Ephesians / Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ

Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ

Ephesians 4:1-16

Chapter 4

¹ I therefore exhort you—I, the prisoner in the Lord—to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you were called, ² with all humility and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, ³ being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ⁴ one body and one Spirit, just as you were also called in one hope of your calling; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism. ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ⁷ But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸ Therefore he says: "Having ascended on high, he took captivity captive; he gave gifts to humanity." ⁹ Now "he ascended"—what is it except that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰ The one who descended—he is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things. ¹¹ And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as shepherds and teachers, ¹² toward the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at a perfect man, at a measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴ so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the craftiness of men in craftiness toward the method of error, ¹⁵ but speaking the truth in love, we may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, being fitted together and joined together by every joint of the supply according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the growth of the body for the edification of itself in love.