Ephesians 5
Paul calls believers to walk in love (agapē) as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God—a sacrificial love that becomes the standard and motive for all Christian conduct. Sexual immorality and covetousness (pleonexia) must not even be named among the sanctified, for such vices signal exclusion from God's kingdom, inconsistent with the identity of God's holy people. Instead, believers are to walk as children of light, manifesting the fruit of light—goodness, righteousness, and truth—while exposing the unfruitful deeds of darkness and redeeming the time because the days are evil, moving counter-culturally through a fallen age. Intoxication yields to being filled with the Spirit, producing a community of mutual exhortation through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs—worship that arises from hearts overflowing with the Spirit's fullness. The household code (haustafeln) begins here: wives are called to submit to husbands as to the Lord (just as the church submits to Christ), while husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, sanctifying and cleansing her by the word, presenting her as a glorious, spotless, and blameless bride. Paul identifies this marriage relationship as to mega mysterion (the great mystery)—a truth hidden in the creation account (Genesis 2:24) now revealed to point to Christ and the church, making every Christian marriage a living parable of the gospel's reconciling, covenantal love.
Ephesians 5:20
Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ — the constant disposition: eucharisteuō ('give thanks') pantote ('always') peri pantōn ('for all things') tō theō kai patri ('to God and Father') en tō onomati ('in the name') tou kyriou Iēsou Christou ('of Lord Jesus Christ').
Ephesians 5:21
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ — the transitional verse introducing household codes: hupotassō ('submit,' 'place under') allelon ('one another') en phobō Christou ('in reverence of Christ'), mutual submission grounded in Christological reverence.
Ephesians 5:22
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord — the first household code: gynaikes, hupotassō ('wives, submit') tois idiois andrasin ('to your own husbands') hōs tō kyriō ('as to the Lord'), establishing the authority structure while grounding it in Christ.
Ephesians 5:23
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior — the theological basis: ho anēr kephalē tēs gynaikos ('the husband is head of the wife') kathos Christos kephalē tēs ekklēsiās ('as Christ is head of the church'), Christ as savior (sōtēr) of the sōma ('body').
Ephesians 5:24
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything — the parallel: hōs hē ekklēsia hupotassō Christō ('as the church submits to Christ'), outo kai ta gynaikes... ('so also the wives') tois andrasin... ('to their husbands') en panti ('in all things').