One body, one Spirit
1So I urge you — I, the prisoner in the Lord — to walk worthy of the calling you received: 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4One body and one Spirit, just as you were 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 all. 7But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of the Christ. 8That is why it says: “When he went up on high he took captivity captive; he gave gifts to men.” 9And this “he went up” — what does it mean, except that he also went down to the lower parts of the earth? 10The one who went down is the very one who went up above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things. 11And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as shepherds and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of service, for the building up 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 maturity, at the measure of the full stature of the Christ. 14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed by the waves and blown about by every wind of teaching, by the trickery of people and their craft in the ways of deceit. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow up in every way into him who is the head, the Christ. 16From him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows as each part works to its measure, and builds itself up in love.
The old self and the new
17So I say this, and I insist on it in the Lord: you must no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds. 18Their understanding is darkened; they are estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance in them, because their hearts are hardened. 19Past all feeling, they have handed themselves over to indecency, greedy for every kind of impurity. 20But that is not how you learned the Christ, 21if indeed you heard him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22to strip off the old self, which belongs to your former way of life and is rotting away under deceitful cravings, 23to be made new in the spirit of your mind, 24and to put on the new self, created after God’s likeness in righteousness and the holiness that comes from truth. 25So put away the lie: let each of you speak the truth to your neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26Be angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and give the devil no foothold. 28Let the thief steal no longer; rather let him labor, working with his own hands at what is good, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. 29Let no rotten word come out of your mouth, but only what is good for building up where there is need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Let all bitterness and rage and anger and shouting and slander be taken away from you, along with all malice. 32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
