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I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
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with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
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endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
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There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
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one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
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one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
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But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
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Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men."
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(Now this, "He ascended"--what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
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He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
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And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
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for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
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till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
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that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
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but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--
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from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
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This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
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having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;