather Isaiah's calls, 'Arise, shine; for thy light is come' (Isa 60:1) and 'Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust' (Isa 26:19). Epiphauo, 'shall give thee light', is used only here in the New Testament: the light that shines on the risen is Christ.

Verse 15

walk circumspectly — Akribos, exactly, with precision; Matt 2:8 and Acts 18:25 render it 'diligently'. The KJV's 'circumspectly' carries the sense of looking carefully about one's steps. The contrast is between the asophos ('fools', the unwise) and the sophos ('wise'), and 'walk' (peripateo) is the verb of vv.2, 8 and 15.

Verse 16

Redeeming the time — Exagorazo, to buy out of the market: the verb of Gal 3:13, 'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law', and used four times in all (Gal 3:13; 4:5; Eph 5:16; Col 4:5). Kairos is the fitting season, not the clock. The reason given is 'because the days are evil' (poneros).

Verse 18

be filled with the Spirit — Two fillings are set against each other: 'wine, wherein is excess' (asotia, profligacy; 'riot' in Titus 1:6 and 1 Pet 4:4) and the Spirit. John the Baptist is the earlier pairing: 'shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost' (Luke 1:15).

Verse 21

Submitting yourselves one to another — Hypotasso, to arrange oneself under. It opens the household instructions that follow (5:22–6:9) and v.22 takes up the same verb. The measure is 'the fear of God' (phobos); Phil 2:3 gives the manner: 'in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.'

Verse 22

your own husbands — The wife is addressed as submitting to her 'own' (idios) husband, and the verb is that of v.21. The model is given in the phrase 'as unto the Lord'; v.24 repeats it, 'as the church is subject unto Christ'. Col 3:18 has it as 'it is fit in the Lord', and 1 Pet 3:1 addresses 'your own husbands' in the same way.

Verse 23

the head of the wife — Kephale, head. The comparison is drawn from Christ: 'as Christ is the head of the church', and 'he is the saviour of the body' (soter, deliverer). The same pairing is in 1 Cor 11:3 and Col 1:18, 'he is the head of the body, the church'. What follows in vv.25–29 describes this headship as love that gives itself.

Verse 25

gave himself for it — The verb is paradidomi, to hand over, the same as 'hath given himself for us' in v.2, and 'love' is agapao, the verb of which agape in 'walk in love' (v.2) is the noun. Husbands are given Christ's love for the church as the measure. Gal 2:20 speaks of it personally: 'who loved me, and gave himself for me.'

Verse 26

the washing of water by the word — Loutron, a bath, found only here and in Titus 3:5, 'the washing of regeneration'. 'Word' is rhema, a spoken utterance, as in Eph 6:17, 'the word of God'. Cleansing through the word is Christ's own language: 'Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you' (John 15:3). Compare Ezek 36:25.

Verse 31

shall be joined unto his wife — These words are quoted from Gen 2:24, which reads 'cleave unto his wife'; Christ quotes it too (Matt 19:5). Proskollao, to glue to, is used four times in the New Testament (Matt 19:5; Mark 10:7; Acts 5:36; here). Paul reads 'one flesh' in the next verse as speaking 'concerning Christ and the church'.

Verse 32

a great mystery — Mysterion, a truth hidden until God discloses it; Ephesians uses it six times (1:9; 3:3, 4, 9; 5:32; 6:19). Here the one-flesh union of Gen 2:24 is said to speak 'concerning Christ and the church'. The Scriptures call the church betrothed: 'I have espoused you to one husband' (2 Cor 11:2); compare Isa 54:5 and Rev 19:7.

Verse 33

see that she reverence — The verb is phobeo, to fear, from the same root as phobos in v.21, 'the fear of God'. The verse closes the passage by addressing each side once more: every husband is to 'so love his wife even as himself' (agapao), and the wife to reverence her husband. Peter writes of 'chaste conversation coupled with fear' (1 Pet 3:2).