以弗所書 1
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Traditional)
1 我是奉上帝旨意作基督耶穌使徒的保羅，寫信給以弗所忠於基督耶穌的眾聖徒。
2 願我們的父上帝和主耶穌基督賜給你們恩典和平安！
基督徒的屬靈恩福
3 讚美我們主耶穌基督的父上帝！祂在基督裡賜給了我們天上各樣屬靈的恩福。 4 早在創造世界以前，祂已經在基督裡揀選了我們，使我們在祂眼中成為聖潔無瑕的人。
5 上帝因為愛我們，就按照祂自己美好的旨意，預定我們藉著耶穌基督得到作祂兒女的名分。 6 我們讚美祂奇妙無比的恩典，這恩典是上帝藉著祂的愛子賜給我們的。 7 我們藉著祂愛子的血蒙救贖，過犯得到赦免，這都是出於祂的洪恩。 8 上帝用各種智慧和聰明把這恩典豐豐富富地賜給我們， 9 照著祂在基督裡所定的美好計劃叫我們知道祂旨意的奧祕， 10 等所定的時候一到，叫天地萬物一同歸在基督的名下。
11 我們也在基督裡被揀選成為祂的子民。這都是按自己旨意行萬事的上帝預先定下的計劃， 12 好讓我們這些首先在基督裡得到盼望的人都來頌讚祂的榮耀。
13 你們聽過真理之道，就是那使你們得救的福音，而且也信了基督。你們既然信祂，就領受了上帝應許賜下的聖靈為印記。 14 聖靈是我們領受產業的擔保，直到上帝的子民得到救贖，使祂的榮耀受到頌讚。
保羅的禱告
15 我聽到你們對主耶穌的信心和對眾聖徒的愛心後， 16 不斷地為你們感謝上帝，禱告的時候常常提到你們。 17 我求我們主耶穌基督的上帝——榮耀的父把賜智慧和啟示的靈給你們，好使你們更深地認識祂。 18 我也求上帝照亮你們心中的眼睛，使你們知道祂的呼召給你們帶來了何等的盼望，祂應許賜給眾聖徒的產業有何等豐富的榮耀， 19 並且祂在我們這些信的人身上所運行的能力是何等浩大。 20 上帝曾用這大能使基督從死裡復活，使基督在天上坐在自己右邊， 21 遠遠超越今生永世所有執政的、掌權的、有能力的、作主宰的和一切的權勢。 22 祂又使萬物降服在基督腳下，使基督為教會作萬物的元首。 23 教會是基督的身體，蘊涵著那無所不在、充滿萬物者的豐盛。
Ephesians 1
The Voice
1 Paul, an emissary[a] of Jesus the Anointed, directly commissioned as His representative by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus][b] faithful in Jesus the Anointed.
2 May God the Father and the Lord Jesus the Anointed surround you with grace and peace.
This letter begins with praise and thanksgiving to
- God the Father, who blesses us
- Jesus, who redeems us
- the Holy Spirit, who seals us.
3 Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, who grants us every spiritual blessing in these heavenly realms where we live in the Anointed—not because of anything we have done, but because of what He has done for us. 4 God chose us to be in a relationship with Him even before He laid out plans for this world; He wanted us to live holy lives characterized by love, free from sin, and blameless before Him. 5 He destined us to be adopted as His children through the covenant Jesus the Anointed inaugurated in His sacrificial life. This was His pleasure and His will for us. 6 Ultimately God is the one worthy of praise for showing us His grace; He is merciful and marvelous, freely giving us these gifts in His Beloved. 7 Visualize this: His blood freely flowing down the cross, setting us free! We are forgiven for our sinful ways by the richness of His grace, 8 which He has poured all over us. With all wisdom and insight, 9 He has enlightened us to the great mystery at the center of His will. With immense pleasure, He laid out His intentions through Jesus, 10 a plan that will climax when the time is right as He returns to create order and unity—both in heaven and on earth—when all things are brought together under the Anointed’s royal rule. In Him 11 we stand to inherit even more. As His heirs, we are predestined to play a key role in His unfolding purpose that is energizing everything to conform to His will. 12 As a result, we—the first to place our hope in the Anointed One—will live in a way to bring Him glory and praise. 13 Because you, too, have heard the word of truth—the good news of your salvation—and because you believed in the One who is truth, your lives are marked with His seal. This is none other than the Holy Spirit who was promised 14 as the guarantee toward the inheritance we are to receive when He frees and rescues all who belong to Him. To God be all praise and glory!
This letter begins with praise and thanksgiving offered to God. Paul celebrates all the spiritual “blessings” available to all believers in Jesus, the Anointed One. This means that He is the one through whom God has acted to rescue the world. But more than that, He is the Lord to whom we belong and the spiritual place where all believers are presently located. In God’s purpose, heaven has come down to where we live so that we now occupy this wonderful realm where salvation is at work, where God’s truth and beauty are a reality, and where we wait as the rest of His plan is worked out.
15 This is why, when I heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that is present in your community and of your great love for all God’s people, 16 I haven’t stopped thanking Him for you. I am continually speaking to Him on your behalf in my prayers. Here’s what I say:
17 God of our Lord Jesus the Anointed, Father of Glory: I call out to You on behalf of Your people. Give them minds ready to receive wisdom and revelation so they will truly know You. 18 Open the eyes of their hearts, and let the light of Your truth flood in. Shine Your light on the hope You are calling them to embrace. Reveal to them the glorious riches You are preparing as their inheritance. 19 Let them see the full extent of Your power that is at work in those of us who believe, and may it be done according to Your might and power.
Friends, it is this same might and resurrection power that 20 He used in the Anointed One to raise Him from the dead and to position Him at His right hand in heaven. There is nothing over Him. 21 He’s above all rule, authority, power, and dominion; over every name invoked, over every title bestowed in this age and the next. 22 God has placed all things beneath His feet and anointed Him as the head over all things for His church. 23 This church is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.
Ephesians 1
King James Version
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.