Church & Ministry

¹⁴Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

¹⁹Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”

²Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

²⁸Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.

¹As a prisoner in the Lord, then, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received: ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ⁷Now to each one of us grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. ⁸This is why it says: “When He ascended on high, He led captives away, and gave gifts to men.” ⁹What does “He ascended” mean, except that He also descended to the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰He who descended is the very One who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things. ¹¹And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹²to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ. ¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. ¹⁶From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.

¹As a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and a partaker of the glory to be revealed, I appeal to the elders among you: ²Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed, but out of eagerness; ³not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. ⁴And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

²Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, ³as you pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴Pray that I may declare it clearly, as I should.