Ephesians 4

¹ I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you therefore to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you werecal ed.

² With al humility and gentleness, and with patience, support each other in love.

³ Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together.

⁴ There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God.

⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

⁶ and one God and Father of al , over al , through al and within al .

⁷ On each one of us God's favour has been bestowed in whatever way Christ al otted it.

⁸ That is why it says: He went up to the heights, took captives, he gave gifts to humanity.

⁹ When it says, 'he went up', it must mean that he had gone down to the deepest levels of the earth.

¹⁰ The one who went down is none other than the one who went up above al the heavens to fil allthings.

¹¹ And to some, his 'gift' was that they should be apostles; to some prophets; to some, evangelists; tosome, pastors and teachers;

¹² to knit God's holy people together for the work of service to build up the Body of Christ,

¹³ until we al reach unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and form the perfect Man, fullymature with the ful ness of Christ himself.

¹⁴ Then we shal no longer be children, or tossed one way and another, and carried hither and thither byevery new gust of teaching, at the mercy of all the tricks people play and their unscrupulousness in deliberatedeception.

¹⁵ If we live by the truth and in love, we shal grow completely into Christ, who is the head

¹⁶ by whom the whole Body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for eachindividual part to work according to its function. So the body grows until it has built itself up in love.

¹⁷ So this I say to you and attest to you in the Lord, do not go on living the empty-headed life that thegentiles live.

¹⁸ Intel ectual y they are in the dark, and they are estranged from the life of God, because of theignorance which is the consequence of closed minds.

¹⁹ Their sense of right and wrong once dul ed, they have abandoned all self-control and pursue to excessevery kind of uncleanness.

²⁰ Now that is hardly the way you have learnt Christ,

²¹ unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus.

²² You were to put aside your old self, which belongs to your old way of life and is corrupted by followingil usory desires.

²³ Your mind was to be renewed in spirit

²⁴ so that you could put on the New Man that has been created on God's principles, in the uprightnessand holiness of the truth.

²⁵ So from now on, there must be no more lies. Speak the truth to one another, since we are al parts ofone another.

²⁶ Even if you are angry, do not sin: never let the sun set on your anger

²⁷ or else you wil give the devil a foothold.

²⁸ Anyone who was a thief must stop stealing; instead he should exert himself at some honest job withhis own hands so that he may have something to share with those in need.

²⁹ No foul word should ever cross your lips; let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasionoffers, and do good to your listeners;

³⁰ do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with his seal, ready for the day when weshall be set free.

³¹ Any bitterness or bad temper or anger or shouting or abuse must be far removed from you -- as mustevery kind of malice.

³² Be generous to one another, sympathetic, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you inChrist.