“1 Therefore become imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father]; 2 and walk continually in love [that is, value one another—practice empathy and compassion, unselfishly seeking the best for others], just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God [slain for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance.

3 But sexual immorality and all [moral] impurity [indecent, offensive behavior] or greed must not even be hinted at among you, as is proper among saints [for as believers our way of life, whether in public or in private, reflects the validity of our faith]. 4 Let there be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse [obscene or vulgar] joking, because such things are not appropriate [for believers]; but instead speak of your thankfulness [to God]. 5 For be sure of this: no immoral, impure, or greedy person—for that one is [in effect] an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God [for such a person places a higher value on something other than God].

6 Let no one deceive you with empty arguments [that encourage you to sin], for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience [those who habitually sin]. 7 So do not participate or even associate with them [in the rebelliousness of sin]. 8 For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light [live as those who are native-born to the Light] 9 (for the fruit [the effect, the result] of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn [by experience] what is pleasing to the Lord [and letting your lifestyles be examples of what is most acceptable to Him—your behavior expressing gratitude to God for your salvation]. 11 Do not participate in the worthless and unproductive deeds of darkness, but instead expose them [by exemplifying personal integrity, moral courage, and godly character]; 12 for it is disgraceful even to mention the things that such people practice in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light [of God’s precepts], for [a]it is light that makes everything visible. 14 For this reason He says,

“Awake, sleeper,

And arise from the dead,

And Christ will shine [as dawn] upon you and give you light.”

15 Therefore see that you walk carefully [living life with honor, purpose, and courage; shunning those who tolerate and enable evil], not as the unwise, but as wise [sensible, intelligent, discerning people], 16 [b]making the very most of your time [on earth, recognizing and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence], because the days are [filled with] evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish and thoughtless, but understand and firmly grasp what the will of the Lord is. 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness (corruption, stupidity), but be filled with the [Holy] Spirit and constantly guided by Him.19 [c]Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, [offering praise by] singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; 21 being subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Marriage Like Christ and the Church

22 Wives, be subject [d]to your own husbands, as [a service] to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as Christ is head of the church, Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives should be subject to their husbands in everything [respecting both their position as protector and their responsibility to God as head of the house].

25 Husbands, love your wives [seek the highest good for her and surround her with a caring, unselfish love], just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify the church, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word [of God], 27 so that [in turn] He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy [set apart for God] and blameless. 28 Even so husbands should and are morally obligated to love their own wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own body, but [instead] he nourishes and protects and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members (parts) of His body. 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined [and be faithfully devoted] to his wife, and the two shall become [e]one flesh. 32 This mystery [of two becoming one] is great; but I am speaking with reference to [the relationship of] Christ and the church. 33 However, each man among you [without exception] is to love his wife as his very own self [with behavior worthy of respect and esteem, always seeking the best for her with an attitude of lovingkindness], and the wife [must see to it] that she respects and delights in her husband [that she notices him and prefers him and treats him with loving concern, treasuring him, honoring him, and holding him dear].

• According to these verses, you are clearly called to be an imitator of God, copying Him and following His example because when you are born again you are born this way -- to be like your Heavenly Father.

• Any other sensual inclinations that you discovered while you were born in Adam are trumped and rendered moot when you are born again in Christ. You may have been born with an inclination for members of the same sex, with lustful desires for more than one woman, with attraction to underage children, to members of your immediate family, or a great number of other “predispositions”. All of those sinful inclinations came as a result of the Fall of Adam, and all those people can claim that they were “made that way” are only correct in the sense that we have all inherited a sin nature doomed to separate us from our Heavenly Father which often includes some level of sexual proclivities that often need to be turned away, and set free, from.

• However, it would actually be inaccurate to say that GOD made us that way because none of those things are what we’ve learned about Christ (see Ephesians 4) and this is one of the reasons why Jesus commands all people (including us today) that we “must be born again” (see John 3). If you are struggling with sexual and emotional desires that don’t look like, sound, and feel like Jesus, this is a good indication that you must follow the direction of God the Holy Spirit to “examine yourself to see if you are truly in the faith” because when you are immersed into Christ’s death, you are freed from the power of sin and raised to newness of life and those things pass away (see 2 Corinthians 13, Romans 6 & Romans 8).

• Go back and reread Parts 1-3 of the response to this question and find out whether God the Father is a polygamist and whether God the Son, who is the invisible image of the invisible God, endorses and embraces the double-standard of genders required by those who support polygamous marriage, whether god or man. The answer is "no".

You are called to be born again and be like your Heavenly Father

this negates whatever other ways you might have been born like under Adam.

