Beginning

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted.

To God’s holy people living in Ephesus,^[a] believers in Christ Jesus.

² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in heaven. ⁴ In Christ, he chose us before the world was made. In his love he chose us to be his holy people—people without blame before him. ⁵ And before the world was made, God decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. That was what he wanted and what pleased him. ⁶ This brings praise to God because of his wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely, in Christ, the One he loves. ⁷ In Christ we are set free by the blood of his death. And so we have forgiveness of sins because of God’s rich grace. ⁸ God gave us that grace fully and freely. God, with full wisdom and understanding, ⁹ let us know his secret purpose. This was what God wanted, and he planned to do it through Christ. ¹⁰ His goal was to carry out his plan when the right time came. He planned that all things in heaven and on earth would be joined together in Christ as the head.

¹¹ In Christ we were chosen to be God’s people. God had already chosen us to be his people, because that is what he wanted. And God is the One who makes everything agree with what he decides and wants. ¹² We are the first people who hoped in Christ. And we were chosen so that we would bring praise to God’s glory. ¹³ So it is with you. You heard the true teaching—the Good News about your salvation. When you heard it, you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he had promised. ¹⁴ That Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will get what God promised for his people. This will bring full freedom to the people who belong to God, to bring praise to God’s glory.

Paul’s Prayer

^15-16 That is why I always remember you in my prayers and always thank God for you. I have always done this since the time I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people. ¹⁷ I always pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ—to the glorious Father. I pray that he will give you a spirit that will make you wise in the knowledge of God—the knowledge that he has shown you. ¹⁸ I pray that you will have greater understanding in your heart. Then you will know the hope that God has chosen to give us. I pray that you will know that the blessings God has promised his holy people are rich and glorious. ¹⁹ And you will know that God’s power is very great for us who believe. That power is the same as the great strength ²⁰ God used to raise Christ from death and put him at his right side in heaven. ²¹ God made Christ more important than all rulers, authorities, powers, and kings. Christ is more important than anything in this world or in the next world. ²² God put everything under his power. And God made him the head over everything for the church. ²³ The church is Christ’s body. The church is filled with Christ, and Christ fills everything in every way.

From Death to Life

2 In the past your spiritual lives were dead because of your sins and the things you did wrong against God. ² Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives. You followed the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. ³ In the past all of us lived like them. We lived trying to please our sinful selves. We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God’s anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people.

⁴ But God’s mercy is great, and he loved us very much. ⁵ We were spiritually dead because of the things we did wrong against God. But God gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God’s grace. ⁶ And he raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with him in the heavens. He did this for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. ⁷ He did this so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace. He shows that grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believe. You did not save yourselves. It was a gift from God. ⁹ You cannot brag that you are saved by the work you have done. ¹⁰ God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would do good works. God had planned in advance those good works for us. He had planned for us to live our lives doing them.

One in Christ

¹¹ You were born non-Jews. You are the people the Jews call “uncircumcised.”^[b] Those who call you “uncircumcised” call themselves “circumcised.” (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do on their bodies.) ¹² Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel. And you had no part in the agreements^[c] with the promise that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God. ¹³ Yes, at one time you were far away from God. But now in Christ Jesus you are brought near to God through the blood of Christ’s death. ¹⁴ Because of Christ we now have peace. Christ made both Jews and non-Jews one people. They were separated as if there were a wall between them. But Christ broke down that wall of hate by giving his own body. ¹⁵ The Jewish law had many commands and rules. But Christ ended that law. Christ’s purpose was to make the two groups of people become one new people in him. By doing this Christ would make peace. ¹⁶ Through the cross Christ ended the hatred between the two groups. And after Christ made the two groups to be one body, he wanted to bring them back to God. Christ did this with his death on the cross. ¹⁷ Christ came and preached peace to you non-Jews who were far away from God. And he preached peace to those Jews who were near to God. ¹⁸ Yes, through Christ we all have the right to come to the Father in one Spirit.

¹⁹ So now you non-Jews are not visitors or strangers. Now you are citizens together with God’s holy people. You belong to God’s family. ²⁰ You believers are like a building that God owns. That building was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone^[d] in that building. ²¹ That whole building is joined together in Christ. And Christ makes it grow and become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in Christ you, too, are being built together with the Jews. You are being built into a place where God lives through the Spirit.

Paul’s Work for the Non-Jews

3 So I, Paul, am a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am a prisoner for you who are not Jews. ² Surely you know that God gave me this work to tell you about his grace. ³ God let me know his secret plan. He showed it to me. I have already written a little about this. ⁴ And if you read what I wrote, then you can see that I truly understand the secret truth about the Christ. ⁵ People who lived in other times were not told that secret truth. But now, through the Spirit, God has shown that secret truth to his holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ This is that secret truth: that the non-Jews will receive what God has for his people, just as the Jews will. The non-Jews are together with the Jews as part of the same body. And they share together in the promise that God made in Christ Jesus. The non-Jews have all of this because of the Good News.

⁷ By God’s special gift of grace, I became a servant to tell that Good News. God gave me that grace through his power. ⁸ I am the least important of all God’s people. But God gave me this gift—to tell the non-Jewish people the Good News about the riches of Christ. Those riches are too great to understand fully. ⁹ And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for God’s secret truth. That secret truth has been hidden in God since the beginning of time. God is the One who created everything. ¹⁰ His purpose was that through the church all the rulers and powers in the heavenly world will now know God’s wisdom, which has so many forms. ¹¹ This agrees with the purpose God had since the beginning of time. And God carried out his plan through Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² In Christ we can come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this through faith in Christ. ¹³ So I ask you not to become discouraged because of the sufferings I am having for you. My sufferings bring honor to you.

The Love of Christ

¹⁴ So I bow in prayer before the Father. ¹⁵ Every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name from him. ¹⁶ I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong in spirit. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷ I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. ¹⁸ And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love. I pray that you can understand how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is. ¹⁹ Christ’s love is greater than any person can ever know. But I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.

²⁰ With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. ²¹ To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.