[:en]”Be imitators of God. Therefore, as dearly loved children, live a life of love, jsut as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (vs. 1-2)
We should avoid: sexual immorality, any kind of impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk, coarse jokiing, but rather thansgiving. We can be friend with sinners and lead them to Christ. But do notcondone the life-style of people who make excuses for bad behavior and recommend its practise to others. Such people can quickly pollute the church and endanger its unity. We must be wary of people who are viciously evil, immoral or opposed to the stand of Christianity. For such people can easily influenmce us for evil.
We were once in darkness, but now are light the world. We must live as children of light which consists of goodness, righteousness and tury. We must expose those people who are doing fruitless deeds of darkness, for our silence may be interpreted as approval. So Christians must take a stand to speak out what is right and true.
These are Paul’s exhortations:
- Be wise and make the most of every opportunity.
- Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
- To not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
- Be filled with the Holy Spirit
- Speak to one anotehr with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
- Give thanks to God for everything
- Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
WIVES AND HUSBANDS (vs. 22-32)
Paul compared the marriage relationship of husband and wife to Christ and church. Christ, the Savior, is the head of the church. The husband is the head of the wife. Just as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands. Sumission does not mean becoming a doormat. The wife must be willing to submit to her huusband’s leadership in Christ. The husband must love his wife just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. He should put aside his own self-interest to care for his wife.
“For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh” (v. 31) Oneness in marriage does not mean losing your personaility. Instead it means caring for your spouse as you care for yourself and learning to anticipate his or her needs and helping one another., Husbands, love your wife. Wives. respect your husbands.
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