Ephesians 5 - 1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)

5 3 Lest, in those vices which he reprehended, they should set light by his admonitions, 5 he terrifieth them by denouncing severe judgment, 8 and stirreth them forward: 15 Then he defendeth from general lessons of manners, 22 to the particular duties of wives, 25 and husbands.

¹ Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children,

^{2 (A)}And walk in love, even as Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, to be an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor to God.

^{3 (B)[a]}But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as it becometh Saints,

⁴ Neither filthiness, neither foolish talking, neither ^[b]jesting, which are things not comely, but rather giving of thanks.

^{5 [c]}For this ye know, that no whoremonger, neither unclean person, nor covetous person, which is an ^[d]idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ, and of God.

^{6 (C)}Let no man deceive you with vain words: for, for such things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

^{7 [e]}Be not therefore companions with them.

⁸ For ye were once darkness, but are now ^[f]light in the Lord: walk as children of light.

⁹ (For the fruit of the ^[g]Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth.)

¹⁰ Approving that which is pleasing to the Lord.

¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but even ^[h]reprove them rather.

¹² For it is shame even to speak of the things which are done of them in secret.

¹³ But all things when they are reproved of the light, are manifest: for it is light that maketh all things manifest.

¹⁴ Wherefore ^[i]he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the ^[j]dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

^{15 [k]}Take heed therefore that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as ^(D)wise,

^{16 [l]}Redeeming the season: for the ^[m]days are evil.

^{17 (E)}Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

^{18 [n]}And be not drunk with wine, wherein is ^[o]excess: but be fulfilled with the Spirit,

¹⁹ Speaking unto yourselves in Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord in your ^[p]hearts,

²⁰ Giving thanks always for all things unto God even the Father, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

^{21 [q]}Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

²² ¶^(F)[r]Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands, ^[s]as unto the Lord.

^{23 (G)[t]}For the husband is the wife’s head, even as Christ is the head of the Church, ^[u]and the same is the Savior of his body.

^{24 [v]}Therefore as the Church is in subjection to Christ, even so let the wives be to their husbands in everything.

²⁵ ¶ ^(H)[w]Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it,

^{26 [x]}That he might ^[y]sanctify it, and cleanse it by the washing of water through the ^[z]word,

²⁷ That he might make it unto himself a glorious Church, ^[aa]not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blame.

^{28 [ab]}So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies: he that loveth his wife, loveth himself.

²⁹ For no man ever yet hated his ^[ac]own flesh, but nourished and cherisheth it, even as the Lord doth the Church.

³⁰ For we are members of his body, ^[ad]of his flesh, and of his bones.

^{31 (I)}For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall ^[ae]cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.

^{32 [af]}This is a great secret, but I speak concerning Christ, and concerning the Church.

^{33 [ag]}Therefore everyone of you, do ye so: let everyone love his wife, even as himself, and let the wife see that she fear her husband.

