Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks
Paul says ‘Hello’
1 This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.
I am writing to you, God's own people who live in Ephesus. You are those who continue to believe in Christ Jesus, and so you belong to him.
2 I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds.
God blesses us as Christians
3 We praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us in very many ways. Because we belong to Christ, we enjoy all the good things that come from heaven. God blesses our spirits with those good things. 4 Before God made the world, he chose us to be his people because of Christ. He chose us so that we would please him. Because we belong to Christ, God accepts us as completely good. This shows how much he loves us. 5 Long ago, he already decided to accept us into his family as his children, because of Jesus Christ. He chose us to belong to him because it made him very happy. 6 As a result, we praise him, because he is great and he has been so kind to us. He has given us so much because of his Son, whom he loves very much. 7 When Christ died as a sacrifice on the cross, he paid the price to make us free. Because of Christ's death on our behalf, God has forgiven our sins. God is so very kind that he has done all this for us!
8 Even more than that, God has shown how wise he is. He understands what we need. 9 He has let us know his great purpose, which had been a secret before. That plan would make him very happy. It would be possible because of Christ. 10 God will make that plan happen when the time is completely right. At that time, he will bring everything together so that Christ rules all of them. That includes the things that are in heaven, and the things that are on earth.
11 God is able to make all things happen just like he decides. He chose us to be his own people, because we are united with Christ. In the beginning, God had already decided that this was his purpose. 12 We were the first people to trust in Christ, God's special Messiah.[a] God wanted us to show how great he is. He wanted people to praise him because of us. 13 You believers in Ephesus also heard God's true message. You heard the good news about how God saves you. When you believed in Christ, God gave his Holy Spirit to you. He had promised to do that, to show that you belong to him. 14 God has put his Holy Spirit inside us now. As a result, we know that one day we will receive all the good things that God has promised. At that time we will be completely free, because we belong to God. So we praise God and we say that he is great!
Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians
15 People have told me that you continue to trust in the Lord Jesus. They have told me that you love all God's people. Because I have heard these good things about you, 16 I am always thanking God because of you. Whenever I pray to God, I always ask him to help you. 17 God is very great! He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that his Holy Spirit will make you wise. I pray that his Holy Spirit will help you to understand what God is like. Then you will know God better and better. 18 I pray that God will bring light into your minds. Then you will understand about the many good things that he has prepared for you. You know that you will receive those things because he has chosen you to be his people. God has prepared very valuable things for you in heaven. 19 You will also know how very powerful God is. He uses that power to help us now, as we trust in Christ.
God's power is greater than anything we could ever know. 20 He used that power to raise Christ, so that he became alive again after his death. Then he gave Christ a place to sit at his right side in heaven.[b] 21 There, Christ rules over every other ruler and leader. He rules over everything else that has authority. He is greater than any power which people respect. That is true for the rulers of this world now, and also the rulers of the world that will come. 22 God has put all things under Christ's authority. He has made Christ the ruler over all things. He has done this to help his people, the church. 23 The church is like Christ's body and he is its head. Christ fills all things everywhere and he causes the church to become complete.
God has made us alive with Christ
2 Remember how you lived before. You did wrong things and bad things. As a result, you were dead in your spirits. 2 You lived in a bad way, like the people who belong to this world. You were obeying Satan, who rules the powerful spirits in the air. Those spirits are working now in everyone who refuses to obey God. 3 At one time, all of us lived like those people. We did whatever bad things our bodies wanted to do. If our thoughts made us want to do something, we did it. Because we were like that, God was angry with us. He should have punished us, just like everyone else.
4 But God is very good and kind! He loved us very much. 5 Because of our sins, we were dead in our spirits. But God gave us a new life, because we are united with Christ. Yes, God has saved you because he is so kind. 6 Also, God raised us up with Christ, so that we now sit with Christ in heaven. God has done this for us because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 He wanted to show, for all future time, how very kind he is. He has helped us so much because of what Christ Jesus has done. 8 When you believed in Jesus, God saved you because he is very kind. You could not save yourselves, but that is God's gift to you. 9 He has not saved you as a result of any good things that you have done. So nobody has any reason to be proud about it. 10 It is God who has worked in us to make us what we are. He has given us a new life because we are united with Christ Jesus. He saved us so that now we can do good things in our lives. Those are good things that he has already prepared for us to do.
Christ has brought Jews and Gentiles together
11 So you who were born as Gentiles should remember what you were like before. Jews insulted you because nobody has circumcised you. They themselves are proud that men have circumcised them as God's people. 12 At that time, you did not know about Christ, God's special Messiah. You did not belong to the nation of Israel's people. You did not know about the good things that God had promised to his people. You were living in this world with nothing good to hope for. You were living without God's help. 13 You were far away from God. But now, God has brought you near to himself, because you belong to Christ Jesus. That is possible because of Christ's death on the cross as a sacrifice.
14 It is Christ himself who has brought peace between Jews and Gentiles. He has brought those two groups together, to be one group. He has destroyed the things that made them separate. As a result, they are no longer enemies. 15 When his body died on the cross, Christ took away the power of the Jewish laws and rules. In that way, he made the two groups join together as one new group of people. As a result, he caused them to have peace. 16 As a single group, Christ brought Jews and Gentiles back to God. He stopped them from hating each other. He did this by his death on the cross.
17 When Christ came, he told people God's good news about peace. He told that message to you Gentiles, who were far away from God. He also told it to us Jews, who were near to God.[c] 18 Now we all have received the same Holy Spirit, because of what Christ has done for us. As a result, we can all come near to God the Father.
19 So now, you Gentiles are not strangers among God's people any more. You belong to the group of God's people that he rules. You belong to God's family, as all God's people do. 20 You are like a house that God is building for himself. God's apostles and his prophets are like the foundation under the house. Jesus Christ is like the most important stone in the house. 21 He makes the whole building stand together strongly. In that way, all God's people together become like a special house that belongs to the Lord. 22 Because you belong to Christ, God is building you all together to become his house. That is where God lives by his Spirit.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.