and through your faith to let Christ in his love make his home in your hearts. Your roots must be deep and your foundations strong,

Now surely this 'going up' must imply that he had already gone down into the world beneath.

We must not be babies any longer, blown about and swung around by every wind of doctrine through the trickery of men with their ingenuity in inventing error.

We must lovingly hold to the truth and grow up into perfect union with him who is the head??hrist himself.

So this I say, and solemnly affirm together with the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the [unbelieving] Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds [and in the foolishness and emptiness of their souls],

For you learned with regard to your former way of living that you must cast off your old nature, which, yielding to deluding passions, grows corrupt;

That the very spirit of your minds must be constantly renewed;

And that you must clothe yourselves in that new nature which was created to resemble God, with the righteousness and holiness springing from the Truth.

Since, therefore, you have cast off what is false, 'you must every one of you speak the truth to your neighbors.' For we are united to one another like the parts of a body.

Be angry, but do not sin. The sun must not go down upon your anger;

you must not give the devil a chance.

The one who steals must steal no longer, but instead must labor, working with his own hands [what is] good, so that he may have [something] to share with the one who has need.

{No rotten word must proceed} from your mouth, but only something good for the building up of the need, in order that it may give grace to those who hear,

You must not offend God's holy Spirit, with which you have been marked for the Day of Redemption.

All bitterness, and rage, and wrath, and clamor, and abusive speech, must be removed from you, together with all wickedness.

You must be kind to one another, you must be tender-hearted, and forgive one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

So you must keep on following God's example, as dearly loved children of His,

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].

and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

So you must stop having anything to do with them.

For once you were sheer darkness, but now, as Christians, you are light itself. You must live like children of light,

you must make sure what pleases the Lord.

Stop having anything to do with the profitless doings of darkness; instead you must continue to expose them.

So you must be very careful how you live, not thoughtlessly but thoughtfully,

You married women must subordinate yourselves to your husbands, as you do to the Lord,

Indeed, just as the church is submissive to the Messiah, so wives must be submissive to their husbands in everything.

You who are husbands must love your wives, just as Christ loves the church and gave himself for her,

In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies. A man who loves his wife loves himself.

Therefore a man must leave his father and mother and attach himself to his wife, and they must become one.

Only you also, each one [of you], must thus love his own wife as himself, and the wife {must respect} her husband.

"You must honor your father and mother"??hat is the first commandment accompanied with a promise??3 "so that you may prosper and have a long life on earth."

You fathers, too, must not irritate your children, but you must bring them up with Christian training and instruction.

You slaves must practice obedience to your earthly masters, with reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would obey Christ,

You who are masters, too, must treat your slaves in the same way, and cease to threaten them, for you know that their Master and yours is in heaven, and that he will show no partiality.

Henceforth you must grow strong through union with the Lord and through his mighty strength.

You must put on God's armor, so as to be able to stand up against the devil's stratagems.

This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.