BOOK 49 OF 66 · PAULINE EPISTLES · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ephesians 5

Ephesians book home•Chapter 5 of 6•33 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Ephesians 5 Overview

Paul calls believers to walk in love as Christ loved them, to reject sexual uncleanness and covetousness, and to walk as children of light. They must walk wisely, redeem the time, be filled with the Spirit, and express that fullness through worship, thanksgiving, and ordered relationships. Marriage is then explained through Christ and the church.

EphesiansBook

5Chapter

33Verses

Pauline EpistlesDivision

Before you read Ephesians 5

Coming from

Paul turns from doctrine to conduct, urging believers to walk worthy with humility, patience, and love while keeping the unity of the Spirit. He lists the sevenfold ‘one’ foundation, explains Christ’s gifts to the church for ministry and maturity, and contrasts the old walk with the renewed mind and new man.

In this chapter

Leads into

Paul continues household instruction with children and parents, servants and masters, placing every relationship under the Lord’s authority and warning masters that there is no partiality with Him. He then calls believers to be strong in the Lord and put on the whole armour of God against spiritual wickedness, ending with prayer and Tychicus’s ministry.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter’s household teaching begins inside a larger command to Spirit-filled Christian life and mutual regard under God.

Wives’ submission and husbands’ sacrificial love are not interchangeable with domination or abuse; the husband’s model is Christ giving Himself for the church and nourishing it.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Christian love is defined by Christ’s self-giving

Love is holy and sacrificial, not permission for impurity.

Spirit-filled life produces worship and thanksgiving

Being filled is contrasted with drunkenness and expressed in God-directed community life.

Marriage is designed to picture Christ and the church

The husband’s headship is joined to self-sacrificing love; the wife is called to respectful submission.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

John 13:34

Jesus defines disciples’ love by His own love for them.

Colossians 3:16–19

Paul gives parallel instructions concerning worship, thanksgiving, wives, and husbands.

Revelation 19:7–9

The marriage imagery of Christ and His people appears again in final biblical hope.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not use ‘no inheritance’ warnings to teach salvation by moral performance

Paul is warning believers about conduct fitting or contradicting God’s kingdom; salvation by grace was already made explicit in chapter 2.

Do not use headship to justify cruelty, coercion, or selfishness

The husband’s pattern is Christ’s sacrificial care.

Do not reduce Spirit-filling to emotional intensity

Paul describes worship, gratitude, wisdom, and relational obedience.

Read Ephesians 5 watching for…

The repeated verb ‘walk.’

The contrast between darkness and light.

Drunkenness versus Spirit-filling.

How Spirit-filled life is expressed.

Every comparison between husband/wife and Christ/church.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-7Believers are to follow God, walk in love, and reject uncleanness, covetousness, and foolish talk 8-14Walk as children of light and expose the unfruitful works of darkness 15-21Walk wisely, redeem the time, understand God’s will, be filled with the Spirit, and give thanks 22-33Wives are told to submit to their husbands, and husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

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.

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

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.

Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

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.

Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

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.

So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

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.

This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

STUDY THIS VERSE

Ephesians 5:27

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