¹ I exhort you, therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk in a manner worthy of the calling wherewith ye were called:—

² With all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, bearing one with another in love,

³ Giving diligence to keep—the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting-bond of peace,—

⁴ One body, and one spirit, even as ye were also called in one hope of your calling,

⁵ One Lord, one faith, one immersion,

⁶ One God and Father of all—who is over all, and through all, and in all.

⁷ To each one of you, however, hath favour been given, according to the measure of the free-gift of the Christ;

⁸ Wherefore he saith—Ascending on high, he took captivity captive, [and] gave gifts unto men.

⁹ Now this, He ascended; what is it,—save—that he also descended into the under parts of the earth?

¹⁰ He that descended, he, it is who also ascended over-above all the heavens, that he might fill all things;

¹¹ And, he, gave—some, indeed, to be apostles, and some, prophets, and some, evangelists, and some, shepherds and teachers,—

¹² With a view to the fitting of the saints for the work of ministering, for an upbuilding of the body of the Christ;

¹³ Until we all advance—into the oneness of the faith, and the personal knowledge of the Son of God, into a man of full-growth, into the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ;

¹⁴ That we may, no longer, be infants—billow-tossed and shifted round with every wind of teaching,—in the craft of men, in knavery suited to the artifice of error;

¹⁵ But, pursuing truth—may, in love, grow into him in all things,—who is the head, Christ,—

¹⁶ Out of whom all the body—fitly framing itself together, and connecting itself, through means of every joint of supply, by way of energising in the measure of each single part—secureth the growing of the body, unto an upbuilding of itself in love.

¹⁷ This, therefore, am I saying and protesting in the Lord:—that, no longer, ye walk even as, the nations, walk—in the vanity of their minds,

¹⁸ Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God—by reason of the ignorance that existeth within them, by reason of their hearts being turned into stone,

¹⁹ Who, indeed, having become past feeling, have delivered, themselves, up, with wantonness, unto making a trade of all impurity with greed.

²⁰ Ye, however, have, not thus, learned the Christ:—

²¹ If, at least, it is, him, ye have heard, and, in him, ye have been taught—even as truth is in Jesus,—

²² That ye were to strip off—as regardeth the former behaviour—the old man, who corrupteth himself according to his deceitful covetings,

²³ And were to be getting young again in the spirit of your mind,

²⁴ And were to put on the man of new mould, who, after God, hath been created in his truthful righteousness and loving kindness.

²⁵ Wherefore, stripping off what is false, be speaking truth each one with his neighbour, because we are members one of another;

²⁶ Be ye angry, and not committing sin, let not the sun be going down upon your angry mood,

²⁷ Neither be giving place unto the adversary;

²⁸ Let, the stealer, no more, steal, but rather let him be toiling,—working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have [wherewith] to be giving away to him that hath need;

²⁹ Let, no putrid discourse, out of your mouth, be going forth, but if anything is good—suited to the needful upbuilding,—that it may give benefit unto them that hear;

³⁰ And be not grieving the Holy Spirit of God, wherewith ye have been sealed unto a day of redemption;

³¹ All bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and outcry, and profane speaking, let it be taken away from you, with all baseness;

³² And be ye gracious one to another, tenderly affectionate, in favour forgiving one another—even as, God also, in Christ, hath in favour forgiven you;