Ephesians 4:22

Plain English Version

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,

Cross References

Romans 6:6

We know that they nailed Jesus Christ to that cross, and it was like they nailed a part of us there too, that old part of us that makes us do wrong things all the time. It got nailed to that cross with Jesus, and it is dead. So now it doesn’t have any power over us. It can’t make us do bad things.

Romans 7:11

That bad part of us uses that law to trick us, so that we do bad things. And then we have to die.

Galatians 1:13

It was like this. You have heard what I was like before. At that time, I didn’t believe in Jesus. I was a Jew, and I believed everything that the Jews believe. And you know about the things that I did at that time. I made a lot of trouble for the Christian people. I tried hard to stop them from following Jesus.

Ephesians 2:3

And it wasn’t only you mob that were bad. We were all bad. We were like those other people in this world. We did whatever we wanted to do. We did whatever made us feel good. We did whatever our own bodies and minds told us to do. And that made God angry with us, just like he is angry with everyone else.

Ephesians 4:17

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.

Ephesians 4:25

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.

Ephesians 4:31

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.

Colossians 2:11

You know that the Jewish people do a young man operation on their baby boys. Well, when you joined on to Jesus, God did something like that to you. He didn’t cut away a part of your body, but it was like he did an operation on your spirit. He cut away a bad part from your spirit. That was the bad part that made you want to do bad things.

Titus 3:3

You know, we were like that before we believed in Jesus. We did silly things too. We didn’t do what God told us to do. People tricked us, and we believed things that were not true. And we wanted to do all sorts of bad things. We couldn’t stop ourselves. If anybody had a lot of things, we wanted those things for ourselves, and we were angry with those people. We hated people, and people hated us.

James 1:21

So you have to stop doing all those things that are dirty and wrong. You have to listen properly to the word from God, that he put right inside you, and you have to do what it says. Don’t think that you are so good that you don’t need God’s word. No. You have to do what it says, then that word will save you.

James 1:26

You might go to church and think you are really good, but if you can’t stop yourself from saying bad things, you are really just tricking yourself, and going to church for nothing.

1 Peter 1:18

Your grand-parents and elders tried to teach you the way to live, but they didn’t teach you God’s way. That old way was useless, and you weren’t free. But God has saved you from that wrong way. He paid a lot to set you free from that old way. Sometimes people pay money to get somebody out of prison and let them go free. But money doesn’t last for ever.

1 Peter 4:3

In the past you did lots of wrong things. You lived like people that didn’t know God. You just did whatever bad things you wanted to do. You slept with people that you were not married to, and you did with them what a husband and wife do together. You got drunk. You went to wild parties. You showed respect for statues that people made. That was really bad. But you don’t do those bad things now.

2 Peter 2:13

They do a lot of things that hurt other people, so God will hurt them. He will do payback to them. They think it’s fun to do any bad thing that they want to do, even in the day-light. And whenever you Christians have dinner together, they join in with you, and they laugh about their lies and the bad things they do. Now think about a white shirt. If it just has a few dirty spots on it, people say that the whole shirt is dirty. Well, you good people are like that white shirt, and those people are like the dirty spots on it. There are only a few of them, but they do bad things, and they shame all of you.

1 Samuel 1:14

He said, “Why did you come here drunk? Throw that wine away.”