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God’s people have to be friends with each other
1 So now, even though I’m in jail because I follow Jesus, I’m asking you strongly to live the right way. You see, God picked you to be his own people, so you have to live his way.
2 Don’t think that you are more important than other people. You have to be good to other people, you have to listen to them and try to understand them. Don’t get angry with each other, but you have to love each other all the time.
3 Try hard to let God’s spirit keep you together as friends, without any trouble between you.
4 All of God’s people are like parts of one body, with the one Holy Spirit living in all of us. God picked us to be his own people, so we are all sure of this one thing, that he will do everything that he promised to us.
5 We all have only one leader, Jesus. There is only one true message that we all believe, the good news about Jesus. We all went through that one ceremony called baptism, to show that we follow Jesus.
6 And there is only one God. He is the father of all of us. He is the biggest boss over everything, and he lives inside all of us to get all of us to do what he wants.
7 You see, Jesus Christ has been good to us. He has given each one of us the spiritual power to do something properly. They are spiritual gifts that he gives us, and he himself picks the person to get each gift.
8 A long time ago, God got one of his men to write this in his book,
“He went up to the highest place,
and he made lots of prisoners follow him.
And he gave gifts to people.”
9 That man wrote, “He went up.” But think about it. He couldn’t go up unless he first came down. You see, at first Jesus Christ came down to the low parts of the earth, and after that he went back up.
10 It was the same man, Jesus, that came down here, and then went up high, right up above all the sky. So now he can be everywhere.
11-12 And Jesus Christ gives these special gifts to his people, so that they can help other people in the church. These gifts are the powers he gives to Christians. He gave some of his people the power to be his special workers, and he sent them out to other people to tell them his good news. And he gave other Christians the power to tell God’s messages to people. And he gave some of them the power to help other people to believe in Jesus. And he gave some Christians the power to be pastors, to look after Christians and teach them God’s way. God gave all these powers to his people to get them ready, so that they can work together for him. God works like that, so that his people get stronger, and so that more people join his family. We are like the body of Jesus Christ here on earth, and he wants that body to get bigger and stronger.
13 God will keep on using the people with this spiritual power until we all join in together, and we all work together properly. We all believe in God’s son, so we all have to work together, and we all have to get to know Jesus better. Then we, God’s people, will become like Jesus Christ himself. We will become what God wants us to be.
14 So then liars will not trick us, like they trick little kids. Lots of tricky people will try to teach us new messages that sound good, but are wrong. But we will not be like little kids. We will not believe their lies. Instead, we will be strong, and we will not stop believing the true message.
15 We will love people, and at the same time we will tell them the true message. Then we will get stronger for Jesus Christ and become more like him. It’s like we are his body, and he is the head.
16 He holds the whole body together. He’s like the strings in a body that join every part together. Each of us is a different part of his body, and if every one of us does our job properly, and if we love each other, the whole body will grow, and it will get stronger.
You have to turn around and live the right way
17 I’m telling you this message that our leader, Jesus, wants me to tell you, so you have to take notice of it. Don’t live any more like the people that don’t know God. They can’t think straight.
18 They can’t understand anything properly. It is like their minds are in darkness. They don’t want to know God, and they are a long way away from him. He doesn’t give them new life. They do bad things, but they never feel sorry about it.
19 They don’t know what is right, or what is wrong, any more. They only want to do all sorts of bad things, and dirty things, and they really want to keep on doing those wrong things.
20 But when you learned about Jesus Christ, you didn’t learn to live in a bad way like that.
21 I’m sure that you heard the good story about Jesus, and you learned the true things that Jesus taught to people.
22 You learned that we all have a bad part inside us that gets us to only think about what we want for ourselves, and it gets us to go wrong, and it gets us to do bad things. And you learned that now we have to turn around and stop doing those things. So don’t take any notice of that old bad part inside you. Don’t think about those bad things any more,
23 but let the Holy Spirit show you how to think in a new way.
24 You have to live a new way now. You have to live for God. He makes you into a new person, to be like himself, so you have to properly do what is right, and do what is good, like he does.
25 You know, we all belong to Jesus, like each one of us is a part of his body. So don’t lie to each other. Only say the things that are true.
26 And if you get angry, don’t do anything wrong. Don’t stay angry all day, but quickly stop being angry.
27 Don’t make it easy for the devil, the boss over the bad spirits, to get you to go wrong.
28 Anyone that steals things from other people has to stop doing that. Instead, they have to do honest work to get things for themselves, and they have to give things to other people that need them.
29 And don’t swear, or say any bad talk. Only say good things that will help people, and say things that they need to hear. When you do that, your words will be good for the people that hear you.
30 Don’t make the Holy Spirit sad. Remember, he is in you. God gave him to you so that you can be really sure that you belong to God, and that one day God will set you free from everything bad.
31 So don’t get upset with people, and don’t think about them in a bad way. Don’t get angry with anyone. Don’t argue or fight with people. Don’t yell at anyone, or say bad things about them. Don’t do anything bad to anyone.
32 Instead, be good to each other, and try to understand how other people feel. If somebody does wrong to you, don’t do payback to them, but let it go. Be good to each other, just like God is good to you. He doesn’t do payback to you. You belong to Jesus Christ now, so God doesn’t punish you for those bad things you did.