Part 4

004:014 So we shall no longer be babes nor shall we resemble mariners tossed on the waves and carried about with every changing wind of doctrine according to men's cleverness and unscrupulous cunning, making use of every shifting device to mislead.

004:015 But we shall lovingly hold to the truth, and shall in all respects grow up into union with Him who is our Head, even Christ.

004:016 Dependent on Him, the whole body--its various parts closely fitting and firmly adhering to one another--grows by the aid of every contributory link, with power proportioned to the need of each individual part, so as to build itself up in a spirit of love.

004:017 Therefore I warn you, and I implore you in the name of the Master, no longer to live as the Gentiles in their perverseness live,

004:018 with darkened understandings, having by reason of the ignorance which is deep-seated in them and the insensibility of their moral nature, no share in the Life which God gives.

004:019 Such men being past feeling have abandoned themselves to impurity, greedily indulging in every kind of profligacy.

004:020 But these are not the lessons which you have learned from Christ;

004:021 if at least you have heard His voice and in Him have been taught-- and this is true Christian teaching--

004:022 to put away, in regard to your former mode of life, your original evil nature which is doomed to perish as befits its misleading impulses,

004:023 and to get yourselves renewed in the temper of your minds and clothe yourselves

004:024 with that new and better self which has been created to resemble God in the righteousness and holiness which come from the truth.

004:025 For this reason, laying aside falsehood, every one of you should speak the truth to his fellow man; for we are, as it were, parts of one another.

004:026 If angry, beware of sinning. Let not your irritation last until the sun goes down;

004:027 and do not leave room for the Devil.

004:028 He who has been a thief must steal no more, but, instead of that, should work with his own hands in honest industry, so that he may have something of which he can give the needy a share.

004:029 Let no unwholesome words ever pass your lips, but let all your words be good for benefiting others according to the need of the moment, so that they may be a means of blessing to the hearers.

004:030 And beware of grieving the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you have been sealed in preparation for the day of Redemption.

004:031 Let all bitterness and all passionate feeling, all anger and loud insulting language, be unknown among you-- and also every kind of malice.

004:032 On the contrary learn to be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has also forgiven you.

005:001 Therefore be imitators of God, as His dear children.

005:002 And live and act lovingly, as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up to death on our behalf as an offering and sacrifice to God, yielding a fragrant odor.

005:003 But fornication and every kind of impurity, or covetousness, let them not even be mentioned among you, for they ought not to be named among God's people.

005:004 Avoid shameful and foolish talk and low jesting--they are all alike discreditable--and in place of these give thanks.

005:005 For be well assured that no fornicator or immoral person and no money-grubber--or in other words idol-worshipper-- has any share awaiting him in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

005:006 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is on account of these very sins that God's anger is coming upon the disobedient.

005:007 Therefore do not become sharers with them.

005:008 There was a time when you were nothing but darkness. Now, as Christians, you are Light itself.

005:009 Live and act as sons of Light--for the effect of the Light is seen in every kind of goodness, uprightness and truth--