1 As the Lord's prisoner, then, I beg of you to live a life worthy of your calling,
2 with perfect modesty and gentleness, showing forbearance to one another patiently, zealous in love
3 to preserve the unity of the Spirit by binding peace upon yourselves.
4 For there is one Body and one Spirit ??as you were called for the one hope that belongs to your call ??5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over us all, who pervades us all, who is within us all.
7 But each one of us is granted his own grace, as determined by the full measure of Christ's gift.
8 Thus it is said, When he ascended on high he led a host captive and granted gifts to men.
9 What does he ascended mean, except that he first descended to the nether regions of the earth?
10 He who descended is he who ascended above all the heavens to fill the universe;
11 he granted some men to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to shepherd and teach,
12 for the equipment of the saints, for the business of the ministry, for the upbuilding of the Body of Christ,
13 till we should all attain the unity of the faith and knowledge of God's Son, reaching maturity, reaching the full measure of development which belongs to the fulness of Christ ??14 instead of remaining immature, blown from our course and swayed by every passing wind of doctrine, by the adroitness of men who are dexterous in devising error;
15 we are to hold by the truth, and by our love to grow up wholly into Him. For He, Christ, is the head, and under him,
16 as the entire Body is welded together and compacted by every joint with which it is supplied, the due activity of each part enables the Body to grow and build itself up in love.
17 Now in the Lord I insist and protest that you must give up living like pagans; for their purposes are futile,
18 their intelligence is darkened, they are estranged from the life of God by the ignorance which their dulness of heart has produced in them ??19 men who have recklessly abandoned themselves to sensuality, with a lust for the business of impurity in every shape and form.
20 That is not how you have understood the meaning of Christ
21 (for it is Christ whom you have been taught, it is in Christ that you have been instructed ??the real Christ who is in Jesus);
22 you must lay aside the old nature which belonged to your former course of life, that nature which crumbles to ruin under the passions of moral deceit,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 putting on the new nature, that divine pattern which has been created in the upright and pious character of the Truth.
25 Lay aside falsehood, then, let each tell his neighbour the truth, for we are members one of another.
26 Be angry but do not sin; never let the sun set upon your exasperation,
27 give the devil no chance.
28 Let the thief steal no more; rather let him work and put his hands to an honest task, so as to have something to contribute to the needy.
29 Let no bad word pass your lips, but only such speech as is good for edification, as occasion may require, words that are gracious and a means of grace to those who hear them.
30 And do not vex God's holy Spirit, by whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Drop all bitter feeling and passion and anger and clamouring and insults, together with all malice;
32 be kind to each other, be tender-hearted, be generous to each other as God has been generous to you in Christ.