Ephesians 1; Ephesians 2; Ephesians 3; Ephesians 4; Ephesians 5; Ephesians 6

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, believers in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus 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.

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 strength

20 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.

1 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God.

2 Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God.

3 In the past all of us lived like them, trying to please our sinful selves and doing all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God's anger because of the way we were. We were the same as all other people.

4 But God's mercy is great, and he loved us very much.

5 Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against God, he gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God's grace.

6 And he raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with him in the heavens. He did this for those in Christ Jesus

7 so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus.

8 I mean that you have been saved by grace through believing. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.

9 It was not the result of your own efforts, so you cannot brag about it.

10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.

11 You were not born Jewish. You are the people the Jews call "uncircumcised." Those who call you "uncircumcised" call themselves "circumcised." (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do on their bodies.)

12 Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel, and you had no part in the agreementsn with the promise that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God.

13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away from God are brought near through the blood of Christ's death.

14 Christ himself is our peace. He made both Jewish people and those who are not Jews one people. They were separated as if there were a wall between them, but Christ broke down that wall of hate by giving his own body.

15 The Jewish law had many commands and rules, but Christ ended that law. His purpose was to make the two groups of people become one new people in him and in this way make peace.

16 It was also Christ's purpose to end the hatred between the two groups, to make them into one body, and to bring them back to God. Christ did all this with his death on the cross.

17 Christ came and preached peace to you who were far away from God, and to those who were near to God.

18 Yes, it is through Christ we all have the right to come to the Father in one Spirit.

19 Now you who are not Jewish are not foreigners or strangers any longer, but are citizens together with God's holy people. You belong to God's family.

20 You are like a building that was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stonen in that building,

21 and that whole building is joined together in Christ. He makes it grow and become a holy temple in the Lord.

22 And in Christ you, too, are being built together with the Jews into a place where God lives through the Spirit.

1 So I, Paul, am a prisoner of Christ Jesus for you who are not Jews.

2 Surely you have heard that God gave me this work through his grace to help you.

3 He let me know his secret by showing it to me. I have already written a little about this.

4 If you read what I wrote then, you can see that I truly understand the secret about the Christ.

5 People who lived in other times were not told that secret. But now, through the Spirit, God has shown that secret to his holy apostles and prophets.

6 This is that secret: that through the Good News those who are not Jews will share with the Jews in God's blessing. They belong to the same body, and they share together in the promise that God made in Christ Jesus.

7 By God's special gift of grace given to me through his power, I became a servant to tell that Good News.

8 I am the least important of all God's people, but God gave me this gift -- to tell those who are not Jews the Good News about the riches of Christ, which are too great to understand fully.

9 And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for his secret, which has been hidden in him since the beginning of time. He is the One who created everything.

10 His purpose was that through the church all the rulers and powers in the heavenly world will now know God's wisdom, which has so many forms.

11 This agrees with the purpose God had since the beginning of time, and he carried out his plan through Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 In Christ we can come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this through faith in Christ.

13 So I ask you not to become discouraged because of the sufferings I am having for you. My sufferings are for your glory.

14 So I bow in prayer before the Father

15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name.

16 I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit.

17 I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love.

18 And I pray that you and all God's holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ's love -- how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is.

19 Christ's love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.

20 With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine.

21 To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.

1 I am in prison because I belong to the Lord. God chose you to be his people, so I urge you now to live the life to which God called you.

2 Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love.

3 You are joined together with peace through the Spirit, so make every effort to continue together in this way.

4 There is one body and one Spirit, and God called you to have one hope.

5 There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.

6 There is one God and Father of everything. He rules everything and is everywhere and is in everything.

7 Christ gave each one of us the special gift of grace, showing how generous he is.

8 That is why it says in the Scriptures, "When he went up to the heights, he led a parade of captives, and he gave gifts to people."

9 When it says, "He went up," what does it mean? It means that he first came down to the earth.

10 So Jesus came down, and he is the same One who went up above all the heaven. Christ did that to fill everything with his presence.

11 And Christ gave gifts to people -- he made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to have the work of caring for and teaching God's people.

12 Christ gave those gifts to prepare God's holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger.

13 This work must continue until we are all joined together in the same faith and in the same knowledge of the Son of God. We must become like a mature person, growing until we become like Christ and have his perfection.

14 Then we will no longer be babies. We will not be tossed about like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be influenced by every new teaching we hear from people who are trying to fool us. They make plans and try any kind of trick to fool people into following the wrong path.

15 No! Speaking the truth with love, we will grow up in every way into Christ, who is the head.

16 The whole body depends on Christ, and all the parts of the body are joined and held together. Each part does its own work to make the whole body grow and be strong with love.

17 In the Lord's name, I tell you this. Do not continue living like those who do not believe. Their thoughts are worth nothing.

18 They do not understand, and they know nothing, because they refuse to listen. So they cannot have the life that God gives.

19 They have lost all feeling of shame, and they use their lives for doing evil. They continually want to do all kinds of evil.

