4:1 So I, the Master’s captive, urge you to keep pace with the appointment to which you were called.

4:2 Be humble, gentle, and patient, tolerating each other in love.

4:3 Make an effort to keep the unity of the Spirit, tied together with peace.

4:4 Be one body and one spirit, just as you were also called into one hope,

4:5 one Master, one faith, one immersion,

4:6 and one God and Father who is over, through, and in all.

4:7 Yet each of us was given favor in accordance with how the Anointed has apportioned each gift.

4:8 What does it mean, “Ascending to the heights, he captured captivity and gave gifts to people”?

4:9 Well, in order to ascend it means he first descended into the lower parts of the earth.

4:10 The same one who descended also ascended above the heavens, to complete everything.

4:11 In fact, he gave the Ambassadors, the prophets, those who bring the Gospel, the shepherds and teachers,

4:12 to equip the holy ones for doing the work of attendants, to build up the body of the Anointed.

4:13 The goal is that we should all reach unity of faith and full understanding of the God-Man, to a mature man of the full stature of the Anointed.

4:14 Then we will no longer be minors, running here and there and being carried away by whatever teaching is blowing in the wind. Such things come from con artists and crafty people who scheme to lead others astray.

4:15 Speaking the truth in love is how we can make everything grow into the Anointed, the Head.

4:16 The entire body grows out of him, connected together and united to the supply at every point of contact. Each part does its work to make the body grow and build itself up in love.

4:17 So this is what I’m getting at, as a witness for the Master: In no way should you still be following in the footsteps of the non-Judeans. Their thinking is muddled

4:18 and dark; they are alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance, caused by their hard hearts.

4:19 They are beyond feeling, given over to vice and greed and all sorts of unsavory things.

4:20 Yet this is not what you learned

4:21 about the Anointed, since surely you heard him and were taught by him according to the truth about Jesus.

4:22 You must put off the old ways, the old self that is corrupted by seductive desires.

4:23 Be rejuvenated instead in mind and spirit,

4:24 and put on the new you that is being created by God in justice and devotion to the truth.

4:25 So get rid of falsehood and speak the truth with those around you, since we are members of each other.

4:26 It’s not a fault to be angry, but don’t let the sun set before you resolve it;

4:27 don’t give the Slanderer an advantage!

4:28 The thief must stop stealing and get to work; they must work with their own hands so they can share with the needy.

4:29 Do not let any foul talk come out of your mouths; only say what is good and needed to build up others and favor those who hear.

4:30 And do not distress the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

4:31 Let all bitterness, fury, rage, shouting, and slander be far removed from you, along with all malice.

4:32 Instead, do good to each other and be compassionate, behaving graciously among yourselves just as God through the Anointed also dealt graciously with all of us.