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I then, the prisoner in the Lord, make this request from my heart, that you will see that your behaviour is a credit to the position which God's purpose has given you,

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With all gentle and quiet behaviour, taking whatever comes, putting up with one another in love

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Taking care to keep the harmony of the Spirit in the yoke of peace.

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There is one body and one Spirit, even as you have been marked out by God in the one hope of his purpose for you

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One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

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One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

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But to every one of us has grace been given in the measure of the giving of Christ.

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For this reason he says, He went up on high, taking his prisoners with him, and gave freely to men.

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(Now this, He went up, what is it but that he first went down into the lower parts of the earth?

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He who went down is the same who went up far over all the heavens so that he might make all things complete.)

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And he gave some as Apostles, and some, prophets and some, preachers of the good news and some to give care and teaching

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For the training of the saints as servants in the church, for the building up of the body of Christ:

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Till we all come to the harmony of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to full growth, to the full measure of Christ:

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So that we may be no longer children, sent this way and that, turned about by every wind of teaching, by the twisting and tricks of men, by the deceits of error

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But saying true words in love, may come to full growth in him, who is the head, even Christ

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Through whom all the body, being rightly formed and united together, by the full working of every part, is increased to the building up of itself in love.