1Yes, you must do as God does because you are his children, and He loves you. 2You must always love other people as Christ loves us. He died so that we can live. He sacrificed his life to God. He was an offering that God accepted.
Live like people of the light
3Do not live immorally or do bad things. You must not always want to have more money and things. No, you belong to God and everyone must know that you are not like that. 4Do not say bad things about other people, or things that are foolish. People who belong to Christ don't do that. When you talk, it must be to thank God because He is good. 5You must know this: People who live immorally or impurely and people who always want more money and things will not have eternal_life and be with Christ, where God is King, because wanting that is the same as worshipping_idols.
6There are people who want to teach you things that are not_true. They want you to do wrong. Do not listen to them, because people who do these bad things do not listen to God and that is why God will punish them. 7You must not become their friends and do bad things with them. 8Before you belonged to God, you were like people who live in the dark. But now you belong to Him and you are like people who live in the light of God. You must live like people of the light, and be people who live like God wants them to live. 9Do the things that people who live in the light do, things that are good and right and true. 10Find out what the things are that the Lord loves and do those things. 11Don't do the things which people who live in the dark do. Don't do things that are not good. No, show those people how bad those things are. 12They do very bad things in secret. It is so bad that I am ashamed even to talk about it. 13When the light shines on those things, it shows how bad they are. 14Yes, when the light shines on something, everyone can see what it is like. That is why we sing this song:
‘You, who are sleeping, wake up.
Stand up out of death
and Christ will shine on you.’
Believers must live as God says
15That is why you must be careful how you live. Do not live like fools but live like people who are wise and do as God says. 16You must use every minute of your life to do good because people are very bad today. 17Don't do things that are foolish. You must be sure that you understand what the Lord wants you to do. 18Do not drink wine and get drunk because then you do bad and wrong things. No, you must always do what the Holy_Spirit wants you to do. Let his Spirit fill your lives. 19Sing when you are together. Sing from the book of Psalms and hymns and sing other songs. You must sing and praise the Lord with all your heart. 20You belong to our Lord Jesus Christ and you must always be thankful to God our Father. Thank Him for everything.
How husbands and wives must live
21You must serve each other because you respect Christ. 22Wives, you serve the Lord, and that is why you must also serve your husbands. 23Do it because the husband is the head of his wife, the same as Christ is the Head of the church. The church is the body of Christ. He has saved the church. 24The church serves Christ and that is how wives must serve their husbands in all things.
25Husbands, you must love your wives as Christ loves the church. Christ died so that the church may live. 26He died so that the church, the believers, may belong to God. Now they are pure because they have been baptised and Christ has said they belong to Him. 27Christ died so that the church could be his bride, a bride who is beautiful. Christ wanted the believers to be without sin. They must live as God says, in everything they do. 28The husbands must love their wives as Christ loves the church. Yes, husbands must love their wives as much as they love themselves. If husbands love their wives, then they love themselves. 29People always love themselves. They give food to their bodies and take good care of themselves. This is how Christ also loves and takes care of his body, the church. 30And all of us who believe belong to the church, the body of Christ. 31In the Old_Testament it is written:
‘That is why a man will go away
from his father and his mother,
and he will live with his wife.
The 2 of them will be like one person.’
32It is very difficult to understand how a husband and his wife can be like one person. It is just as difficult to understand how Christ and the church are one. 33I will say it again: Every husband must love his wife as much as he loves himself. And every wife must respect her husband.
