Outline and Comments on Chapter Five

 I. Admonition to be followers of God. 5:1
    A. Following God involves:
       1. Walking in love. 5:2
          a. Christ offering himself listed as example of 
             love to be emulated in our life. 5:2
          b. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Paul defines love and 
             indicates what it will and will not lead us to 
             do.
    B. Things not to be named among Christians as becometh 
       saints.
       1. Fornication. 5:3
       2. All uncleanness. 5:3
       3. Covetousness. 5:3
       4. Filthiness. 5:4
       5. Foolish talking. 5:4
       6. Jesting. 5:4
       7. Those who practice such things have no 
          inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 5:5
       8. Not to be deceived into thinking that we can 
          participate in these things. 5:6
       9. Because of these things the wrath of God cometh 
          upon the children of disobedience. 5:6
    C. Those who were darkness are now light in the Lord 
       and are to walk as children of light. 5:8
       1. Produce the fruit of the Spirit. 5:9
          a. All goodness, righteousness and truth. 5:9
       2. Prove what is acceptable unto the Lord. 5:10
       3. Have no fellowship with unfruitful works of 
          darkness. 5:11
          a. Rather reprove them. 5:11
          b. It is a shame to speak of those things which 
             are done of them in secret. 5:12
          c. The light makes manifest and reproves these 
             works of darkness. 5:13
       4. Walk circumspectly (correctly, accurately, 
          consistently or perfectly). 5:15
       5. Redeem the time. 5:16
       6. Understand what the will of the Lord is. 5:17
       7. Be filled with the Spirit. 5:18
       8. Speak to yourselves in psalms, hymns, and 
          spiritual songs. 5:19
       9. Sing and make melody in your hearts to the Lord. 
          5:19
       10. Give thanks always for all things unto God. 5:20
       11. Submit yourselves one to another in the fear of 
           God. 5:21

II. The relationship of Christ and the church compared to 
    the husband-wife relationship.
    A. Wives to submit unto their own husbands as unto the 
       Lord. 5:22
       1. The husband is the head of the wife. 5:23
          a. Even as Christ is the head of the wife. 5:23
          b. Christ is the savior of the body. 5:23
       2. Wives to be subject unto their own husbands as 
          the church is subject unto Christ. 5:24
    B. Husbands are to love their wives. 5:25
       1. Even as Christ loves the church. 5:25
          a. Christ gave himself for the church. 5:25 Cf. 
             Acts 20:28
             (1) That he might sanctify (separate it or set 
                 it apart by the remission of sins) and 
                 cleanse it with the washing of water by 
                 the word. 5:26
                 a. This is accomplished as man’s heart is 
                    pricked by the preaching of the word of 
                    God and man are led to repent and be 
                    baptized. Cf. Acts 2:37-38; 1 Peter 
                    1:22-23; Titus 3:5; Romans 10:13-17.
             (2) That he might present it to himself a 
                 glorious church. 5:27
       2. As they love their own bodies. 5:28
       3. To nourish and cherish the wife as Christ does 
          the church. 5:29
          a. Christians are members of his body, of his 
             flesh and of his bones. 5:29
    C. Primary lesson concerns Christ and his church. 5:32
       1. Nevertheless, let the husband love his wife even 
          as himself. 5:33
       2. And let the wife see that she reverence (fear, 
          respect, and obey) her husband. 5:33

Howard I. See © 1970