Ephesians 4:1-21 ▼

1 I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord exhort you to walk worthily of the calling with which ye were called,

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

3 earnestly endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were 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 all.

7 But to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

8 Wherefore, He saith, "Having ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men."

9 Now the word , "He ascended," what does it mean, but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth?

10 He Who descended is Himself also the One Who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.

11 And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12 with a view to the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ;

13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man—to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;

14 that we may no longer be babes, billow-tossed, and carried about with every wind of teaching, in the sleight of men, in the craftiness suited to the artifice of error;

15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, Who is the Head, Christ;

16 from Whom all the body, fitly framed and knit together through every joint of supply, according to the working in due measure of each single part, secures the growth of the body to the upbuilding of itself in love.

17 This, therefore, I say, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind,

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

19 who, indeed, having become without feeling, delivered themselves up to lasciviousness for the working of all uncleanness with greediness.

20 But ye did not so learn Christ;

21 if, indeed, ye heard Him, and were taught in Him, as truth is in Jesus;