Footnotes

1. Ephesians 5:3 Now he cometh to another kind of affections, which is in that part of the mind, which men call covetous or desirous: and he reprehended fornication, covetousness, and jesting, very sharply.
2. Ephesians 5:4 Jests which men cast one at another: that no lightness be seen, nor evil example given, nor any offense moved by evil words or backbiting.
3. Ephesians 5:5 Because these sins are such that the most part of men count them not for sins, he awaketh the godly, to the end they should so much the more take heed to themselves from them, as most hurtful plagues.
4. Ephesians 5:5 A bondslave to idolatry, for the covetous man thinketh that his life standeth in his goods.
5. Ephesians 5:7 Because we are not so ready to anything as to follow evil examples, therefore the Apostle warneth the godly to remember always that the others are but as it were darkness, and that they themselves are as it were light. And therefore the others commit all villany (as men are wont in the dark) but they ought not only not to follow their examples, but also (as the property of the light is) reprove their darkness, and to walk so (having Christ that true light going before them) as it becometh wise men.
6. Ephesians 5:8 The faithful are called light, both because they have the true light in them which lighteneth them, and also because they give light to others, insomuch, that their honest conversation reproveth the life of wicked men.
7. Ephesians 5:9 By whose force we are made light in the Lord.
8. Ephesians 5:11 Make them open to all the world, by your good life.
9. Ephesians 5:14 The Scripture, or God in the Scripture.
10. Ephesians 5:14 He speaketh of the death of sin.
11. Ephesians 5:15 The worse and more corrupt that the manners of this world are, the more watchful ought we to be against all occasions, and respect nothing but the will of God.
12. Ephesians 5:16 This is a metaphor taken from the merchants: who prefer the least profit that may be, before all their pleasures.
13. Ephesians 5:16 The times are troublesome and sharp.
14. Ephesians 5:18 He setteth the sober and holy assemblies of the faithful, against the dissolute bankers of the unfaithful, in which the praises of the only Lord must ring, be it in prosperity or adversity.
15. Ephesians 5:18 All kind of riot, joined with all manner of filthiness and shamefulness.
16. Ephesians 5:19 With an earnest affection of the heart, and not with the tongue only.
17. Ephesians 5:21 A short repetition of the end whereunto all things ought to be referred, to serve one another for God’s sake.
18. Ephesians 5:22 Now he descendeth to a family, dividing orderly all the parts of a family. And he saith that the duty of wives consisteth herein, to be obedient to their husbands.
19. Ephesians 5:22 The first argument, for they cannot be disobedient to their husbands, but they must resist God also, who is the author of this subjection.
20. Ephesians 5:23 A declaration of the former saying: Because God hath made the man head of the woman in matrimony, as Christ is the head of the Church.
21. Ephesians 5:23 Another argument: Because the good estate of the wife dependeth of the man, so that this submission is not only just, but also very profitable: as also the salvation of the Church is of Christ, although far otherwise.
22. Ephesians 5:24 The conclusion of the wives’ duty towards their husbands.
23. Ephesians 5:25 The husbands’ duty towards their wives, is to love them as themselves, of which love, the love of Christ toward his Church is a lively pattern.
24. Ephesians 5:26 Because many men pretend the infirmities of their wives to excuse their own hardness and cruelty, the Apostle willeth us to mark what manner of Church Christ gat, when he joined it to himself, and how he doth not only not loathe all her filth and uncleanness, but ceaseth not to wipe the same away with his cleanness, until he have wholly purged it.
25. Ephesians 5:26 Make it holy.
26. Ephesians 5:26 Through the promise of free justification and sanctification in Christ, received by faith.
27. Ephesians 5:27 The Church, as it is considered in itself, shall not be without wrinkle, before it come to the mark it shooteth at: for while it is in this life, it runneth in a race: but if it be considered in Christ, it is clean and without wrinkle.
28. Ephesians 5:28 Another argument: Every man loveth himself, even of nature: therefore he striveth against nature that loveth not his wife: he proveth the consequent, first by the mystical knitting of Christ and the Church together, and then by the ordinance of God, who saith, that man and wife are as one, that is, not to be divided.
29. Ephesians 5:29 His own body.
30. Ephesians 5:30 He alludeth to the making of the woman, which signifieth our coupling together with Christ, which is wrought by faith, but is sealed by the Sacrament of the Supper.
31. Ephesians 5:31 See Matt. 19:5
32. Ephesians 5:32 That no man might dream of natural conjunction or knitting of Christ and his Church together (such as the husbands and the wives is) he showeth that it is secret, to wit, spiritual and such as far differeth from the common capacity of man: as which consisteth by the virtue of the Spirit, and not of the flesh by faith, and by no natural band.
33. Ephesians 5:33 The conclusion both of the husband’s duty toward his wife, and of the wife’s toward her husband.

Cross references

1. Ephesians 5:2 : John 13:14; John 15:12
2. Ephesians 5:3 : Eph. 4:29; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 2:17
3. Ephesians 5:6 : Matt. 24:4; Mark 13:5; Luke 21:8; 2 Thess. 2:3
4. Ephesians 5:15 : Col. 4:5
5. Ephesians 5:17 : Rom. 12:2; 1 Thess. 4:3
6. Ephesians 5:22 : Col. 3:18; Titus 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:1
7. Ephesians 5:23 : 1 Cor. 11:3
8. Ephesians 5:25 : Col. 3:19
9. Ephesians 5:31 : Gen. 2:14; Matt. 19:5; Mark 10:7; 1 Cor. 6:16