Ephesians 4:17-24 - Appeal For New Behavior

¹⁷ So what I mean and insist upon in the Lord's name is this: You must no longer live like the heathen, with their frivolity of mind and darkened understanding. ¹⁸ They are estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that exists among them and their obstinacy of heart, ¹⁹ for they have become callous, and abandoned themselves to sensuality, greedily practicing every kind of vice.

²⁰ That is not the way you have been taught what Christ means, ²¹ at least if you have really become acquainted with him and been instructed in him, and in union with him have been taught the truth as it is found in Jesus. ²² You must lay aside with your former habits your old self which is going to ruin through its deceptive passions. ²³ You must adopt a new attitude of mind, ²⁴ and put on the new self which has been created in likeness to God, with all the uprightness and holiness that belong to the truth.

¹² As persons chosen by God, then, consecrated and dearly loved, you must clothe yourselves with tenderness of heart, kindness, humility, gentleness, forbearance. ¹³ You must bear with one another and forgive one another, if anyone has reason to be offended with anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive. ¹⁴ And over all these put on love, which completes them and fastens them all together. ¹⁵ Let the ruling principle in your hearts be Christ's peace, for in becoming members of one body you have been called under its sway. And you must be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ live in your hearts in all its wealth of wisdom. Teach it to one another and train one another in it with thankfulness, with psalms, hymns, and sacred songs, and sing to God with all your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you have to say or do, do it all as followers of the Lord Jesus, and offer your thanksgiving to God the Father through him.