Paul reminds those in authority to care for those under them, and in marriage, the husband is to exhibit a lifestyle of sacrificial love toward his wife. Then, Paul again uses the topic of marriage to speak of the Lord’s love for His church.

As his first example of Christians submitting to one another as an outworking of being filled with the Spirit, Paul addresses wives. Paul draws parallels between wives placing themselves under their husband’s authority and the church submitting to Christ.

Paul describes believers who are filled by the Holy Spirit as demonstrating sanctified speech and submission to the authorities God has established.

Paul exhorts believers to exercise care in how they live their lives, being wise and understanding God’s will.

Paul clarifies how believers are to relate to unbelievers: we are not to participate in the deeds of darkness. Then, Paul builds on the light metaphor to show how believers can be used by God in conversion.

Paul calls believers to separate themselves from sin and to live as children of light (holy people) in the Lord.

Paul once again returns to the issue of immorality to ensure that none of it seeps into the community of saints. And the first place where this must be checked is our speech. Our lives are to be holy, and so our speech must be holy.

Paul addresses three more areas of our community life: words, kindness and love.

Having reminded us of our clean break with the old man, Paul returns to the topic of community life, exhorting us toward godliness in the areas of honesty, anger and generosity.

Paul testifies of what Christ taught us about conversion: a clean break from the former life and an adoption of the new, which involves a continual renewal of the mind.