¹² ·Christ gave those gifts to prepare [^L…to equip] God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger. ¹³ This work must continue until we ·are all joined together in the same faith [or all reach unity in the faith] and in the same knowledge of the Son of God. We must become like ·a mature person [or the perfect Man; ^CChrist], ·growing until we become like Christ and have his perfection [^Lto the measure of the stature of Christ’s fullness].

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be ·babies [children]. We will not be tossed about like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be ·influenced by every new teaching [^Lcarried along by every wind of (false) teaching] we hear from people who are trying to ·fool [trick] us. They ·make plans [scheme] and try any kind of trick to fool people into following ·the wrong path [error; false teaching].