1I ENTREAT YOU, THEN—I, a prisoner for the Lord's sake: as God has called you, live up to your calling. 2Be humble always and gentle, and patient too. Be forbearing with one another and charitable. 3Spare no effort to make fast with bonds of peace the unity which the Spirit gives.
4There is one body and one Spirit,
as there is also one hope held out in God's call to you;
5one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7But each of us has been given his gift, his due portion of Christ's bounty.
8 [ Ps.68.18. ] Therefore Scripture says:
17This then is my word to you, and I urge it upon you in the Lord's name. Give up living like pagans with their good-for-nothing notions. 18Their wits are beclouded, they are strangers to the life that is in God, because ignorance prevails among them and their minds have grown hard as stone. 19Dead to all feeling, they have abandoned themselves to vice, and stop at nothing to satisfy their foul desires. 20But that is not how you learned Christ. 21For were you not told of him, were you not as Christians taught the truth as it is in Jesus? 22—that, leaving your former way of life, you must lay aside that old human nature which, deluded by its lusts, is sinking towards death. 23You must be made new in mind and spirit, 24and put on the new nature of God's creating, which shows itself in the just and devout life called for by the truth.
25Then throw off falsehood; speak the truth to each other, for all of us are the parts of one body.
26If you are angry, do not let anger lead you into sin, do not let sunset find you still nursing it; 27leave no loop-hole for the devil.
28The thief must give up stealing, and instead work hard and honestly with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with the needy.
29No bad language must pass your lips, but only what is good and helpful to the occasion, so that it brings a blessing to those who hear it. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, for that Spirit is the seal with which you were marked for the day of our final liberation. 31Have done with spite and passion, all angry shouting and cursing, and bad feeling of every kind.
32Be generous to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
| << | Eph:4 | >> |
|---|