20 But what you learned in Christ was not like this.

21 I know that you heard about him, and you are in him, so you were taught the truth that is in Jesus.

22 You were taught to leave your old self -- to stop living the evil way you lived before. That old self becomes worse, because people are fooled by the evil things they want to do.

23 But you were taught to be made new in your hearts,

24 to become a new person. That new person is made to be like God -- made to be truly good and holy.

25 So you must stop telling lies. Tell each other the truth, because we all belong to each other in the same body.

26 When you are angry, do not sin, and be sure to stop being angry before the end of the day.

27 Do not give the devil a way to defeat you.

28 Those who are stealing must stop stealing and start working. They should earn an honest living for themselves. Then they will have something to share with those who are poor.

29 When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say what people need -- words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say will do good to those who listen to you.

30 And do not make the Holy Spirit sad. The Spirit is God's proof that you belong to him. God gave you the Spirit to show that God will make you free when the final day comes.

31 Do not be bitter or angry or mad. Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others. Never do anything evil.

32 Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ.

1 You are God's children whom he loves, so try to be like him.

2 Live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But there must be no sexual sin among you, or any kind of evil or greed. Those things are not right for God's holy people.

4 Also, there must be no evil talk among you, and you must not speak foolishly or tell evil jokes. These things are not right for you. Instead, you should be giving thanks to God.

5 You can be sure of this: No one will have a place in the kingdom of Christ and of God who sins sexually, or does evil things, or is greedy. Anyone who is greedy is serving a false god.

6 Do not let anyone fool you by telling you things that are not true, because these things will bring God's anger on those who do not obey him.

7 So have nothing to do with them.

8 In the past you were full of darkness, but now you are full of light in the Lord. So live like children who belong to the light.

9 Light brings every kind of goodness, right living, and truth.

10 Try to learn what pleases the Lord.

11 Have nothing to do with the things done in darkness, which are not worth anything. But show that they are wrong.

12 It is shameful even to talk about what those people do in secret.

13 But the light makes all things easy to see,

14 and everything that is made easy to see can become light. This is why it is said: "Wake up, sleeper! Rise from death, and Christ will shine on you."

15 So be very careful how you live. Do not live like those who are not wise, but live wisely.

16 Use every chance you have for doing good, because these are evil times.

17 So do not be foolish but learn what the Lord wants you to do.

18 Do not be drunk with wine, which will ruin you, but be filled with the Spirit.

19 Speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord.

20 Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

21 Yield to obey each other because you respect Christ.

22 Wives, yield to your husbands, as you do to the Lord,

23 because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. And he is the Savior of the body, which is the church.

24 As the church yields to Christ, so you wives should yield to your husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it

26 to make it belong to God. Christ used the word to make the church clean by washing it with water.

27 He died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be pure and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other wrong thing in it.

28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself.

29 No one ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church,

30 because we are parts of his body.

31 The Scripture says, "So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one body."

32 That secret is very important -- I am talking about Christ and the church.

33 But each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and a wife must respect her husband.

1 Children, obey your parents as the Lord wants, because this is the right thing to do.

2 The command says, "Honor your father and mother." This is the first command that has a promise with it --

3 "Then everything will be well with you, and you will have a long life on the earth."

4 Fathers, do not make your children angry, but raise them with the training and teaching of the Lord.

5 Slaves, obey your masters here on earth with fear and respect and from a sincere heart, just as you obey Christ.

6 You must do this not only while they are watching you, to please them. With all your heart you must do what God wants as people who are obeying Christ.

7 Do your work with enthusiasm. Work as if you were serving the Lord, not as if you were serving only men and women.

8 Remember that the Lord will give a reward to everyone, slave or free, for doing good.

9 Masters, in the same way, be good to your slaves. Do not threaten them. Remember that the One who is your Master and their Master is in heaven, and he treats everyone alike.

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his great power.

11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can fight against the devil's evil tricks.

12 Our fight is not against people on earth but against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world's darkness, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly world.

13 That is why you need to put on God's full armor. Then on the day of evil you will be able to stand strong. And when you have finished the whole fight, you will still be standing.

14 So stand strong, with the belt of truth tied around your waist and the protection of right living on your chest.

15 On your feet wear the Good News of peace to help you stand strong.

16 And also use the shield of faith with which you can stop all the burning arrows of the Evil One.

17 Accept God's salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 Pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayers, asking for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready and never give up. Always pray for all God's people.

19 Also pray for me that when I speak, God will give me words so that I can tell the secret of the Good News without fear.

20 I have been sent to preach this Good News, and I am doing that now, here in prison. Pray that when I preach the Good News I will speak without fear, as I should.

21 I am sending to you Tychicus, our brother whom we love and a faithful servant of the Lord's work. He will tell you everything that is happening with me. Then you will know how I am and what I am doing.

22 I am sending him to you for this reason -- so that you will know how we are, and he can encourage you.

23 Peace and love with faith to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

24 Grace to all of you who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love that never ends.