Ephesians 4:16

Plain English Version

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.

Cross References

John 15:5

So I tell you, I am like the main trunk of the grape vine, and you are like the branches. If you stay joined to me, I will stay joined to you, and you will keep on doing what God wants you to do. You see, if any branches don’t stay joined to the trunk of the vine, they can’t grow any fruit. Just like that, if you are not joined to me, you can’t do anything for God.

Romans 12:4

I will tell you a picture story. Christians are like a body. You know that we each have a body, but that body has a lot of different parts. Each part of our body has its own job to do. But the parts all belong to that one body, so they all belong to each other.

1 Corinthians 10:17

You see, we are a lot of people, but all of us eat from one damper, so all of us are like one body when we eat from that same damper.

1 Corinthians 13:13

So I’m saying there are 3 important things for us to keep on doing. – We have to keep on believing in God. – We have to keep on knowing for sure that God will be good to us. – We have to keep on loving God and people. We have to keep on doing those 3 things, and the most important one is this, – We have to keep on loving God and people.

1 Corinthians 8:1

I will answer your next question now, about those statues that some people make, and they think those statues are gods. They give food to those statues, and they reckon the statues give that food power. Then those people eat that food, or they sell it to other people. And you Christians asked me, “Can we eat that food that they gave to those statues?” That’s what you asked me. Well, before I answer your question, I want you to remember this. All of us know something, but if we think we know more than other people, we start thinking wrong, like we reckon we are really smart. No, we can’t try to be smart. Instead, we have to love people. If we love other people, it helps them to get strong.

Galatians 5:22

But if God’s spirit controls people, he gets them to do good things. You know that a good fruit tree always gets good fruit on it. Well, like that, a person with God’s spirit does good things. If you let God’s spirit lead you, he will get you to love God and to love other people. And you will be happy. And you will feel good and quiet inside yourself so that you will not fight with other people. God’s spirit inside you will help you be good to people and not get angry, even if they give you trouble. And he will get you to be friendly to other people, and he will get you to do good things. He will make you the sort of person that other people can trust.

Galatians 5:6

You see, if people belong to Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter if they have a young man operation or not. The only thing that matters is that they trust Jesus, and if they do that, they will love God, and they will love other people.

Ephesians 1:4

A long time ago, before God made the world, he picked us to be his people, and he joined us to Jesus Christ, so that now God can say we are good, like we never did anything wrong. He loved us,

Ephesians 3:17

I pray that you will trust Jesus Christ properly, so that he will live inside you. I pray that you will always love God properly, and that you will always love other people too, so that you will always keep standing strong for him, like the roots of a tree always keep it standing up strong.

Ephesians 3:7

God was really good to me. He used his power to help me to be strong. Then he gave me this special job. I have to tell people this good news about Jesus.

Ephesians 4:15

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.

Philippians 1:9

So I pray like this for you. I ask God to help you to love each other more and more, and to know God better. I ask God to help you to understand spiritual things better.

Colossians 2:19

They are trying to have a church without Jesus. You see, God set the church up like this. Jesus is the head, and his people are his body. Jesus holds his people together just like a body has joints and ligament strings that hold it together. And God makes the church grow, just like he makes bodies grow.

Colossians 2:2

I’m working like this to help you be strong, so that all of you will be joined together by loving each other. You see, I want you to know and properly understand God’s plan to use Jesus Christ to save people. Then you will be really sure about it, and that will make you really happy.

1 Thessalonians 1:3

Whenever we talk about you to God, our father, we remember the good things that you do. You properly believe in Jesus Christ, and you love him very much, so you do those good things. And you love other people too, so you work hard to help them. You are really sure that our leader, Jesus Christ, will come back for you, so you keep on following him, no matter what other people do to you.

1 Thessalonians 2:13

And we always thank God for the way you listened to us. We told you God’s message, and you knew that it wasn’t only a message from people. You believed that we told you words from God, and that it was God’s message. And you were right. It is God’s word. And now that you believe that word, it helps you grow strong for him.

1 Thessalonians 3:12

And we want Jesus to get you to love each other and to love other people, even more than you do now. We want you to love people just as much as we love you.

2 Thessalonians 1:3

Christian friends, we know that you are learning to trust God more and more, and you are loving each other more and more. So we have to thank God for you all the time.

1 Timothy 1:5

You see, you have to teach people to do what is right, and to believe in God properly, and to never do bad things. Then they will properly love each other all the time. We want people to follow the things that we teach, so that they live that way.

1 Peter 1:22

You listened to the true message from God, and you did everything he said in that message. Then God cleaned up your lives and you stopped doing bad things. So now you love each other. Well, keep on loving each other very much.