Epistle to the Ephesians - The New Testament

¹ I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you therefore to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you were called.

² With all humility and gentleness, and with patience, support each other in love.

³ Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together.

⁴ There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God.

⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

⁶ and one God and Father of all, over all, through all and within all.

⁷ On each one of us God's favour has been bestowed in whatever way Christ allotted it.

⁸ That is why it says: He went up to the heights, took captives, he gave gifts to humanity.

⁹ When it says, 'he went up', it must mean that he had gone down to the deepest levels of the earth.

¹⁰ The one who went down is none other than the one who went up above all the heavens to fill all things.

¹¹ And to some, his 'gift' was that they should be apostles; to some prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers;

¹² to knit God's holy people together for the work of service to build up the Body of Christ,

¹³ until we all reach unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and form the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.

¹⁴ Then we shall no longer be children, or tossed one way and another, and carried hither and thither by every new gust of teaching, at the mercy of all the tricks people play and their unscrupulousness in deliberate deception.

¹⁵ If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow completely into Christ, who is the head

¹⁶ by whom the whole Body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each individual part to work according to its function. So the body grows until it has built itself up in love.

¹⁷ So this I say to you and attest to you in the Lord, do not go on living the empty-headed life that the gentiles live.

¹⁸ Intellectually they are in the dark, and they are estranged from the life of God, because of the ignorance which is the consequence of closed minds.

¹⁹ Their sense of right and wrong once dulled, they have abandoned all self-control and pursue to excess every kind of uncleanness.

²⁰ Now that is hardly the way you have learnt Christ,

²¹ unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus.

²² You were to put aside your old self, which belongs to your old way of life and is corrupted by following illusory desires.

²³ Your mind was to be renewed in spirit

²⁴ so that you could put on the New Man that has been created on God's principles, in the uprightness and holiness of the truth.

²⁵ So from now on, there must be no more lies. Speak the truth to one another, since we are all parts of one another.

²⁶ Even if you are angry, do not sin: never let the sun set on your anger

²⁷ or else you will give the devil a foothold.

²⁸ Anyone who was a thief must stop stealing; instead he should exert himself at some honest job with his own hands so that he may have something to share with those in need.

²⁹ No foul word should ever cross your lips; let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasion offers, and do good to your listeners;

³⁰ do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with his seal, ready for the day when we shall be set free.

³¹ Any bitterness or bad temper or anger or shouting or abuse must be far removed from you -- as must every kind of malice.

³² Be generous to one another, sympathetic, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.