1So 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.
2Don’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.
9That 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.
10It 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.
11-12And 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.
13God 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.
14So 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.
15We 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.
16He 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
17I’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.
18They 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.
19They 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.
20But when you learned about Jesus Christ, you didn’t learn to live in a bad way like that.
21I’m sure that you heard the good story about Jesus, and you learned the true things that Jesus taught to people.
22You 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,
25You 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.
Who We AreWhat We EelieveWhat We Do
2025 by iamachristian.org,Inc All rights reserved.
