1. And so, as a prisoner in the Lord, I beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the vocation to which you have been called:
2. with all humility and meekness, with patience, supporting one another in charity.
3. Be anxious to preserve the unity of the Spirit within the bonds of peace.
4. One body and one Spirit: to this you have been called by the 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 us all.
7. Yet to each one of us there has been given grace according to the measure allotted by Christ.
8. Because of this, he says: "Ascending on high, he took captivity itself captive; he gave gifts to men."
9. Now that he has ascended, what is left except for him also to descended, first to the lower parts of the earth?
10. He who descended is the same one who also ascended above all the heavens, so that he might fulfill everything.
11. And the same one granted that some would be Apostles, and some Prophets, yet truly others evangelists, and others pastors and teachers,
12. for the sake of the perfection of the saints, by the work of the ministry, in the edification of the body of Christ,
13. until we all meet in the unity of faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as a perfect man, in the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.
14. So may we then no longer be little children, disturbed and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the wickedness of men, and by the craftiness which deceives unto error.
15. Instead, acting according to truth in charity, we should increase in everything, in him who is the head, Christ himself.
16. For in him, the whole body is joined closely together, by every underlying joint, through the function allotted to each part, bringing improvement to the body, toward its edification in charity.
17. And so, I say this, and I testify in the Lord: that from now on you should walk, not as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind,