Page 429 - Demo

EPHESIANS 
exposed by the light becomes visible,k 14for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says:l
“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”*
15* Watch carefully then how you live, not as foolish persons
but as wise,m 16making the most of the opportunity, because
the days are evil. 17Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord. 18And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be lled with the Spirit,n 19addressing one another [in] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,o 20giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.p Wives and Husbands. 21* Be subordinate to one anotherq out of reverence for Christ.* 22Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.r 23For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body.s 24As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for hert 26to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,u 27that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.v 28So [also] husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29For no one hates his own esh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, 30because we are members of his body.w
31“For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one esh.”x
32This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.y 33In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.
“So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacri cial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.”
5:14
“Enlightenment” was an early term for baptism. The poem quoted here—“Awake, O sleeper, / and arise from the dead / and Christ will give you light”—is probably a passage from an ancient baptismal hymn. The Rite of Baptism is lled with imagery of light. The newly baptized are presented with lighted candles as the priest says “You have been enlightened by Christ. Walk always as children of the light and keep the ame of faith alive in your hearts.”
5:21
Marriage is mutual subordination: each one treasuring the other and giving in to the other, with a relationship of self-sacri cing love that resembles Christ’s relationship with the Church.
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* [5:14] An early Christian hymn, possibly from a baptismal liturgy. For the content compare Eph 2:5–6; 3:9 and Is 60:1.
* [5:15–16, 19–20] The wording is similar to Col 4:5 and Eph 3:16–17.
* [5:21–6:9] Cf. notes on Col 3:18–4:1 and 1 Pt 2:18–3:7 for a similar listing of household duties
where the inferior is admonished rst (wives, Eph 5:22; children, Eph 6:1; slaves, Eph 6:5), then the superior (husbands, Eph 5:25; fathers, Eph 6:4; masters, Eph 6:9). Paul varies this pattern by an emphasis on mutuality (see Eph 5:20); use of Old Testament material about father and mother in Eph 6:2; the judgment to come for slave-owners (you have a Master in heaven, Eph 6:9); and above all the initial principle of subordination to one another under Christ, thus e ectively undermining exclusive claims to domination by one party. Into the section on wives and husbands an elaborate teaching on Christ and the church has been woven (Eph 5:22–33).
* [5:21–33] The apostle exhorts married Christians to a strong mutual love. Holding with Gn 2:24 that marriage is a divine institution (Eph 5:31), Paul sees Christian marriage as taking on a new meaning symbolic of the intimate relationship of love between Christ and the church. The wife should serve her husband in the same spirit as that of the church’s service to Christ (Eph 5:22, 24), and the husband should care for his wife with the devotion of Christ to the church (Eph 5:25–30). Paul gives to the Genesis passage its highest meaning in the light of the union of Christ and the church, of which Christlike loyalty and devotion in Christian marriage are a clear re ection (Eph 5:31–33).
CHAPTER 5
k. [5:13] Jn 3:20–21.
l. [5:14] Is 26:19; 60:1.
m. [5:15–16] Col 4:5.
n. [5:18] Prv 23:31 LXX; Lk 21:34.
o. [5:19] Ps 33:2–3; Col 3:16.
p. [5:20] Col 3:17.
q. [5:21] 1 Pt 5:5.
r. [5:22] Col 3:18–4:1; 1 Pt 3:1–7. s. [5:23] 1 Cor 11:3; Col 1:18.
t. [5:25] Col 3:19; 1 Tm 2:6.
u. [5:26] Rom 6:4; Ti 3:5–7.
v. [5:27] 2 Cor 11:2; Col 1:22.
w. [5:30] Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 6:15.
x. [5:31] Gn 2:24; Mt 19:5; Mk 10:7–8. y. [5:32] Rev 19:7.