The Unity of the Spirit

41 I, the prisoner in [the] Lord, exhort you therefore to walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called,

2 with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love; 3 using 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; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all. 7 But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ. 8 Wherefore he says, Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men. 9 But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things; 11 and he has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, 12 for 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; 13 until 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; 14 in 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; 15 but, holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ: 16 from 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.

The New Life in Christ

17 This 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, 18 being 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, 19 who having cast off all feeling, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greedy unsatisfied lust. 20 But ye have not thus learnt the Christ, 21 if 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; 23 and being renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 and [your] having put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness. 25 Wherefore, having put off falsehood, speak truth every one with his neighbour, because we are members one of another. 26 Be angry, and do not sin; let not the sun set upon your wrath, 27 neither give room for the devil. 28 Let 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. 29 Let 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]. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which ye have been sealed for [the] day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and heat of passion, and wrath, and clamour, and injurious language, be removed from you, with all malice; 32 and be to one another kind, compassionate, forgiving one another, so as God also in Christ has forgiven you.

Paul's Ministry to the Gentiles

31 For this reason I Paul, prisoner of the Christ Jesus for you nations, 2 (if indeed ye have heard of the administration of the grace of God which has been given to me towards you, 3 that by revelation the mystery has been made known to me, (according as I have written before briefly, 4 by which, in reading it, ye can understand my intelligence in the mystery of the Christ,) 5 which in other generations has not been made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in [the power of the] Spirit, 6 that [they who are of] the nations should be joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers of [his] promise in Christ Jesus by the glad tidings; 7 of which I am become minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me, according to the working of his power. 8 To me, less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given, to announce among the nations the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ, 9 and to enlighten all [with the knowledge of] what is the administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God, who has created all things, 10 in order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God, 11 according to [the] purpose of the ages, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access in confidence by the faith of him. 13 Wherefore I beseech [you] not to faint through my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

Prayer for Love Which Surpasses Knowledge

14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ], 15 of whom every family in [the] heavens and on earth is named, 16 in order that he may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, 18 in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what [is] the breadth and length and depth and height; 19 and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled [even] to all the fulness of God. 20 But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think, according to the power which works in us, 21 to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen).