²⁸ It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.^[a](A)

¹⁵ I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.^(A)

²⁷ so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, so that she may be holy and without blemish.^(A)

⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.^(A)

¹¹ He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers^{(A) 12} to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,^{(B) 13} until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity,^[a] to the measure of the full stature of Christ.^(C)

²⁴ And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient,^{(A) 25} correcting opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth^(B)

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ^[a] dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.^[b](A)

The True Wisdom of God

⁶ Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed.^(A)

²² he has now reconciled^[a] in his fleshly body^[b] through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him,^(A)

² I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.^(A)