or lose your temper,
or raise your voice to anybody,
or call each other names,
or allow any sort of spitefulness.
Be friends with one another, and kind,
forgiving each other as readily as
God forgave you in Christ.
Try, then, to imitate God,
as children of his that he loves,
and follow Christ by loving as he loved you,
giving himself up in our place
as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.
Among you there must be
not even a mention of fornication
or impurity in any of its forms,
or promiscuity:
this would hardly become the saints!
There must be no coarseness,
or salacious talk and jokes—
all this is wrong for you;
raise your voices in thanksgiving instead.
You were darkness once,
but now you are light in the Lord;
be like children of light.
Sing the words and tunes of the psalms
and hymns when you are together,
and go on singing and chanting
to the Lord in your hearts,
so that always and everywhere
you are giving thanks to God who is our Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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