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Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.
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Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
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But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;
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nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate, but rather giving of thanks.
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Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man (who is an idolater), has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.
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Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
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Therefore don’t be partakers with them.
Children of Light
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For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
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for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
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proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
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Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
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For it is a shame even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
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But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
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Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
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Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise,
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redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
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Therefore, don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
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Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
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speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
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giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
Wives and Husbands
(Song of Solomon 1:1–17; 1 Peter 3:1–7)
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subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.
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Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
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For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body.
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But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.
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Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for her,
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that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
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that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without defect.
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Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
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For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly,
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because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.
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“For this cause a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife. Then the two will become one flesh.”(a)
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This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and the assembly.
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Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Footnotes