How believers should behave in view of their position in Christ
4
📚✭I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, appeal to you to walk worthy of✭ the calling which you received, 2 📚with complete humility and meekness✭, with patience✭ bearing with one another in love, 3 📚striving to keep the unity of the Spirit✭ in the bond of peace. 4 📚There is one body✭, and one Spirit✭, just as you are called in one hope✭ of your calling, 5 📚one Lord✭, one faith✭, one baptism✭, 6 📚one God and Father✭ of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all✭.They should be prepared for service
7 📚✭But to each one of us grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 📚Therefore he says,
“When he ascended up on high,
he led captivity captive,
and gave gifts to men”.
9 📚(Now that “he ascended”, what is it but that first he also descended into the lower parts of the earth✭? 10 📚He that descended is the same also who ascended✭ up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)✭ 11 📚✭And he gave some to be apostles✭, and some to be prophets✭, and some to be evangelists✭, and some to be pastors and teachers✭, 12 📚✭for the perfecting of the saints✭, for the work of the ministry✭, for building up✭ the body of Christ,
They should grow up spiritually in Christ
13 📚✭until we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a complete person, to the measure of the mature state of the fulness of Christ, 14 📚so that we will not be children, tossed this way and that and carried✭ about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery and cunning craftiness of men in their deceitful plotting, 15 📚but speaking the truth in love, in everything may grow up in him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 📚From him the whole body joined and knit together✭ by what every ligament supplies, with the effectual working of every part in due measure, causes the body to grow and edify itself in love.
They should reject the old way of life and adopt the new holy way
17 📚This I say, therefore, and solemnly declare in the Lord: henceforth you must not live as other Gentiles live✭, with their futile thinking✭. 18 📚✭Their understanding is darkened✭, and they are shut out from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them✭, resulting from the blindness of their heart✭. 19 📚✭Being past feeling they have given themselves to unrestrained lust✭ to commit eagerly every impure act.
20 📚✭But you did not learn Christ like that. 21 📚If indeed you have heard him and been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus✭, 22 📚you learned this with regard to your former conduct: put off the old man✭, which is corrupt according to its deceitful desires, 23 📚✭be made new in the spirit of your mind, 24 📚and put on✭ the new man✭, which is created by God✭ in righteousness and true holiness.
25 📚✭✭Therefore putting away lying, every man must speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another. 26 📚✭Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are angry. 27 📚✭And do not give place to the devil. 28 📚He who formerly stole must steal no longer✭. Instead, he must labour, working with his hands at some good task, so that he may have something to give✭ to those in need.
29 📚Let no corrupt talk✭ come out of your mouth, but what is good and useful for edification✭, that it may minister grace to those who hear it. 30 📚And do not grieve✭ the holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed✭ until the day of redemption. 31 📚✭Let all bitterness and rage and anger and uproar and evil speaking be put away from you, together with all malice, 32 📚✭and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God, for Christ’s sake, forgave you.