Bible Study Ephesians 5
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Ephesians 5 · WEB

Walk in Love, Light, and Wisdom

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Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.
2Walk 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.
3But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;
4nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate, but rather giving of thanks.
5Know 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.
6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
7Therefore don't be partakers with them.
8For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
9for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
10proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
11Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
12For it is a shame even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
13But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
14Therefore he says, "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
15Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise,
16redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17Therefore don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
18Don't be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
19speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father;
21subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.
22Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body.
24But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it;
26that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
27that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without defect.
28Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
29For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly;
30because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.
31"For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh."
32This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and of the assembly.
33Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
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Summary

Paul calls believers to imitate God by walking in love as Christ loved and gave himself for us. They are to reject sexual immorality and impurity, walking as children of light rather than partakers in the deeds of darkness, and to live wisely — redeeming the time and being filled with the Spirit rather than with wine. The chapter closes with mutual submission worked out in marriage: wives respect their husbands and husbands love their wives sacrificially, mirroring the relationship of Christ and the church.

Themes

  • Imitating God by walking in sacrificial love
  • Children of light versus deeds of darkness
  • Wisdom, redeeming the time, and Spirit-filled worship
  • Mutual submission "in the fear of Christ"
  • Marriage as a picture of Christ and the church

Key verses

  • Eph 5:1-2 — “Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us”
  • Eph 5:18 — “Don't be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit”
  • Eph 5:25 — “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it”
  • Eph 5:8 — “For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light”

Context & background

Paul wrote Ephesians c. AD 60-62 from prison in Rome (modern Italy) to the church at Ephesus (modern western Turkey, near Selçuk), a city steeped in pagan worship of Artemis and rife with the moral compromise common to Greco-Roman port cities. Against that backdrop Paul's call to purity, light, and Spirit-filled living was countercultural. The household code that begins at 5:22 was a familiar literary form in the ancient world, but Paul radically reframes it around Christ's self-giving love and the mystery of Christ and the church.

Cross-references

  • 1 Peter 3:1-7 — parallel instructions to wives and husbands
  • Colossians 3:16-19 — parallel teaching on Spirit-filled worship and marriage
  • Genesis 2:24 — "the two will become one flesh," quoted in v. 31
  • John 13:34 — "love one another, even as I have loved you" — the pattern of Christ's love
  • Revelation 19:7-8 — the bride of Christ presented without spot, fulfilling Eph 5:27

Check your reading

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  1. Observe

    According to Ephesians 5:18–19, what is the commanded alternative to being "drunken with wine," and what activity immediately follows from it?

  2. Observe

    What command does Paul give to husbands in Ephesians 5:25, and what model does he hold up for that command?

  3. Interpret

    Paul says believers "were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord" (Eph 5:8). What does this shift from darkness to light mean for how believers relate to "unfruitful works of darkness" (v. 11)?

  4. Interpret

    Paul calls marriage a "great mystery" and immediately clarifies "but I speak concerning Christ and of the assembly" (Eph 5:32). How does understanding marriage as a mystery pointing to Christ and the church reshape the purpose and stakes of marriage?

  5. Apply

    Paul says to "redeem the time, because the days are evil" (Eph 5:16). What does it look like practically to redeem — or "buy back" — time in a world where attention is constantly pulled toward lesser things?

  6. Apply

    Paul calls believers to "be imitators of God, as beloved children" and to "walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us" (Eph 5:1–2). What is one specific relationship or repeated interaction in your life where self-giving love — rather than self-protection or self-promotion — could replace a default habit?

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