Beginning

Live up to your calling!

4 So, then, this is my appeal to you—yes, it’s me, the prisoner in the Lord! You must live up to the calling you received. ² Bear with one another in love; be humble, meek and patient in every way with one another. ³ Make every effort to guard the unity that the spirit gives, with your lives bound together in peace.

⁴ There is one body and one spirit; you were, after all, called to one hope which goes with your call. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and father of all, who is over all, through all and in all.

⁷ But grace was given to each one of us, according to the measure the Messiah used when he was distributing gifts. ⁸ That’s why it says,

⁹ When it says here that “he went up,” what this means is that he also came down into the lower place, that is, the earth. ¹⁰ The one who came down is the one who also “went up”—yes, above all the heavens!—so that he might fill all things.

Grown-up Christianity

¹¹ So these were the gifts that he gave. Some were to be apostles, others prophets, others evangelists, and others pastors and teachers. ¹² Their job is to give God’s people the equipment they need for their work of service, and so to build up the Messiah’s body. ¹³ The purpose of this is that we should all reach unity in our belief and loyalty, and in knowing God’s son. Then we shall reach the stature of the mature Man measured by the standards of the Messiah’s fullness.

¹⁴ As a result, we won’t be babies any longer! We won’t be thrown this way and that on a stormy sea, blown about by every gust of teaching, by human tricksters, by their cunning and deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, we must speak the truth in love, and so grow up in everything into him—that is, into the Messiah, who is the head. ¹⁶ He supplies the growth that the whole body needs, linked as it is and held together by every joint which supports it, with each member doing its own proper work. Then the body builds itself up in love.

Off with the old, on with the new

¹⁷ So this is what I want to say; I am bearing witness to it in the Lord. You must no longer behave like the Gentiles, foolish-minded as they are. ¹⁸ Their understanding is darkened; they are cut off from God’s life because of their deep-seated ignorance, which springs from the fact that their hearts are hard. ¹⁹ They have lost all moral sensitivity, and have given themselves over to whatever takes their fancy. They go off greedily after every kind of uncleanness.

²⁰ But that’s not how you learned the Messiah!— ²¹ if indeed you did hear about him, and were taught in him, in accordance with the truth about Jesus himself. ²² That teaching stressed that you should take off your former lifestyle, the old humanity. That way of life is decaying, as a result of deceitful lusts. ²³ Instead, you must be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and you must put on the new humanity, which is being created the way God intended it, displaying justice and genuine holiness.

The kindness that imitates God himself

²⁵ Put away lies, then. “Each of you, speak the truth with your neighbor,” because we are members of one another. ²⁶ “Be angry, but don’t sin”; don’t let the sun go down on you while you’re angry, ²⁷ and don’t leave any loophole for the devil. ²⁸ The thief shouldn’t steal any longer, but should rather get on with some honest manual work, so as to be able to share with people in need.

²⁹ Don’t let any unwholesome words escape your lips. Instead, say whatever is good and will be useful in building people up, so that you will give grace to those who listen.

³⁰ And don’t disappoint God’s holy spirit—the spirit who put God’s mark on you to identify you on the day of freedom. ³¹ All bitterness and rage, all anger and yelling, and all blasphemy—put it all away from you, with all wickedness. ³² Instead, be kind to one another, cherish tender feelings for each other, forgive one another, just as God forgave you in the Messiah.

5 So you should be imitators of God, like dear children. ² Conduct yourselves in love, just as the Messiah loved us, and gave himself for us, as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God.

Darkness and light in matters of sex

³ As for fornication, uncleanness of any kind, or greed: you shouldn’t even mention them! You are, after all, God’s holy people. ⁴ Shameful, stupid or coarse conversations are quite out of place. Instead, there should be thanksgiving.

⁵ You should know this, you see: no fornicator, nobody who practices uncleanness, no greedy person (in other words, an idolator), has any inheritance in the Messiah’s kingdom, or in God’s. ⁶ Don’t let anyone fool you with empty words. It’s because of these things, you see, that God’s wrath is coming on people who are disobedient.

⁷ So don’t share in their practices. ⁸ After all, at one time you were darkness, but now, in the Lord, you are light! So behave as children of light. ⁹ Light has its fruit, doesn’t it, in everything that’s good, and just, and true. ¹⁰ Think through what’s going to be pleasing to the Lord. Work it out.

