Ephesians 4:1–32

¹I, therefore, the prisoner in [the] Lord, entreat ​YOU​ to walk worthily of the calling with which ​YOU​ were called,²with complete lowliness of mind and mildness, with long‐suffering, putting up with one another in love,³earnestly endeavoring to observe the oneness of the spirit in the uniting bond of peace.⁴One body there is, and one spirit, even as ​YOU​ were called in the one hope to which ​YOU​ were called;⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism;⁶one God and Father of all [persons], who is over all and through all and in all.

⁷Now to each one of us undeserved kindness was given according to how the Christ measured out the free gift.⁸Wherefore he says: “When he ascended on high he carried away captives; he gave gifts [in] men.”⁹Now the expression “he ascended,” what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions, that is, the earth?¹⁰The very one that descended is also the one that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might give fullness to all things.

¹¹And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelizers, some as shepherds and teachers,¹²with a view to the readjustment of the holy ones, for ministerial work, for the building up of the body of the Christ,¹³until we all attain to the oneness in the faith and in the accurate knowledge of the Son of God, to a full‐grown man, to the measure of stature that belongs to the fullness of the Christ;¹⁴in order that we should no longer be babes, tossed about as by waves and carried hither and thither by every wind of teaching by means of the trickery of men, by means of cunning in contriving error.¹⁵But speaking the truth, let us by love grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ.¹⁶From him all the body, by being harmoniously joined together and being made to cooperate through every joint that gives what is needed, according to the functioning of each respective member in due measure, makes for the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

¹⁷This, therefore, I say and bear witness to in [the] Lord, that ​YOU​ no longer go on walking just as the nations also walk in the unprofitableness of their minds,¹⁸while they are in darkness mentally, and alienated from the life that belongs to God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the insensibility of their hearts.¹⁹Having come to be past all moral sense, they gave themselves over to loose conduct to work uncleanness of every sort with greediness.

²⁰But ​YOU​ did not learn the Christ to be so,²¹provided, indeed, that ​YOU​ heard him and were taught by means of him, just as truth is in Jesus,²²that ​YOU​ should put away the old personality which conforms to ​YOUR​ former course of conduct and which is being corrupted according to his deceptive desires;²³but that ​YOU​ should be made new in the force actuating ​YOUR​ mind,²⁴and should put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.

²⁵Wherefore, now that ​YOU​ have put away falsehood, speak truth each one of ​YOU​ with his neighbor, because we are members belonging to one another.²⁶Be wrathful, and yet do not sin; let the sun not set with ​YOU​ in a provoked state,²⁷neither allow place for the Devil.²⁸Let the stealer steal no more, but rather let him do hard work, doing with his hands what is good work, that he may have something to distribute to someone in need.²⁹Let a rotten saying not proceed out of ​YOUR​ mouth, but whatever saying is good for building up as the need may be, that it may impart what is favorable to the hearers.³⁰Also, do not be grieving God’s holy spirit, with which ​YOU​ have been sealed for a day of releasing by ransom.

³¹Let all malicious bitterness and anger and wrath and screaming and abusive speech be taken away from ​YOU​ along with all badness.³²But become kind to one another, tenderly compassionate, freely forgiving one another just as God also by Christ freely forgave ​YOU.