Exhortations to Households

5:22 31 Wives, submit32 to your husbands as to the Lord, 5:23 because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church—he himself being the savior of the body. 5:24 But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 5:25 Husbands, love your33 wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 5:26 to sanctify her by cleansing her34 with the washing of the water by the word, 5:27 so that he35 may present the church to himself as glorious—not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.36 5:28 In the same way37 husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 5:29 For no one has ever hated his own body38 but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, 5:30 for we are members of his body.39 5:31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become40 one flesh.41 5:32 This mystery is great—but I am actually42 speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 5:33 Nevertheless,43 each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself,44 and the wife must45 respect46 her husband.

6:1 Children,1 obey your parents in the Lord2 for this is right. 6:2 “Honor your father and mother,”3 which is the first commandment accompanied by a promise, namely, 6:3 “that it may go4 well with you and that you will live5 a long time on the earth.”6

6:4 Fathers,7 do not provoke your children to anger,8 but raise them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

6:5 Slaves,9 obey your human masters10 with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, 6:6 not like those who do their work only when someone is watching11—as people-pleasers—but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.12 6:7 Obey13 with enthusiasm, as though serving the Lord14 and not people, 6:8 because you know that each person, whether slave or free, if he does something good, this15 will be rewarded by the Lord.

6:9 Masters,16 treat your slaves17 the same way,18 giving up the use of threats,19 because you know that both you and they have the same master in heaven,20 and there is no favoritism with him.