King James Version KJV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
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Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents.
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
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Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
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Don't allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed.
4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
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Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, Christians have better uses for language than that. Don't talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn't fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
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You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them - the usual variations on idolatry - will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God.
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
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Don't let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with him.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
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Don't even hang around people like that.
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
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You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You're out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it!
9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
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The good, the right, the true - these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours.
10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
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Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
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Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are.
12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
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It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see.
13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
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Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.
14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
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Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light!
15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
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So watch your step. Use your head.
16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
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Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!
17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
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Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
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Don't drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him.
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
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Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ.
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
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Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.
21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
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Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
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Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
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The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing.
24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
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So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
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Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving, not getting.
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
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Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her,
27 That he might present it 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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dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness.
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
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And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor - since they're already "one" in marriage.
29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
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No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church,
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
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since we are part of his body.
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
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And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh."
32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
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This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church.
33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
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And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.