1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation with which ye are called,
2. with all humility and meekness, with tolerance, forbearing one another in love,
3. being diligent to guard the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4. There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling,
5. one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6. one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all.
7. But unto each one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ.
8. Therefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.
9. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
10. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all the heavens, that he might fulfill all things.)
11. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers,
12. for the perfecting of the saints in the work of the ministry, unto the edifying of the body of the Christ
13. until we all come forth in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the coming of age of the Christ:
14. That we no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive,
15. but following the truth in charity, let us grow up into him in all things, who is the head, the Christ:
16. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and well tied together among itself by the nourishment that every connecting bond supplies, by the operation of each member according to measure they have received, making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in charity.
17. This I say, therefore, and require in the Lord that from now on ye not walk as the other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their own senses,