Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 For this cause I, Sha'ul, am the prisoner of Messiah Yeshua on behalf of you Goyim,
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This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called.
2 if it is so that you have heard of the administration of that grace of God which was given me toward you;
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I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody.
3 how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words,
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I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.
4 whereby, when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Messiah;
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As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ.
5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
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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 that the Goyim are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Messiah Yeshua through the Good News,
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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 whereof I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power.
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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 To me, the very least of all holy ones, was this grace given, to preach to the Goyim the unsearchable riches of Messiah,
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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 and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Yeshua the Messiah;
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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 to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places,
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Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!
11 according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Messiah Yeshua, our Lord;
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All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus.
12 in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him.
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When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go.
13 Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory.
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So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
14 For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah,
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My response is to get down on my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on eretz is named,
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this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth.
16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;
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I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit - not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength -
17 that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
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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 may be strengthened to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
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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 and to know Messiah's love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.
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Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
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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 to him be the glory in the assembly and in Messiah Yeshua to all generations forever and ever. Amein.
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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!
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
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.