Parallel Bible results for "Ephesians 2"

Ephesians 2

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1 It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin.
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
2 You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience.
2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
3 We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us.
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
4 Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love,
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
6 Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.
7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish!
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
9 We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing!
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
11 But don't take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God's ways
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—
12 had no idea of any of this, didn't know the first thing about the way God works, hadn't the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God's covenants and promises in Israel, hadn't a clue about what God was doing in the world at large.
12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
13 Now because of Christ - dying that death, shedding that blood - you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
15 He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.
15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace,
16 Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility.
16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
17 Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders.
17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
18 He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.
18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all - irrespective of how we got here - in what he is building.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,
20 He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
21 that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day - a holy temple built by God,
21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
22 all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.