Ephesians 4:1-21 ▼

1 I, the prisoner of the LORD, then call on you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,

2 with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love,

3 being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace;

4 one body and one Spirit, according as you were also called in one hope of your calling;

5 one Lord, one faith, one immersion,

6 one God and Father of all, who [is] over all, and through all, and in you all,

7 and to each one of you was given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ,

8 for this reason, it says, “Having gone up on high He led captive captivity, and gave gifts to men.”

9 And that, He went up, what is it except that He also went down first into the lower parts of the earth?

10 He who went down is the same who also went up far above all the heavens, that He may fill all things—

11 and He gave some [as] apostles, and some [as] prophets, and some [as] proclaimers of good news, and some [as] shepherds and teachers,

12 to the perfecting of the holy ones, for a work of ministry, for a building up of the body of the Christ,

13 until we may all come to the unity of faith and of the recognition of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to a measure of stature of the fullness of the Christ,

14 that we may no longer be children, being tossed by waves and being carried around by every wind of the teaching, in the cunning of men, in craftiness, to the scheming of leading astray,

15 and [speaking] truth in love, we may increase to Him [in] all things, who is the head—the Christ;

16 from whom the whole body, being fitly joined together and united, through the supply of every joint, according to the working in the measure of each single part, the increase of the body makes for the building up of itself in love.

17 This, then, I say, and I testify in the LORD: you are no longer to walk, as also the other nations walk, in the vanity of their mind,

18 being darkened in the understanding, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart,

19 who, having ceased to feel, gave themselves up to the licentiousness, for the working of all uncleanness in greediness;

20 and you did not so learn the Christ,

21 if [it] so be [that] you heard Him, and were taught in Him, as truth is in Jesus;