Light and darkness

¹¹ So, then, don’t get involved in the works of darkness, which all come to nothing. Instead, expose them! ¹² The things they do in secret, you see, are shameful even to talk about. ¹³ But everything becomes visible when it’s exposed to the light, ¹⁴ since everything that is visible is light. That’s why it says:

¹⁵ So take special care how you conduct yourselves. Don’t be unwise, but be wise. ¹⁶ Make use of any opportunity you have, because these are wicked times we live in. ¹⁷ So don’t be foolish; rather, understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ And don’t get drunk with wine; that way lies dissipation. Rather, be filled with the spirit! ¹⁹ Speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and chanting in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Wives and husbands

²¹ Be subject to one another out of reverence for the Messiah.

²² Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ The man, you see, is the head of the woman, just as the Messiah, too, is head of the church. He is himself the savior of the body. ²⁴ But, just as the church is subject to the Messiah, in the same way women should be subject in everything to their husbands.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as the Messiah loved the church, and gave himself for it, ²⁶ so that he could make it holy, cleansing it by washing it with water through the word. ²⁷ He did this in order to present the church to himself in brilliant splendor, without a single spot or blemish or anything of the kind—that it might be holy and without blame. ²⁸ That’s how husbands ought to love their own wives, just as they love their own bodies.

Someone who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, nobody ever hates his own flesh: he feeds it and takes care of it, just as the Messiah does with the church, ³⁰ because we are parts of his body. ³¹ “That’s why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two become one flesh.”

³² The hidden meaning in this saying is very deep; but I am reading it as referring to the Messiah and the church. ³³ Anyway, each one of you must love your wife as you love yourself; and the wife must see that she respects her husband.

Children, parents, slaves and masters

6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord. This is right and proper. ² “Honor your father and your mother”—this is the first commandment that comes with a promise attached!— ³ “so that things may go well with you and that you may live a long life on earth.”

⁴ Fathers, don’t make your children angry. Bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

⁵ Slaves, obey your human masters, with respect and devotion, with the same single-mindedness that you have towards the Messiah. ⁶ You must get on with your work, not only when someone is watching you, as if you were just trying to please another human being, but as slaves of the Messiah. Do God’s will from your heart. ⁷ Get on with your tasks with a kind and ready spirit as if you were serving the master himself and not human beings. ⁸ After all, you know that if anyone, slave or free, does something good, they will receive it back from the master.

⁹ Masters, do the same to them! Give up using threats. You know, after all, that the master in heaven is their master and yours, and he is no respecter of persons.

God’s complete armor

¹⁰ What else is there to say? Just this: be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his power. ¹¹ Put on God’s complete armor. Then you’ll be able to stand firm against the devil’s trickery. ¹² The warfare we’re engaged in, you see, isn’t against flesh and blood. It’s against the leaders, against the authorities, against the powers that rule the world in this dark age, against the wicked spiritual elements in the heavenly places.

¹³ For this reason, you must take up God’s complete armor. Then, when wickedness grabs its moment, you’ll be able to withstand, to do what needs to be done, and still to be on your feet when it’s all over. ¹⁴ So stand firm! Put the belt of truth round your waist; put on justice as your breastplate; ¹⁵ for shoes on your feet, ready for battle, take the good news of peace. ¹⁶ With it all, take the shield of faith; if you’ve got that, you’ll be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is God’s word.

Prayer and peace

¹⁸ Pray on every occasion in the spirit, with every type of prayer and intercession. You’ll need to keep awake and alert for this, with all perseverance and intercession for all God’s holy ones— ¹⁹ and also for me! Please pray that God will give me his words to speak when I open my mouth, so that I can make known, loud and clear, the secret truth of the gospel. ²⁰ That, after all, is why I’m a chained-up ambassador! Pray that I may announce it boldly; that’s what I’m duty-bound to do.

²¹ It’s important that you should know how things are with me, and what I’m up to; so our dear brother Tychicus will tell you about it. He is a loyal servant in the Lord. ²² I’ve sent him to you with this in mind, so that you may know how things are with us, and so that he may encourage your hearts.

²³ Peace be to the whole family, and love with faith, from God the father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. ²⁴ Grace be with all who love our Lord, Messiah Jesus, with a love that never dies!