Ephesians 4:17-24

Expanded Bible

The Way You Should Live

¹⁷ ·In the Lord’s name [or By the Lord’s authority; ^LIn the Lord], I ·tell you [^Lspeak and testify to] this. Do not continue ·living [walking] like ·those who do not believe [the pagans; ^Lthe Gentiles], whose thoughts are ·worth nothing [futile]. ¹⁸ They ·do not understand [^Lare darkened in their minds/understanding] and they are ·separated [excluded; alienated] from the life ·God gives [or God has; ^Lof God] because of their ignorance ·and because of [or caused by] ·their stubbornness [or their closed minds; ^Lthe stubbornness of their heart/mind]. ¹⁹ They have lost ·all feeling of shame [or any sense of right and wrong; ^Lall feeling/sensitivity], and they ·use their lives for doing evil [abandon themselves to indecency/depravity]. They ·continually want to do [or greedily pursue] all kinds of ·evil [impurity]. ²⁰ But ·what you learned in Christ was not like this [or that is not how you learned about Christ; ^Lyou did not learn Christ that way]. ²¹ ·I know that [^L…if indeed] you heard ·about him [or him], and you ·are in him, so you were taught the truth that is in Jesus [or were taught by him, because the truth is in Jesus]. ²² You were taught to ·leave [put off; lay aside] your old ·self [^Lperson]—to stop living the evil way you lived before. That old self ·becomes worse [is decaying/being corrupted], because ·people are fooled by the evil things they want to do [^Lof the deceitfulness of their desires]. ²³ But you were taught to be made new in ·your hearts [the spirit/attitude of your minds], ²⁴ to ·become [put on; clothe yourself with] the new ·self [^Lperson; or Man; ^Cbecome like Christ]. That new person is created ·to be like God [or in God’s image; ^Laccording to God]—truly good and holy [or in the righteousness and holiness that comes from truth].