Ephesians 1-3

Easy-to-Read Version

1 Greetings 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,^[a] believers who belong to Christ Jesus.

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

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in heaven. ⁴ In Christ, he chose us before the world was made. He chose us in love to be his holy people—people who could stand before him without any fault. ⁵ And before the world was made, God decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. This was what God wanted, and it pleased him to do it. ⁶ And this brings praise to God because of his wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely. He gave us that grace in Christ, the one he loves.

⁷ In Christ we are made free by his blood sacrifice. We have forgiveness of sins because of God’s rich grace. ⁸ God gave us that grace fully and freely. With full wisdom and understanding ⁹ he let us know his secret plan. This was what God wanted, and he planned to do it through Christ. ¹⁰ God’s goal was to finish his plan when the right time came. He planned that all things in heaven and on earth be joined together with Christ as the head.

¹¹ In Christ we were chosen to be God’s people. God had already planned for us to be his people, because that is what he wanted. And he is the one who makes everything agree with what he decides and wants. ¹² We Jews were the first to hope in Christ. And we were chosen so that we would bring praise to God in all his glory. ¹³ It is the same with you. You heard the true message, the Good News about the way God saves you. When you heard that Good News, you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he promised. ¹⁴ The Spirit is the first payment that guarantees we will get all that God has for us. Then we will enjoy complete freedom as people who belong to him. The goal for all of us is the praise of God in all his glory.

Paul’s Prayer

^15-16 That is why I always remember you in my prayers and thank God for you. I have done this ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God’s people. ¹⁷ I always pray to the great and glorious Father, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that he will give you the Spirit, who will let you know truths about God and help you understand them, so that you will know him better.

¹⁸ I pray that God will open your minds to see his truth. Then you will know the hope that he has chosen us to have. You will know that the blessings God has promised his holy people are rich and glorious. ¹⁹ And you will know that God’s power is very great for us who believe. It is the same as the mighty power ²⁰ he used to raise Christ from death and put him at his right side in the heavenly places. ²¹ He put Christ over all rulers, authorities, powers, and kings. He gave him authority over everything that has power in this world or in the next world. ²² God put everything under Christ’s power and made him head over everything for the church. ²³ The church is Christ’s body. It is filled with him. He makes everything complete in every way.

From Death to Life

2 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God. ² Yes, in the past your lives were full of those sins. You lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers^[b] 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 that, trying to please our sinful selves. We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. Like everyone else in the world, we deserved to suffer God’s anger just because of the way we were.

⁴ But God is rich in mercy, and he loved us very much. ⁵ We were spiritually dead because of all we had done against him. But he gave us new life together with Christ. (You have been saved by God’s grace.) ⁶ Yes, it is because we are a part of Christ Jesus that God raised us from death and seated us together with him in the heavenly places. ⁷ God did this so that his kindness to us who belong to Christ Jesus would clearly show for all time to come the amazing richness of his grace.

⁸ I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. ⁹ You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. ¹⁰ God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.

One in Christ

¹¹ You were not born as Jews. You are the people the Jews call “uncircumcised.^[c]” Those Jews who call you “uncircumcised” call themselves “circumcised.” (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do to their bodies.) ¹² Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel, and you did not know about the agreements^[d] with the promises that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God. ¹³ Yes, at one time you were far away from God, but now in Christ Jesus, you are brought near to him. You are brought near to God through the blood sacrifice of Christ.

¹⁴ Christ is the reason we are now at peace. He made us Jews and you who are not Jews one people. We were separated by a wall of hate that stood between us, but Christ broke down that wall. By giving his own body, ¹⁵ Christ ended the law with its many commands and rules. His purpose was to make the two groups become one in him. By doing this he would make peace. ¹⁶ Through the cross Christ ended the hate between the two groups. And after they became one body, he wanted to bring them both back to God. He did this with his death on the cross. ¹⁷ Christ came and brought the message of peace to you non-Jews who were far away from God. And he brought that message of peace to those who were near to God. ¹⁸ Yes, through Christ we all have the right to come to the Father in one Spirit.

¹⁹ So now you non-Jewish people are not visitors or strangers, but you are citizens together with God’s holy people. You belong to God’s family. ²⁰ You believers are like a building that God owns. That building was built on the foundation that the apostles and prophets prepared. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone^[e] in that building. ²¹ The whole building is joined together in Christ, and he makes it grow and become a holy temple^[f] in the Lord. ²² And in Christ you are being built together with his other people. You are being made into a place where God lives through the Spirit.

Paul’s Work for the Non-Jewish People

3 So I, Paul, am a prisoner because I serve Christ Jesus for you who are not Jews. ² Surely you know that God gave me this work through his grace to help you. ³ God let me know his secret plan by showing it to me. I have already written a little about this. ⁴ And if you read what I wrote, you can see that I understand the secret truth about Christ. ⁵ People who lived in other times were not told that secret truth. But now, through the Spirit, God has made it known to his holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ And this is the secret truth: that by hearing the Good News, those who are not Jews will share with the Jews in the blessings God has for his people. They are part of the same body, and they share in the promise God made through Christ Jesus.

⁷ By God’s special gift of grace, I became a servant to tell that Good News. He gave me that grace by using his power. ⁸ I am the least important of all God’s people. But he gave me this gift—to tell the non-Jewish people the Good News about the riches Christ has. These riches are too great to understand fully. ⁹ And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for his secret truth. That secret truth has been hidden in him since the beginning of time. He is the one who created everything. ¹⁰ His purpose was that all the rulers and powers in the heavenly places will now know the many different ways he shows his wisdom. They will know this because of the church. ¹¹ This agrees with the plan God had since the beginning of time. He did what he planned, and he did it through Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² In Christ we come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this because of our faith in Christ. ¹³ So I ask you not to be discouraged because of what is happening to me. My sufferings are for your benefit—for your honor and glory.

The Love of Christ

¹⁴ So I bow in prayer before the Father. ¹⁵ Every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name from him. ¹⁶ I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷ I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray 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, how long, 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 everything God has for you.

²⁰ With God’s power working in us, he can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. ²¹ To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.