Ephesians 4:13–24

¹³And 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. ¹⁴Then we shall no longer be children, carried by the waves and blown about by every shifting wind of the teaching of deceitful people, who lead others into error by the tricks they invent. ¹⁵Instead, by speaking the truth in a spirit of love, we must grow up in every way to Christ, who is the head. ^16*Under his control all the different parts of the body fit together, and the whole body is held together by every joint with which it is provided. So when each separate part works as it should, the whole body grows and builds itself up through love.

The New Life in Christ

¹⁷In the Lord’s name, then, I warn you: do not continue to live like the heathen, whose thoughts are worthless ¹⁸and whose minds are in the dark. They have no part in the life that God gives, for they are completely ignorant and stubborn. ¹⁹They have lost all feeling of shame; they give themselves over to vice and do all sorts of indecent things without restraint.

²⁰That was not what you learnt about Christ! ²¹You certainly heard about him, and as his followers you were taught the truth that is in Jesus. ^22*So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to—the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. ²³Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, ^24*and you must put on the new self, which is created in God’s likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.