by setting aside the Law with its commandments, expressed, as they were, in definite decrees. His design was to unite the two sections of humanity in Himself so as to form one new man,

I mean the truth that the Gentiles are joint heirs with us Jews, and that they form one body with us, and have the same interest as we have in the promise which has been made good in Christ Jesus through the Good News,

and to show all men in a clear light what my stewardship is. It is the stewardship of the truth which from all the Ages lay concealed in the mind of God, the Creator of all things--

For this reason Scripture says: "He re-ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and gave gifts to men."

(Now this "re-ascended" --what does it mean but that He had first descended into the lower regions of the earth?

till we all of us arrive at oneness in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and at mature manhood and the stature of full-grown men in Christ.

So we shall no longer be babes nor shall we resemble mariners tossed on the waves and carried about with every changing wind of doctrine according to men's cleverness and unscrupulous cunning, making use of every shifting device to mislead.

Such men being past feeling have abandoned themselves to impurity, greedily indulging in every kind of profligacy.

For this reason, laying aside falsehood, every one of you should speak the truth to his fellow man; for we are, as it were, parts of one another.

For be well assured that no fornicator or immoral person and no money-grubber--or in other words idol-worshipper--has any share awaiting him in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

Therefore be very careful how you live and act. Let it not be as unwise men, but as wise.

Married men, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up to death for her;

So too married men ought to love their wives as much as they love themselves. He who loves his wife loves himself.

For never yet has a man hated his own body. On the contrary he feeds and cherishes it, just as Christ feeds and cherishes the Church;

"For this reason a man is to leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall be as one."

That is a great truth hitherto kept secret: I mean the truth concerning Christ and the Church.

Yet I insist that among you also, each man is to love his own wife as much as he loves himself, and let a married woman see to it that she treats her husband with respect.

Let it not be in acts of eye-service as if you had but to please men, but as Christ's bondservants who are doing God's will from the heart.

With right good will, be faithful to your duty as service rendered to the Lord and not to man.

You well know that whatever right thing any one does, he will receive a requital for it from the Lord, whether he is a slave or a free man.