Chapter 4

¹I, the prisoner in [the] Lord, exhort you therefore to walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called, ²with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love; ³using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. ⁴[There is] one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling; ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all. ⁷But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ. ⁸Wherefore he says, Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men. ⁹But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things; ¹¹and he has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, ¹²for the perfecting of the saints; with a view to [the] work of [the] ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ; ¹³until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at [the] full-grown man, at [the] measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ; ¹⁴in order that we may be no longer babes, tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching [which is] in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning with a view to systematized error; ¹⁵but, holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ: ¹⁶from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to [the] working in [its] measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love. ¹⁷This I say therefore, and testify in [the] Lord, that ye should no longer walk as [the rest of] the nations walk in [the] vanity of their mind, ¹⁸being darkened in understanding, estranged from the life of God by reason of the ignorance which is in them, by reason of the hardness of their hearts, ¹⁹who having cast off all feeling, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greedy unsatisfied lust. ²⁰But ye have not thus learnt the Christ, ²¹if ye have heard him and been instructed in him according as [the] truth is in Jesus; ²²[namely] your having put off according to the former conversation the old man which corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts; ²³and being renewed in the spirit of your mind; ²⁴and [your] having put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness. ²⁵Wherefore, having put off falsehood, speak truth every one with his neighbour, because we are members one of another. ²⁶Be angry, and do not sin; let not the sun set upon your wrath, ²⁷neither give room for the devil. ²⁸Let the stealer steal no more, but rather let him toil, working what is honest with [his] hands, that he may have to distribute to him that has need. ²⁹Let no corrupt word go out of your mouth, but if [there be] any good one for needful edification, that it may give grace to those that hear [it]. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which ye have been sealed for [the] day of redemption. ³¹Let all bitterness, and heat of passion, and wrath, and clamour, and injurious language, be removed from you, with all malice; ³²and be to one another kind, compassionate, forgiving one another, so as God also in Christ has forgiven you.