The Church: The Body of Christ

Unity in the Body of Christ

¹I therefore, ma prisoner for the Lord, urge you to nwalk in a manner worthy of othe calling to which you have been called, ²with all phumility and qgentleness, with rpatience, sbearing with one another in love, ³eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in tthe bond of peace. ⁴There is uone body and vone Spirit—just as you were called to the one whope that belongs to your call— ⁵xone Lord, yone faith, zone baptism, ⁶aone God and Father of all, bwho is over all and through all and in all. ⁷But cgrace was given dto each one of us eaccording to the measure of Christ's gift. ⁸Therefore it says,

f“When he ascended on high ghe led a host of captives,

and he gave gifts to men.”1

⁹(hIn saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into ithe lower regions, the earth?2 ¹⁰He who descended is the one who also jascended kfar above all the heavens, that he might lfill all things.) ¹¹And mhe gave the napostles, the prophets, the oevangelists, the pshepherds3 and teachers,4 ¹²qto equip the saints for the work of ministry, for rbuilding up sthe body of Christ, ¹³until we all attain to tthe unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, uto mature manhood,5 to the measure of the stature of vthe fullness of Christ, ¹⁴so that we may no longer be children, wtossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in xdeceitful schemes. ¹⁵Rather, yspeaking the truth in love, we are to zgrow up in every way into him who is athe head, into Christ, ¹⁶bfrom whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, cwhen each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.