Ephesians 1
1 I, Paul, am writing this letter. I am an apostle of Christ Jesus just as God planned.
I am sending this letter to you, God's people in Ephesus. Because you belong to Christ Jesus, you are faithful.
2 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
God Gives Spiritual Blessings
3 Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Those blessings come from the heavenly world. They belong to us because we belong to Christ.
4 God chose us to belong to Christ before the world was created. He chose us to be holy and without blame in his eyes. He loved us.5 So he decided long ago to adopt us as his children. He did it because of what Jesus Christ has done. It pleased God to do it.6 All those things bring praise to his glorious grace. God freely gave us his grace because of the One he loves.
7 We have been set free because of what Christ has done. Through his blood our sins have been forgiven. We have been set free because God's grace is so rich.8 He poured his grace on us by giving us great wisdom and understanding.
9 He showed us the mystery of his plan. It was in keeping with what he wanted to do. It was what he had planned through Christ.10 It will all come about when history has been completed. God will then bring together all things in heaven and on earth under one ruler. The ruler is Christ.
11 We were also chosen to belong to him. God decided to choose us long ago in keeping with his plan. He works out everything to fit his plan and purpose.12 We were the first to put our hope in Christ. We were chosen to bring praise to his glory.
13 You also became believers in Christ. That happened when you heard the message of truth. It was the good news about how you could be saved. When you believed, he marked you with a seal. The seal is the Holy Spirit that he promised.
14 The Spirit marks us as God's own. We can now be sure that someday we will receive all that God has promised. That will happen after God sets all of his people completely free. All of those things will bring praise to his glory.
Paul Prays and Gives Thanks
15 I have heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus. I have also heard about your love for all of God's people. That is why16 I have not stopped thanking God for you. I always remember you in my prayers.
17 I pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is the glorious Father. I keep asking him to give you the wisdom and understanding that come from the Holy Spirit. I want you to know God better.
18 I also pray that your mind might see more clearly. Then you will know the hope God has chosen you to receive. You will know that the things God's people will receive are rich and glorious.19 And you will know his great power. It can't be compared with anything else. It is at work for us who believe. It is like the mighty strength20 God showed when he raised Christ from the dead.
He seated him at his right hand in his heavenly kingdom.21 There Christ sits far above all who rule and have authority. He also sits far above all powers and kings. He is above every title that can be given in this world and in the world to come.
22 God placed all things under Christ's rule. He appointed him to be ruler over everything for the church.23 The church is Christ's body. It is filled by Christ. He 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.