Ephesians Chapter 4 verse 14 Holy Bible
that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
read chapter 4 in ASV
So that we may be no longer children, sent this way and that, turned about by every wind of teaching, by the twisting and tricks of men, by the deceits of error;
read chapter 4 in BBE
in order that we may be no longer babes, tossed and carried about by every wind of *that* teaching [which is] in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning with a view to systematized error;
read chapter 4 in DARBY
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
read chapter 4 in KJV
read chapter 4 in WBT
that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
read chapter 4 in WEB
that we may no more be babes, tossed and borne about by every wind of the teaching, in the sleight of men, in craftiness, unto the artifice of leading astray,
read chapter 4 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 14. - That we he no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of teaching. The apostle goes back to illustrate in another way the purpose of the ministry; it is designed to remedy childish fickleness and the causes that lead to it. The ignorant and inexperienced lie at the mercy of abler persons, and, when there is no regular ministry provided by Christ, are liable to be swept along by any plausible person that professes to be a Christian teacher, and such persons are often very dangerous, working by the sleight of men, i.e. the cunning legerdemain by which the teachings of men - teachings devised by the hearts of men - are made to appear to the uninitiated the same as Christ's teaching. In craftiness, tending to the scheme of error. Such teachers employ crafty methods, apparently harmless, but tending to further the method or scheme of error. The strong language here used corresponds with that in which, at Miletus, the apostle warned the elders of Ephesus of the "grievous wolves" that were to come in among them, and of the men "speaking perverse things" that were to arise among themselves, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29, 30).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(14) That we be no more children.--Here the process of growth is described negatively; in the next verse positively. We are to be no more children. The word used here and in 1Corinthians 3:1; 1Corinthians 13:11; Galatians 4:1; Galatians 4:3; Hebrews 5:13 (often rendered "babes"), is a word almost always applied in a bad sense, like our word "childish"--not to the guilelessness, the trustfulness, or the humility of children, which our Lord emphatically blessed (Matthew 18:2-4), but to their unforeseeing and unthinking impulsiveness. The distinction is marked in 1Corinthians 14:20, "Be not children in understanding: howbeit, in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men." Thus, in 1Corinthians 3:1; 1Corinthians 13:11, Hebrews 5:13, it describes crudeness and shallowness of conception; in Galatians 4:1; Galatians 4:3, incapability of free self-direction; here, liability to disturbance and change by every external impression from without, so as to be "everything by turns and nothing long." . . .
