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As God's dear children, then, take him as your pattern,
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and follow Christ by loving as he loved you, giving himself up for us as an offering and a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God.
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Among you there must be not even a mention of sexual vice or impurity in any of its forms, or greed: this would scarcely become the holy people of God!
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There must be no foul or salacious talk or coarse jokes -- all this is wrong for you; there should rather be thanksgiving.
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For you can be quite certain that nobody who indulges in sexual immorality or impurity or greed -- which is worshipping a false god -- can inherit the kingdom of God.
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Do not let anyone deceive you with empty arguments: it is such behaviour that draws down God's retribution on those who rebel against him.
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Make sure that you do not throw in your lot with them.
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You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; behave as children of light,
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for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and uprightness and truth.
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Try to discover what the Lord wants of you,
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take no part in the futile works of darkness but, on the contrary, show them up for what they are.
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The things which are done in secret are shameful even to speak of;
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but anything shown up by the light will be illuminated
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and anything illuminated is itself a light. That is why it is said: Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
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So be very careful about the sort of lives you lead, like intelligent and not like senseless people.
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Make the best of the present time, for it is a wicked age.
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This is why you must not be thoughtless but must recognise what is the will of the Lord.
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Do not get drunk with wine; this is simply dissipation; be filled with the Spirit.
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Sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs among yourselves, singing and chanting to the Lord in your hearts,
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always and everywhere giving thanks to God who is our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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Wives should be subject to their husbands as to the Lord,
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since, as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife;
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and as the Church is subject to Christ, so should wives be to their husbands, in everything.
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Husbands should love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her
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to make her holy by washing her in cleansing water with a form of words,
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so that when he took the Church to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless.
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In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself.
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A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church,
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because we are parts of his Body.
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This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh.
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This mystery has great significance, but I am applying it to Christ and the Church.
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To sum up: you also, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband.
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