Ephesians 5

Paul provides detailed instructions on how believers are to live as imitators of God, walking in light and purity, and redefines the roles of marriage as a mystery that reflects the union between Christ and the Church.

• The passage opens with a call to imitate God in love, referencing Christ's sacrifice.
• Paul contrasts the former darkness of the believers with their current status as children of light, warning against sexual immorality and covetousness.
• The exhortation moves to wisdom, emphasizing the filling of the Spirit and the joyful, thankful lifestyle that results.
• The passage concludes with instructions on marriage, grounding the roles of husbands and wives in the relationship between Christ and the Church.

• Imitators of God
• Walk in love
• Kingdom of Christ and of God
• Redeeming the time
• Filled with the Spirit
• Husbands and wives
• One flesh

This passage bridges the gap between positional doctrine and practical living, showing that the most intimate human social structure—marriage—is fundamentally designed to display the redemptive relationship between Christ and His Church.

Believers are to live as distinctively holy, Spirit-filled people whose relationships testify to the redemptive work of Christ.

The chapter shifts from the doctrine of the 'new man' in chapter 4 to the ethical application of that identity, arguing that the believer's transformed nature must permeate every aspect of personal, communal, and domestic life.

• Christ shall give thee light (Ephesians 5:14)

• Be ye therefore followers of God (Ephesians 5:1)
• Walk in love (Ephesians 5:2)
• Let no man deceive you (Ephesians 5:6)
• Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness (Ephesians 5:11)
• Redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16)
• Be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18)
• Submitting yourselves one to another (Ephesians 5:21)
• Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands (Ephesians 5:22)
• Husbands, love your wives (Ephesians 5:25)

• No whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man... hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Ephesians 5:5)
• Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience (Ephesians 5:6)

• Paul writes from a Roman prison to a church located in Ephesus, a city known for the temple of Diana and a culture of extreme moral laxity.
• The instruction on domestic duties addresses the Greco-Roman patriarchal household codes (Haustafeln), which Paul reconfigures to center on Christian agape rather than cultural status.

• The culture valued absolute male authority in the home. Paul does not abolish the structure but subordinates it to the headship of Christ, creating a mutuality of service.

• Ephesians 5 continues the imperative, practical section of the epistle, showing how the 'unity of the Spirit' (Ephesians 4:3) is realized in daily morality and family life.

• The marriage passage draws directly on Genesis 2:24, identifying the original creation ordinance of marriage as a prophetic mystery pointing toward Christ and His Church.
• Matthew Henry observes that the duties of husbands and wives are enforced by the spiritual relation between Christ and the Church, emphasizing that marriage is not merely a social contract.
• Regarding the historic debate on headship and submission: interpreters fall into various camps. Complementarians argue the structure preserves distinct roles ordained by God, while Egalitarians argue the context of 'submitting one to another' (v. 21) necessitates a mutual submission that precludes hierarchical power in the marriage relationship.

• Ephesians 5:14 is likely a quotation from an early Christian hymn or liturgical piece known to the Ephesian believers, calling the dormant church to awareness.

• mimētḗs (G3402) - 'imitator'; implies a careful, lived-out mimicking of character, not just an external mimicry.
• porneía (G4202) - 'sexual immorality'; denotes broad categories of illicit sexual activity, often contrasted with the holiness required of the saints.
• peripatéō (G4043) - 'walk'; refers to the habitual manner of one's daily life or deportment.
• mysterion (G3466) - 'mystery'; in the NT, this refers to a truth hidden in past ages now revealed by God.

• The word 'therefore' (oûn) occurs three times (v. 1, 7, 15) signaling that every ethical command is built upon the doctrinal foundation established in the first three chapters of Ephesians.
• The contrast between being 'drunk with wine' (v. 18) and 'filled with the Spirit' is a direct comparison of what controls or dictates the behavior of the believer.

• Scholars debate whether the citation in verse 14 is from a lost writing, an early church song, or a creative adaptation of Isaiah 60:1.