Ephesians 5:2

Plain English Version

Always love other people, just like Jesus Christ loves us. He loved us so much that he took our payback, and he died instead of us. You know how people used to kill animals and burn them, to give them to God, for the good smell to make him happy. Well, just like those animals, Jesus died. When Jesus died, he gave himself to God. Jesus did that because he loved you. So you have to love other people too.

Cross References

Genesis 8:21

God smelled the meat cooking on that stone table, and he was happy. Then God said to himself, “People always just want to do bad things. They do that all their lives, from when they are little kids, right up until the time they die. But I will never again punish them the same way that I did this time. I will never again finish up everything that breathes air, and I will never again curse the earth. While the earth is still here, the seasons will stay the same. There will always be day and night, and every year there will be a hot time and a cold time, a wet season and a dry season. There will always be a right time to plant seeds for food, and a right time to get the food from those plants.”

John 13:34

Listen, you have to love each other, just as much as I loved you. This is a new thing I’m telling you, and you have to do it.

John 6:51

Yes, I am the bread from heaven that gives life. Anyone that believes in me will live for ever, it’s like they are eating special bread that makes people live with God for ever. My body will be that special bread. I will give my body so that people can eat it and live for ever.”

Romans 15:16

and he picked me out to be a worker for Jesus Christ. My job is to tell the good news about Jesus to people that are not Jews. After I tell them that good news, God’s spirit works in them to make them good and right, and God is really happy with them. It is like I give them to God, like a really good gift.

Romans 4:25

It was us who did bad things, but God let people kill Jesus instead of us. He took the payback for those bad things we did. Then God made him alive again, so now God tells us, “You are all right.”

Romans 8:3

You see, the law that came from Moses couldn’t help us. We were too weak. If we thought about some bad thing that we wanted to do, then we couldn’t help ourselves, we just did it. That law just made us think about those bad things, and then we wanted to do them. But God set us free from all that. He sent his own son to us. Jesus had the same sort of body that we bad people have. Then God punished him instead of us. Jesus died instead of us.

Romans 8:37

Don’t worry about any of these things. We win every time. Jesus loves us all the time, so he helps us get through it all, and we win in the end.

1 Corinthians 16:14

And keep on loving God and other people all the time, and do things to help them.

1 Corinthians 5:7

That is a picture of that one person in your mob that does bad things. He is like that baking powder in the picture story. He will get all of you mob to go wrong, like that baking powder made all the dough swell up. So get rid of that bad person. Then you will be straight and clean, like new clean dough that hasn’t got any baking powder in it. And really, you are clean like that. Remember, Jesus Christ died for us to clean us from the wrong things we did, so we are like that clean dough. Jesus is like the young sheep that the Jews kill and eat at their ceremony called Passover. Well, just like that young sheep dies, Jesus died for us. And think about this. Before that ceremony, they have to get rid of all that stuff that makes damper swell up, and then they eat flat damper.

Galatians 1:4

You know, we all did bad things, but Jesus took the payback for all of us. He died instead of us, so now he can save us from this bad world that we live in. That is what God, our father, wanted him to do.

Ephesians 1:4

A long time ago, before God made the world, he picked us to be his people, and he joined us to Jesus Christ, so that now God can say we are good, like we never did anything wrong. He loved us,

Ephesians 3:17

I pray that you will trust Jesus Christ properly, so that he will live inside you. I pray that you will always love God properly, and that you will always love other people too, so that you will always keep standing strong for him, like the roots of a tree always keep it standing up strong.

Ephesians 4:15

We will love people, and at the same time we will tell them the true message. Then we will get stronger for Jesus Christ and become more like him. It’s like we are his body, and he is the head.

Ephesians 4:2

Don’t think that you are more important than other people. You have to be good to other people, you have to listen to them and try to understand them. Don’t get angry with each other, but you have to love each other all the time.

Ephesians 5:15

So you have to be very careful to live the right way. You have to understand what is right and good. Don’t live like stupid people.

Ephesians 5:25

Yes, and you men that are husbands, you have to do your part too. You have to always love your wives properly, just like Jesus Christ loves the people in his church properly. Jesus let people kill him so that he could save us.

Philippians 4:18

But right now I have everything I need, and even more than I need. You are so good to me. You gave lots of money and things to Epafroditus to bring to me. But you didn’t only give them to me. You gave them to God. They are the right sort of gift, a really nice one, so he is very happy.

Colossians 3:14

And you really have to love each other properly. When you love each other, it is like you properly join yourselves to each other.

1 Thessalonians 4:9

I don’t need to write to you about how you have to love other Christians. God himself taught you to love each other.

1 Timothy 2:6

He let people kill him. When he died, he took the payback for everybody, so that now God can save anybody. He died like that at just the right time to show everybody that God really wants to save them.

1 Timothy 4:12

If some people think you are too young to be their leader, don’t worry. You live the right way yourself, and that will show them that you are a good leader. Then they will see the way a Christian has to live. So talk in the right way, and talk about the right things. And do everything the right way. And love people. And believe strongly in Jesus. And always do what is right. Then everyone will see that you live right, and they will not think you are too young.

Titus 2:14

Jesus died to save us from all the bad things of this world. He did that to change us into his own special people, like he properly cleaned us inside, and now we don’t want to do anything bad, but we only want to do good things.

1 Peter 4:8

And this is the most important thing you’ve got to do, you’ve got to keep on loving each other very much. Even if somebody does something bad to you, you have to love them, and be good to them anyway, and don’t do payback to them.