The Blessings of Redemption

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

and that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the hostility.

So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,

in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

if indeed you have heard of the administration of God’s grace which was given to me for you;

of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

and to enlighten all people as to what the plan of the mystery is which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things;

so that the multifaceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.

one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;

and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Be Imitators of God

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;

and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.