Parallel Bible results for "ephesians 4:1-16"

Ephesians 4:1-16

Common English Bible CEB

1 Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God.

2 Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love,

3 and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together.

4 You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope.

5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

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

7 God has given his grace to each one of us measured out by the gift that is given by Christ.

8 That's why scripture says, When he climbed up to the heights, he captured prisoners, and he gave gifts to people.

9 What does the phrase "he climbed up" mean if it doesn't mean that he had first gone down into the lower regions, the earth?

10 The one who went down is the same one who climbed up above all the heavens so that he might fill everything.

11 He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.

12 His purpose was to equip God's people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ

13 until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God's Son. God's goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ.

14 As a result, we aren't supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others.

15 Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let's grow in every way into Christ,

16 who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part.

New Revised Standard NRS

1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the 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 all.

7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.

8 Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people."

9 (When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?

10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)

11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,

12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.

15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.