Bible Commentaries
Ephesians 5

Verses 1-33

All that the apostle had been saying was emphasized by the statement of their relationship to God as he called them to be "imitators of God." Again he urged them to put off the old and put on the new. In the old are things of darkness. Believers are to walk as children of the light. That light is found in Christ, "Christ shall shine upon thee."

In the final movement the apostle makes a contrast between false excitement and true enthusiasm, between being "drunken with wine" and being "filled with the Spirit." The whole teaching here is emphasized by the words, 'Walk worthily of the calling." In order to do this, we find two principal injunctions: "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God (4:30), and "Be filled with the Spirit" (5:18).

Dealing with the Christian household the apostle first revealed the divine conception of the sacredness of the marriage relation. The ideal is presented as conformity to the pattern of the relationship existing between Christ and His Church. The wife yields her complete allegiance to an absolutely self-sacrificing love. Therefore, in his relationship the husband is mastered by a self-emptying devotion. Thus the heads of the household are called on to bear such relation to each other as is worthy of the high calling of the Church, made possible by the glorious union existing between her and her Lord.