The two commands in Eph 5:2-3 are first, to walk in love, and second to completely avoid the counterfeits of Christian love – namely fornication, uncleaness, and covetousness.
What does it mean to walk in love? It means we’re to love as Christ loved; forgiving, unconditionally, self-sacrificing. That’s the positive presentation, but watch how fast Paul goes to the opposite – the negative. Whatever it is that God establishes Satan counterfeits, and the perversion comes immediately in verses 3 and 4 – fornication or sex sin. The world’s counterfeit love is propagated by deceivers with their vain words who are nothing more than the object of God’s wrath (verse 6). Where God establishes true love, the world comes along and establishes the phony counterfeit – that is what you are called to resist – fornication or adultery or lustful thoughts: Stop doing it!
