New Living Translation NLT
Common English Bible CEB
1 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.
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Therefore, imitate God like dearly loved children.
2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
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Live your life with love, following the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. He was a sacrificial offering that smelled sweet to God.
3 Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.
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Sexual immorality, and any kind of impurity or greed, shouldn't even be mentioned among you, which is right for holy persons.
4 Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.
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Obscene language, silly talk, or vulgar jokes aren't acceptable for believers. Instead, there should be thanksgiving.
5 You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.
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Because you know for sure that persons who are sexually immoral, impure, or greedy—which happens when things become gods—those persons won't inherit the kingdom of Christ and God.
6 Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him.
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Nobody should deceive you with stupid ideas. God's anger comes down on those who are disobedient because of this kind of thing.
7 Don’t participate in the things these people do.
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So you shouldn't have anything to do with them.
8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!
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You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, so live your life as children of light.
9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.
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Light produces fruit that consists of every sort of goodness, justice, and truth.
10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.
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Therefore, test everything to see what's pleasing to the Lord,
11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.
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and don't participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead, you should reveal the truth about them.
12 It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.
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It's embarrassing to even talk about what certain persons do in secret.
13 But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them,
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But everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light.
14 for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
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Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper!Get up from the dead,and Christ will shine on you.
15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.
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So be careful to live your life wisely, not foolishly.
16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
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Take advantage of every opportunity because these are evil times.
17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.
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Because of this, don't be ignorant, but understand the Lord's will.
18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
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Don't get drunk on wine, which produces depravity. Instead, be filled with the Spirit in the following ways:
19 singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.
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speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; sing and make music to the Lord in your hearts;
20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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always give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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and submit to each other out of respect for Christ.
22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
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For example, wives should submit to their husbands as if to the Lord.
23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church.
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A husband is the head of his wife like Christ is head of the church, that is, the savior of the body.
24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
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So wives submit to their husbands in everything like the church submits to Christ.
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her
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As for husbands, love your wives just like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.
26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.
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He did this to make her holy by washing her in a bath of water with the word.
27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.
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He did this to present himself with a splendid church, one without any sort of stain or wrinkle on her clothes, but rather one that is holy and blameless.
28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself.
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That's how husbands ought to love their wives—in the same way as they do their own bodies. Anyone who loves his wife loves himself.
29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.
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No one ever hates his own body, but feeds it and takes care of it just like Christ does for the church
30 And we are members of his body.
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because we are parts of his body.
31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”
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This is why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two of them will be one body.
32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.
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Marriage is a significant allegory, and I'm applying it to Christ and the church.
33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
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In any case, as for you individually, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and wives should respect their husbands.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible