Ephesians 4:1-13

Good News Translation

The Unity of the Body

4 I urge you, then—I who am a prisoner because I serve the Lord: live a life that measures up to the standard God set when he called you. ^2 (A)Be always humble, gentle, and patient. Show your love by being tolerant with one another. ³ Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope to which God has called you. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ there is one God and Father of all people, who is Lord of all, works through all, and is in all.

⁷ Each one of us has received a special gift in proportion to what Christ has given. ^8 (B)As the scripture says,

⁹ Now, what does “he went up” mean? It means that first he came down to the lowest depths of the earth.^{[a] 10} So the one who came down is the same one who went up, above and beyond the heavens, to fill the whole universe with his presence. ¹¹ It was he who “gave gifts to people”; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers. ¹² He did this to prepare all God's people for the work of Christian service, in order to build up the body of Christ. ¹³ And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature.