¹⁴ For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.^{(A) 15} And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for the one who for their sake died and was raised.

¹⁶ From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;^[a] even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,^[b] we no longer know him in that way.^{(B) 17} So if anyone is in Christ, there^[c] is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!^{[d](C) 18} All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;^{(D) 19} that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,^[e] not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.^{(E) 20} So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.^(F)

Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath

1 When God began to create^[a] the heavens and the earth,^{(A) 2} the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God^[b] swept over the face of the waters.^(B)

¹⁵ but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,^{(A) 16} from whom the whole body, joined and knit 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.

The Old Life and the New

¹⁷ Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer walk as the^[a] gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds;^{(B) 18} they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.^{(C) 19} They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰ That is not the way you learned Christ! ²¹ For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, ²² to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts,^{(D) 23} and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.^(E)

Rules for the New Life

²⁵ So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another.^{(F) 26} Be angry but do not sin;^[b] do not let the sun go down on your anger,