Ephesians Chapter 5

[mlepfitjw]

5 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

3 Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. 4 Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. 5 You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.

6 Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. 7 Don’t participate in the things these people do. 8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. 11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. 12 It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. 13 But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, 14 for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said,

“Awake, O sleeper,
rise up from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”


15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, 19 singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. 20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.


21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.

31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

 

[Halbhh]

Hi friend, for posting online, have you tried the NIV (New International Version) -- well known for both clarity and accuracy?

My experience after reading a lot of different verses in multiple translations is that the NLT (New Living Translation) does fine...most of the time.

So, most of the time the NLT is ok.

But...sometimes it removes something precious -- the above-us (above our level: Isaiah 55:8-9 ) wording from the Lord.

Look at one of the most deeply wonderful verses in all of Scripture:

New International Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

English Standard Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Berean Literal Bible
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

King James Bible
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

New King James Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

New American Standard Bible
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

NASB 1995
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

NASB 1977
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Amplified Bible
In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.

Christian Standard Bible
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

American Standard Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Contemporary English Version
In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

English Revised Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

....

Young's Literal Translation
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;

==================

Beautiful, and moving, and wonderful beyond measure, don't you agree? (though perhaps you noticed how the 'amplified' version lost some of the wonderful perfection of the wording).

So....
Imagine...what it would have been like to have missed that transcendent wording -- the holy wording that lifts us up above our mortal world....

To instead have something else less good, like this below, that has some of the transcendent quality, but not all -- because the wording has been mangled by addition of a superfluous (unnecessary, unneeded in the moment) doctrine.

-->
New Living Translation
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.


See what you lose there?

 

[mlepfitjw]

Halb. Thank you so much for posting again, your encouragement of using a different translation. Though believe the message is always the same regardless of what translation you are using. God bless you ! Have a nice day brother.

To answer your question : Used a NIV, stopped liking it, used King James Version, then moved on to using a 6th-8th grade reading leveled bible known as the New Living Translation for ease of reading. Also have a Personal Workers New Testament bible which is 12th grade and in KJV text.

 

[Halbhh]

Yah, the KJV lemme say is often opaque. It's got some fun and poetical wordings I still treasure (from having read through all the bible once in the KJV just from interest in that wording style). Like this one that sticks in memory for being so....unusual and notable:

King James Bible
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

That's just something, that wording. It sticks in the mind. Here's the highly accurate (among the very best available) translation for the same:

English Standard Version
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The KJV is famous for being a means for someone to take an isolated verse and then read into the isolated verse some extra meaning that isn't really there. Often if you encounter someone that has invented a new interpretation, it will be by using an isolated KJV verse or 2 (not always, it's quite possible to do invention without the KJV of course).

So, to me, the NIV seems equally clear to the NLT, but if you don't like the NIV, perhaps that is for some good reason (for you), and I do want to ask about that, since I often post something in the NIV just to help readers understand clearly, but I can use any translation, and only have used the NIV because it's got high accuracy in general. So, if the NIV causes some other problem, I'd like to know, so I can adjust. There are quite a few highly clear translations to choose from.

Halb. Thank you so much for posting again, your encouragement of using a different translation. Though believe the message is always the same regardless of what translation you are using. God bless you ! Have a nice day brother.

To answer your question : Used a NIV, stopped liking it, used King James Version, then moved on to using a 6th-8th grade reading leveled bible known as the New Living Translation for ease of reading. Also have a Personal Workers New Testament bible which is 12th grade and in KJV text.