Beginning
1 I am Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. It was God's wish for me to be his messenger. I send greetings to God's people in the city of Ephesus, to those who believe in Christ Jesus.
2 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in their kindness give you peace.
3 Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every blessing which is in heaven, such as the Spirit gives us.
4 Before the world was made, God chose us in Christ. He chose us that we should be holy and good before him.
5 Because he loved us, he planned that we should be his own children. It is through Jesus Christ that we are God's children. That is the way God wanted it to be.
6 Praise him! His kindness is great and wonderful. We have been accepted by God through Jesus Christ, whom he loves so much.
7 Jesus Christ has given his blood [died] to make us free. He has forgiven us for our wrong ways. We have been put right with God freely because of his great kindness.
8 He has given us blessing after blessing in his wisdom and understanding.
9 He has shown us the plan he had. This plan was what he wanted to do through Christ.
10 When the right time came, God planned to bring together everything in heaven and on earth, and make Christ head of them all.
11 In and through Christ we will have a share in all that belongs to him. Long ago God chose us for this. And he makes things happen that he wants to do.
12 We believed in Christ first, so we will praise him because he is so great and wonderful.
13 You also believed in Christ when you heard the true message. That message is the good news by which you were saved. You received the Holy Spirit whom God had promised. You were marked as belonging to him.
14 The Holy Spirit is the first part of what we are to receive from God. This proves that we will get all God has promised. Some day we shall have them all. Praise God! He is very great and wonderful. 15,
15 Here is why I always thank God for you. I have heard that you believe in the Lord Jesus and love all of God's people. I think of you when I talk to God.
16 He is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father who is very great and wonderful. I ask him to give you a mind that is wise and will understand about him.
17 I ask him that you may understand these things in your hearts. I ask him that you may know what a great hope you have because God has called you. I ask him that you may know the rich and great blessings God has promised to his people.
18 I ask him that you may know the wonderful power he has to do things for us who believe in Christ. His power is very strong.
19 God used that power when he raised Christ from death and had him sit at his right side in heaven.
20 He is greater than any ruler, power, chief, or king. His name is greater than any other name, not only in this world, but in the world that will come.
21 And God has put all things under Christ. He has made him the head of the church people in all matters.
22 The church [all the people who believe in Jesus Christ] is his body. The church people have everything that Christ has. He is the One who is in everything everywhere.
2 There was a time when you were dead. That was because of the bad and the wrong things you did.
2 At one time you did those wrong things, just like the people around you. You obeyed the ruler who has the power over things in the air. That ruler is the spirit who is working now in the people who do not obey God.
3 At one time we too all lived like them. We lived to please ourselves. We did what our bodies and our minds wanted us to do. We were people with whom God was angry, just like other people.
4 But God was very, very kind. He loved us very, very much.
5 We were dead because of the wrong things we had done. He has made us alive with Christ. You have been saved by his love and kindness.
6 God raised us from death with Christ Jesus and gave us a place to sit with him in heaven.
7 He did this to show us in all times to come how much he can bless people and how kind he is. It was Jesus Christ who brought this kindness to us.
8 You have been saved by God's love and kindness because you believed. It was not because of anything you did, but it was a gift from God.
9 You were not saved by trying to do what the law says. So no one can be proud about it.
10 God has made us. In Jesus Christ God made us so that we can do good things. He planned that we should live that way.
11 So remember that you were not born Jews. (They call you `The Uncircumcised').
12 Remember you did not know Christ at that time. You were far away from the people of Israel. You had no part in the agreements which God promised to them. You had no hope and you were without God in this world.
13 At one time you were far away, but now you have been brought near to God by the blood [death] of Jesus Christ.
14 Christ has made peace between us. He has brought both Jews and non-Jews together into one people. He has broken down the wall that divided us.
15 In his own body Christ made an end of the law and its rules. He did this so that in him two peoples could become one. In this way, he made peace between us.
16 He did this so that by the cross he might bring both kinds of people back to God in one body. And by the cross he has stopped our hating each other.
17 He came and said that there is now peace. There is peace for you who were far away from God and for those who were near.
18 Because of what Christ has done, we can come to the Father by one Spirit.
19 So then you are no longer strangers or people far away. But you live with God's people and belong to God's family.
20 God's family is like a house and you are part of the building. The apostles and prophets are like the lower walls of the house and you are the building on this foundation. Jesus Christ is the big stone at the corner.
21 He is the one who holds the whole house together, and it becomes a holy house belonging to the Lord.
22 You too are a part of this house. God himself lives in this house by his Spirit.
3 That is why I, Paul, am a prisoner who belongs to Jesus Christ. It is for the sake of you people who are not Jews.
2 I am sure you have heard that God gave me work to do for you.
3 He showed me what his plan was. And I have already written a little about it to you.
4 When you read this, you can understand why I know about his plan for Christ.
5 In the past, God did not tell his plan to people. But now the Holy Spirit has shown it to his holy apostles and prophets.
6 This is God's plan. Those who are not Jews will also share in the blessings of God. They also are a part of the body of Jesus Christ. They also will receive the things God has promised in Jesus Christ through the good news.
7 God gave me the work of telling that good news. And he blessed me by his power.
8 I am less than the least of all God's people, and yet he blessed me. It is my work to tell those who are not Jews about the wonderful blessings of Christ. There are so many that we cannot know them all.
9 God has blessed me so that I might tell all people plainly what his plan is. God, who made all things, did not tell anyone about his plan in all the times in the past.
10 Now he wants those who rule and have power in the sky to know how very wise God is. They will know this when they look at the church people.
11 This is what God has always planned to do. And he did it in Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 In Christ we are not to be afraid to come to God. We are sure we can come because we believe in Christ.
13 So I ask you not to be sad when you think of the troubles I have for your sake. You should be proud about it.
14 That is why I kneel down before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 From him every family in heaven or on earth gets its name.
16 I ask him to make you very strong in heart by his Spirit. He has great and wonderful blessings and is able to do so because of the fullness of his glory.
17 And I ask that Christ may live in your hearts because you believe in him. I ask that you may live and grow in love.
18 I ask that God will give you power to know how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is. All Christians should know that.
19 I ask God that you may know the love of Christ which is more than we can ever know. I ask that you may be filled with everything that God has.
20 God can do much more than we ask him to do, or we even think of. He does it by his power which is working in us.
21 So, praise him in the church meeting in Christ Jesus. Praise him for ever and ever! May it be so!
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