4:6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
4:7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
4:8 Therefore it is said, ‘When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.’
4:9 (When it says, ‘He ascended’, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
4:10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)
4:11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
4:12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
4:13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
4:14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.
4:15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
4:16 from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
4:17 Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds.
4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.
4:19 They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of impurity.
4:28 Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.
4:29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.
4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.
4:31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice,
4:32 and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
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