Ephesians 4:12–23

¹² to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ. ¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. ¹⁶ From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part. ¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more. ²⁰ But this is not the way you came to know Christ. ²¹ Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him—in keeping with the truth that is in Jesus— ²² to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be renewed in the spirit of your minds;