seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
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.[a] 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.”
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.
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[b] 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.”[c] 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.
Footnotes:
- Ephesians 5:5 Or kingdom of the Messiah and God
- Ephesians 5:26 Or having cleansed
- Ephesians 5:31 Gen. 2:24
The Greek people could see nothing wrong in bad sexual behaviour. It was quite natural for a man to have sex with any woman. He would do this whenever it pleased him. Paul gave a completely new way to think.
But, to use sex in the wrong way is greedy. It pleases one person but it hurts another person. God gives us some wonderful powers. It is not right to use them wrongly. God does not allow it for his holy people. We should not even talk between us about such things. It is not right for the people of God.
Paul now uses three more words. These describe a wrong way to live and a wrong way to talk. These ways should have no place in the Christian life. The first is talk that is ‘not suitable for God’s people’ or ‘obscenity’. Obscenity is bad talk, especially about sex. The second is to say ‘bad words’. These might be the words of a man who is drunk. Such words do not benefit the people who hear them. The third is to joke in a wrong way or to ‘say silly things’. This could mean to tell jokes that are not suitable for a Christian. But it does not mean that a Christian should always be serious. He should be able to laugh about amusing things.
Paul adds the words, ‘Instead, you should thank God.’ You should consider other people when you talk. Your words should be helpful to those who hear. It should not be silly, foolish talk. To thank God is the best kind of talk. Some people want wrong things for their own pleasure. This is the opposite of thanking God. You should thank God for his gifts. You should not joke about them. However, Paul does not forbid talk about sex. Also, he does not say that we should not tell jokes. But he says that our talk should be helpful to God’s holy people.
In those days, there were people who thought that only the spirit was important. The body did not matter. So they thought that it was good to sin. You could sin as much as you wanted. It would not matter because the body was not important. Other people even went further than that. They thought that the more you sinned, the more God would forgive you. He would be able to give you more grace (see Romans 6:1). So, they thought that it benefited both you and God. But this is false. Those who think like this may try to ‘pull you away from God’. Such people are not part of the kingdom of God. Only those people who turn away from their sin can be in God’s kingdom.
The sins that Paul names in these verses are the same as those in verse 3. Here, however, Paul says that greed is like the worship of idols. An idol is a thing or a desire that we make more important than the worship of God. A strong desire for money or for wrong sex is an idol. The Bible says that sexual sins are serious. They result in broken marriages. Children usually suffer when a marriage ends. They lose the love and discipline of two parents. But pride, greed and to live for oneself are also sins.
Next Paul says, ‘submit to each other, because you respect Christ’. This verse leads into the next part of the letter. That part is about how we should live our life. We should live at peace with each other. Paul tells us the secret. He tells us how Christians can live a good and happy life together. This is in the*church and in the world. But it is possible only if one person gives in to the other. Each person should not do only what he or she wants to do. It is wrong to be proud about our opinion. It is wrong always to be giving orders to other people. Such behaviour destroys our life together. Paul emphasises why we should submit to each other. It is ‘because you respect Christ’.
Here are some ways that we can live this kind of life. We should each be willing
(a) to help each other;
(b) to listen to each other;
(c) to learn from each other;
(d) to allow another person to correct us.
It makes no difference what kind of person you are. You can be a man or a woman. You can be young or old. You can be a master or a servant. You need to work out what it means to ‘let God fill you with his Spirit’. Paul mentions practical ways to do these things. You can do them wherever you are.
The word ‘submit’ means to give in to another person. But sometimes we think that it is a sign of weakness. The words of Jesus Christ have brought many changes to society. In many countries, it has made a big difference to the state of women. In the time of Jesus, a girl was completely under the authority of her father. A wife was completely under the authority of her husband. A Jewish man, in his morning prayer, would thank God for three things. These were that God had not made him ‘a Gentile, a slave or a woman’.
By Jewish law, a woman had very few rights. Her husband could divorce her almost as he wanted. It was the same in the Greek and Roman societies. A husband could leave his wife and marry someone else. He could do absolutely what he wanted to do. Divorce was not a rare event. What Paul was teaching would therefore be new. It would seem strange. The word ‘submit’ has a new meaning.
The Greek word for love describes the love that God has for us. We have seen that before. Here again Paul uses this special Greek word. He is writing about something beyond the love of brother or sister. It is beyond the love that people have in sexual acts. Paul is speaking about the best kind of love. It is the best possible love that you can give to another person. It is the same love, with which Christ loved us. He gave himself for us.
Paul never says that the wife is a less valuable person than the husband is. Neither does he say that the husband owns his wife. The wife is part of the husband because they join in marriage.
Just yesterday I saw that verse "wives submit to your husbands" on the back of a pick up truck. It must have been written by a blithering idiot... it's not because it was the wrong thing to put on the back of a pick up truck... but because it was assigned to 2 Corinthians..... Now to me... that's just an obscene joke.... surely they didn't think that no Christian would know the verse was wrong. Truly the person who painted that truck would have considered that Christians have Bibles and we can look it up. So.... if it's "wives submit to your husbands" misquoted is on the back of a truck... then it's no more than an obscene joke. IMHO.... That said.....
Preachers have beaten the sexual portions of this argument to death. We all know that preachers don't like male or female prostitutes. We all know preachers don't like homosexuals, bisexuals or transsexuals. Likewise... to be fair.... we all know that preachers don't like promiscuity.... even though they may have a couple of adoring women hanging on their every word... dreaming weird things.... but that doesn't matter..... preachers will preach on it.... because they are holier than we.
Now the Greeks and the Romans liked to wrestle. They stripped down to next to nothing and slapped naked bodies together for sport. Meanwhile the Jews kept layers of clothes all the time. None, however, had a lot of respect for women. Women were in the class with slaves. In those days... once a woman had been with a man... it's as if she was his new sofa or chair... she was his even if he never touched her again.... but the man... he could just go get a "divorce" [by saying the word three times in public] and get a new wife. Women who had been used and divorced... were useless... they couldn't be with another man... they were used goods.
I don't hear the preachers talking about the greed in verse 5. Is that because it's the greedy person who can afford to pay the preacher? Greed is mentioned in verse 5 right up there with the sexual problems.... but they just seem to gloss right over that problem.... they just jump right into telling the women to sit down and shut up. Greed is idol worship.... wanting something more than wanting God.
If you ask me.... those preachers who are harping on the sexual desires and naming perversions while letting that greedy idol worshipping guy sneer in the back row.... that is an obscene joke.......
