Ephesians 1
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,
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world.4 That is, in Christ, he chose us before the world was made so that we would be his holy people—people without blame before him.5 Because of his love, God had already decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. That was what he wanted and what pleased him,6 and it 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. How rich is God’s grace,8 which he has given to us so 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, 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, because from the very beginning God had decided this in keeping with his plan. And he 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. When you heard the true teaching—the Good News about your salvation—you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he had promised.
14 That Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will receive what God promised for his people until God gives full freedom to those who are his—to bring praise to God’s glory.
Paul’s Prayer
15 That is why since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people,16 I have not stopped giving thanks to God for you. I always remember you in my prayers,17 asking the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you will know him better.18 I pray also that you will have greater understanding in your heart so you will know the hope to which he has called us and that you will know how rich and glorious are the blessings God has promised his holy people.19 And you will know that God’s power is very great for us who believe. That power is the same as the great strength20 God used to raise Christ from the dead and put him at his right side in the heavenly world.21 God has put Christ over all rulers, authorities, powers, and kings, not only in this world but also in the next.22 God put everything under his power and made him the head over everything for the church,23 which is Christ’s body. The church is filled with Christ, and Christ fills everything in every way.
Ephesians 1
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints that are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love:5 having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved:7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,9 making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him10 unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, I say,11 in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will;12 to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ:13 in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,-- in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,14 which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of his glory.15 For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward 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 a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;18 having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,19 and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might20 which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,21 far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:22 and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church,23 which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.