I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a
manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with
all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one
another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were
called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and
through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us
according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had
also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended
is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he
might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for
the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we
all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to
and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,
by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather,
speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him
who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and
held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each
part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds
itself up in love.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer
walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are
darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of
heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to
sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is
not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about
him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off
your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is
corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit
of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the
likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak
the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be
angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and
give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal,
but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so
that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no
corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good
for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to
those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom
you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and
wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along
with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
