Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

5:1-20 New Life in Love. After a two-verse transitional section, Paul gives general instructions for holy living. He focuses on purity of life--both by avoiding evil deeds and associations and by adopting holy practices. Verse 21 connects, vv. 1-20 with vv. 22-6:9.

5:1-2 Exhortation to Self-Sacrificial Love. Paul's discussion of love serves also as an introduction to further instructions on holy living (vv. 3-20). imitators. Believers are to imitate God's holiness in all of their conduct. They are to be like him, not as slaves trying to earn a wage but as children--and beloved children at that! loved. The past tense does not suggest that Christ has stopped loving us but only that, when he gave himself up for us, it was the supreme act of his love (see John 15:13).