and that Christ in His love, through your faith, may make His permanent home in your hearts. You must be deeply rooted, your foundations must be 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],

You must lay aside with your former habits your old self which is going to ruin through its deceptive passions.

You must adopt a new attitude of mind,

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.

So you must lay aside falsehood and each of you practice telling the truth to his neighbor, for we are parts of one another.

If you do get angry, you must stop sinning in your anger. Do not ever let the sun go down on your anger;

you must not give the devil a chance.

The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in 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 stop offending the Holy Spirit of God by whom you have been stamped for the day of redemption.

All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice.

You must practice being kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has graciously 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].

there must be no indecency, silly talk or suggestive jesting, for they are unbecoming. There should be thanksgiving instead.

So you must stop having anything to do with them.

For at one time you were darkness itself, but now in union with the Lord you are light itself. You must live like children of light,

you must approve what is pleasing to 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 continue to live in subordination to your husbands, as you do to the Lord,

Just as the church is subject to Christ, so the married women in everything must be subject to their husbands.

You married men must love your wives, just as Christ loved 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 so perfectly unite himself to his wife that the two shall be one.

But as for you individually, you must each one of you love his own wife exactly as if she were yourself; and the wife, on her part, should reverence her husband.

"You must honor your father and mother" -- this is the first commandment, with a promise to make it good

You parents, too, must stop exasperating your children, but continue to bring them up with the sort of education and counsel the Lord approves.

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

You slave-owners, too, must maintain the same attitude toward your slaves, and stop threatening them, for you know that their real Lord and yours is in heaven, and that He never shows partiality.

From now on you must grow stronger through union with the Lord and through His mighty power.

You must put on God's full 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.