1. Is your decision to add another woman to your marriage a demonstration of sacrificial love towards your wife? Does it demonstrate value for her, or does it place higher value on yourself and this other woman?

2. Is this decision to go ahead with polygamy despite your wife’s distress a demonstration of empathy and compassion? Would you find this decision listed as an example in a marriage counselling guide of a husband unselfishly seeking the best for his wife?

3. Is it a shining example of you giving up yourself and your desires in a sacrificial or even painful way for her sake?

4. If the situation were reversed, would you interpret her desire to add another man to your marriage as a beautiful act of sacrificial love towards you, something you would be happy to post about on Facebook and share with your family and friends along the same lines as if she had saved money secretly to buy you a new truck or a boat or something else expensive that you desired but didn’t think you could afford, and here she’s saved some of her own money she normally used for something else secretly for a year or more just to give you this wonderful and thoughtful anniversary gift?

5. What about if the situation were one generation removed: Would you congratulate your daughter’s husband for introducing such an amazing and loving gift into his marriage to your little girl? Or would you dream that your little girl might have the honour of finding another woman’s husband and be invited to join their marriage as his second? Do either of those scenarios smack of (Jeremiah 1:5 & 29:11) a beautiful aspiration dreamt of in the heart of her Father God before she was even born?

6. Is that what adding a new person to your marriage is going to feel like and be applauded as -- like an amazing gift of sacrificial love for your spouse?

• Do most believers and unbelievers in your society consider concurrent polygamy pure, decent, frugal, clean and moral or does the majority of society characterize any such marriage relationships they hear about in their modern culture today as impure, indecent, greedy/covetous, filthy or offensive behaviour? Would making this second marriage official actually be illegal in the place where you live? Bigamy is the criminal description of polygamy consisting of having more than one wife on the civil books and it is crime in the vast majority of countries in the world today. Romans 13:1-7 & 2 Peter 2:13-17 specifically forbid you from doing anything illegal under the governing laws of your country unless it is in direction violation of the commands of Christ. This alone, should be sufficient to cause you to realize that the voice you’re hearing and the internal nudging you’re feeling which is urging you to take this second woman as your wife and commit a crime or to commit the damnable sin of lying in order to hide, cover, or sanitize the nature of your relationship because to make it official would be a crime is OBVIOUSLY NOT from the Lord!

• If you live in North America, you can read more here about the criminality of polygamy, which in some areas even makes cohabitating with a second woman as though she were your wife illegal.

• Perhaps you are hoping to be among the polygamist Mormons making headlines in legal battles about their harems and child brides?

• Or are you hoping to just lie and fly under the radar, pretending the second woman is your wife in some ways behind closed doors and openly among certain people because legally she is nothing more than your mistress just like every other married man out there having an affair?

• Would either scenario mark you as a particularly noble, honourable, and upstanding Christian man in the light of Ephesians 5 and in the eyes of your believing and unbelieving communities?

• If you are still insisting that God calls good what even unbelievers call evil, do you also set these verses aside and feel He is calling you to offer yourself up as a role model to your neighbours outside of Christ by living in a manner they find morally repulsive?

• Further down in Ephesians 5:16 you are instructed to make “the very most of your time [on earth, recognizing and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence]”. Will your ministry to your Christian brethren, your unbelieving coworkers and family members, and your acquaintances and neighbours be clearly and primarily about the sacrificial love of Christ for them to transform their own lives from ones of selfishness and strife to ones of self-denial and peace, or must it first address the elephant in the room and be about how Jesus “is actually okay with” what they perceive as the exploitation of your wife so you can split your time between your family with her in order to enjoy the love of a second wife and family?

• If you only have a short time to preach the gospel to these precious people, what will they think of your character and the truth you’ve presented when they later discover that you are living with two wives, against the wishes of your first wife and most likely in contravention of the laws of the land?

• Will they see themselves as more moral than you until you have a chance to educate them about how this is actually “godly and pure” and an accurate imitation of Christ?

• How many people are involved in the joining of a marriage? If you then say, as many polygamists, that God joins a man with wife1 into one flesh, and the same man with wife2 into a 2nd “one flesh”, how many churches does Christ have? Are you tempted to say “many” because “down the street there’s 12 at least, and that doesn’t count the churches in other cities”? Yet is that how the Apostle Paul is counting?

• Does Paul not say that we are also the body of Christ? And elsewhere the Bride of Christ?

• How does the marriage of Adam and Eve hold up to those prophetic pictures? Out of the one physical body of Adam, how many physical Eve’s were fashioned?

• Are we separate bodies or parts of the same singular Body? Are we to be separate churches or are we actually parts of the same singular Church (ecclesia, faith family)?