New Living Translation NLT
New International Version NIV
9 Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world.
9
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions ?
10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.
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He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.
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So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
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to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
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until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
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Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.
15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
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Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
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From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused.
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So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him.
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They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.
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Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
20 But that isn’t what you learned about Christ.
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That, however, is not the way of life you learned
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.