Loading
0 Chapters0 Books0 People0 Places
Ephesians 5 — Where greed becomes idolatry and marriage becomes gospel
8 min read
fresh.bible editorialhas spent the first half of unpacking how chose the believers before the world began, brought them from spiritual to , and made Jews and one body. Now he turns a corner: if all of that is true, how do you actually live?
application
application
creation
application
theology
application
Share this chapter
Reflect
Paul says husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church — through self-sacrifice. What does that look like in daily life?
What does genuine mutual submission look like in a healthy partnership?
This chapter covers enormous ground — from imitating , through blunt warnings about sexual ethics, a stunning image of walking as light, being filled with the , to one of the most discussed passages in : marriage.
opened with something so simple it almost slips past you:
"Be imitators of God, like beloved children. And walk in love — the same way Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and Sacrifice to God."
Think about how children imitate their parents. Not perfectly. Not as a performance. A kid puts on their father's shoes and clomps around the house — not because someone told them to, but because that's what does. Paul was saying: you're beloved children. Walk the way your walks. And the way your Father walks is self-giving love.
"Gave himself up for us" is the pattern for everything that follows. Every instruction traces back to this one verb: give yourself away.
Then got direct:
"Sexual immorality, impurity, greed — these shouldn't even be mentioned among you. That's what's appropriate for people set apart by God. No obscenity, no foolish talk, no crude joking — those are out of place. Instead, let there be thanksgiving.
Be certain of this: everyone who is sexually immoral, or impure, or greedy — which is the same thing as worshipping an Idol — has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Don't let anyone deceive you with empty arguments. These are the things that bring God's judgment on those who disobey. So don't become partners with them."
Paul was drawing a line between who they used to be and who they are now. was saturated with sexual excess — woven into religious practices, accepted as normal. Paul said: that's not your normal anymore.
Notice where he put — right next to sexual immorality. Then he defined it: is . We tend to rank — sexual ones at the top, financial ones in the middle. Paul put them on the same shelf. Whatever has your heart's loyalty that isn't ? That's the problem.
Here's an identity statement that shifts everything:
"At one time you were darkness — but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. The fruit of light shows up in everything that is good and right and true. Try to discern what pleases the Lord.
Don't participate in the empty works of darkness — instead, expose them. The things people do in secret are too shameful to even talk about. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible — and anything that becomes visible is light."
Then quoted what scholars think was an early Christian hymn:
"Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
Catch the language. He didn't say "you were IN darkness." He said "you WERE darkness." Past tense. Now you ARE light. Not "you carry a light" — you are it. Your entire identity changed.
That's a radically different motivation than "try harder." You don't produce light by effort — you stop blocking what's already there. Light doesn't struggle against darkness; it displaces it. Paul was saying: you are the light in the room. Stop living like you're still in the dark.
shifted from identity to intentionality:
"Be very careful how you live — not as unwise people, but as wise. Make the most of every opportunity, because the times are difficult. Don't be foolish. Understand what the Lord's will is.
And don't get drunk on wine — that leads to recklessness. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music to the Lord from your heart. Give thanks always, for everything, to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."
Paul set drunkenness and being filled with the side by side — opposite solutions to the same need. Both alter how you experience . One numbs you. The other awakens you.
Look at what being -filled produces: singing, gratitude, mutual submission. Not a private spiritual high — a communal transformation. That last line — "submitting to one another" — bridges everything Paul says next.
This passage has been quoted out of context more than almost any other in . So let's hear what actually wrote.
Remember verse 21: "Submit to one another out of reverence for ." That's the frame. Everything that follows applies that principle — not contradicts it.
"Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church — his body — and is himself its Savior. As the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit to their husbands in everything."
Paul was writing into a patriarchal culture where women had few rights. This was not a license for control — it was a call to , inside a relationship where the husband's obligation is staggering. The submission Paul described was voluntary, rooted in reverence for , and modeled on the willing in a who died for her. It was never designed to be coerced.
If the previous section made husbands feel empowered, this one should stop them. instruction isn't "lead well" or "make good decisions." It's this:
"Husbands, love your wives — the way Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. He did this to make her holy, cleansing her through the washing of water with the word, so he could present her to himself radiant and beautiful — without stain or wrinkle or any flaw, holy and blameless.
In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. Anyone who loves his wife loves himself. No one ever hated their own body — they feed it and care for it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body."
Then Paul quoted from :
"For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."
And then he pulled back the curtain:
"This mystery is profound — and I'm telling you, it's really about Christ and the church. But each one of you must also love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife should respect her husband."
The model for a husband isn't a CEO or a general. It's a who died. The headship Paul described? It looks like . Someone whose primary concern is making the other person flourish — even at enormous personal cost.
Paul said this whole passage — husband and wife, and submission, union and — is really about and the . Marriage, at its best, is a living picture of the . Two people becoming one, reflecting the way gave himself completely for the people he .
That doesn't make marriage easy. It makes it meaningful — both people oriented toward the same self-giving love that started the chapter.
