Imitators of God 1 UST Because of what God has done for you, imitate him just as children imitate the father who loves them dearly. BSB BSB: Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children,
2 UST Do everything in a way that shows that you love others. Be like the Messiah, who loved us so much that he willingly died for us on the cross as the offering and sacrifice to God in our place. This sacrifice pleased God very much. BSB BSB: and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
3 UST But there should be no reason for anyone to even suggest that any of you are involved in sexual sin or any kind of immoral or obsessive sexual behavior. Such sins do not belong among God’ s people. BSB BSB: But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.
4 UST When you speak to each other, do not tell obscene stories or say foolish things or joke about committing sins. Such things are not what people who belong to God talk about. Instead, express the things that you are thankful for. BSB BSB: Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving.
5 UST It is quite true that these people will be excluded from the kingdom of the Messiah who is God: everyone who is sexually immoral or indecent, or who is obsessed with sex, which is the same as worshiping an idol. BSB BSB: For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 UST Do not let anyone deceive you by telling you that God will not punish people who do these things. It is because of these very things that God will punish the people who disobey him. BSB BSB: Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
7 UST So do not join with those people in doing these kinds of sins. BSB BSB: Therefore do not be partakers with them.
Children of Light 8 UST Remember that before you believed in the Lord Jesus, you did not know what was true, just as people who are in a dark place do not know what is around them. But now it is as though you have come out into the light, because the Lord has shown to you what is true. So live in the way that the Lord has shown to you. BSB BSB: For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
9 UST Because just as people who have light will walk in the right way, as a result of knowing Jesus you can always live in a way that is good, right, and true. BSB BSB: for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.
10 UST As you live this way, keep learning what pleases the Lord. BSB BSB: Test and prove what pleases the Lord.
11 UST So do not participate together with those who are doing the worthless deeds that they do in spiritual darkness. Instead, expose to everyone how worthless those deeds are. BSB BSB: Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
12 UST Of course it is shameful for God’ s people to even talk about the evil things that those people do in secret, BSB BSB: For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
13 UST but it is necessary for us to expose them so that people can know and understand that these deeds are evil. This is like when we bring something into the light in order to reveal to everyone what it truly is. Then people can examine and judge that thing that light has exposed. BSB BSB: But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself.
14 UST Before you knew God you were like someone asleep or dead in a dark place. This is what believers are talking about when they say,“You who are asleep, wake up! You who are dead, come out of the darkness and live! The Messiah will show you what is true, just as a light that shines shows people what was in the darkness.” BSB BSB: So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
15 UST So be very careful how you live. Do not behave as foolish people do. Instead, behave as wise people do. BSB BSB: Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
16 UST Do the most good that you can with the time that you have, because people are doing more and more evil things every day. BSB BSB: redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 UST So be wise, understand well what it is that the Lord Jesus wants you to do, and do it! BSB BSB: Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
18 UST Do not become drunk by drinking alcoholic drinks, because people cannot control themselves when they are drunk. Instead, let God’ s Spirit control what you do at all times. BSB BSB: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
19 UST Sing to each other Psalms and songs about the Messiah and songs that God’ s Spirit gives you. Let this music come from deep within you as sincere praise to the Lord. BSB BSB: Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,
20 UST At all times thank God the Father for everything because of what our Lord Jesus the Messiah has done for you. BSB BSB: always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wives and Husbands (Song of Solomon 1:1–17; 1 Peter 3:1–7)
21 UST Humbly submit yourselves to each other because you deeply respect the Messiah. BSB BSB: Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 UST Wives should submit to their own husband’ s leadership as they do to the Lord Jesus because the husband is the leader of the wife as also the Messiah is the leader of the worldwide assembly of believers. He is the Savior who has saved all believers from being condemned for their sins. BSB BSB: Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
24 UST As for wives, just as all believers submit themselves to the authority of the Messiah, in the same way wives must also submit themselves completely to the authority of their husbands. BSB BSB: Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
26 UST so that he might set us apart for himself. He purified us by telling us his plan to forgive us and by removing our sins as though washing them away in water. BSB BSB: to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
27 UST He did this so that he could present the group of all believers to himself as a glorious group that does not have any sin or moral imperfection, but instead is holy and perfect, like a glorious bride ready to meet her groom. BSB BSB: and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.
28 UST In that same way, each man should love his own wife as much as he loves his own body. A man who loves his wife is also, by doing that, loving himself BSB BSB: In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 UST because no one ever hated his own body. Instead, he feeds his own body and cares for it, just like the Messiah also cares for all us believers in his worldwide assembly. We have become one group of believers that belongs to him. BSB BSB: Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.
31 UST The scriptures say this about people who marry:“Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and will join himself to his wife, and the two of them will become as though they were one person.” BSB BSB: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
32 UST There is very much about this that we cannot understand, but I am telling you that this example of a husband and wife also helps us to understand the relationship between the Messiah and the group of people who belong to him. BSB BSB: This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church.
33 UST However, as for you, each man must love his wife just as he loves himself, and each woman must deeply respect her husband. BSB BSB: Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.