Ephesians 3

The Secret Plan of God

1 This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called.2 I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody.3 I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.

4 As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ.5 None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order.6 The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.

7 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details.

8 When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.9 My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along.10 Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

11 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus.12 When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go.13 So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!

14 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father,15 this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth.16 I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit-not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength -17 that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love,18 you'll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights!19 Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

20 God can do anything, you know-far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.21 Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

Ephesians 4

To Be Mature

1 In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk-better yet, run!-on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere.2 And mark that you do this with humility and discipline-not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love,3 alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

4 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly.5 You have one Master, one faith, one baptism,6 one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

7 But that doesn't mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift.8 The text for this is, He climbed the high mountain, He captured the enemy and seized the booty, He handed it all out in gifts to the people.9 It's true, is it not, that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth?10 And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts,11 filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher12 to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church,13 until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

14 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors.15 God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love-like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do.16 He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. The Old Way Has to Go

The Old Way Has to Go

17 And so I insist-and God backs me up on this-that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd.18 They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself.19 They can't think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.

20 But that's no life for you. You learned Christ!21 My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus.22 Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything-and I do mean everything-connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life-a God-fashioned life,23 a life renewed from the inside24 and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

25 What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ's body we're all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.

26 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry-but don't use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don't stay angry. Don't go to bed angry.27 Don't give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.

28 Did you used to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can't work.

29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.

30 Don't grieve God. Don't break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don't take such a gift for granted.

31 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk.32 Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 5

Wake Up from Your Sleep

1 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents.2 Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

3 Don't allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed.4 Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, Christians have better uses for language than that. Don't talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn't fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.

5 You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them-the usual variations on idolatry-will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God.

6 Don't let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with him.7 Don't even hang around people like that.

8 You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You're out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it!9 The good, the right, the true-these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours.10 Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.

11 Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are.12 It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see.13 Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.14 Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light!15 So watch your step. Use your head.16 Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!

17 Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.

18 Don't drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him.19 Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ.20 Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.

Relationships

21 Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.

22 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ.23 The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing.24 So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.

25 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church-a love marked by giving, not getting.26 Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her,27 dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness.28 And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor-since they're already "one" in marriage.

29 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church,30 since we are part of his body.31 And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh."32 This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church.33 And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.