Paul, messenger of Christ Jesus by God's will, to all faithful Christians at Ephesus: grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Letter To The Christians At Ephesus
Ephesians 1
Praise God for what he has done for us Christians! Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for giving us through Christ every spiritual benefit as citizens of Heaven! For consider what he has done--before the foundation of the world he chose us to be, in Christ, his children, holy and blameless in his sight. He planned, in his love, that we should be adopted as his own children through Jesus Christ--this glorious generosity of his which he granted to us in his Beloved. It is through him, at cost of his own blood, that we are redeemed, freely forgiven through that free and generous grace which has overflowed into our lives and given us wisdom and insight. For God has allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this: he purposed long ago in his sovereign will that all human history should be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in Heaven or earth should find its perfection and fulfillment in him. In Christ we have been given an inheritance, since we were destined for this, by the One who works out all his purposes according to the design of his own will. So that we, in due time, as the first to put our hope in Christ, may bring praise to his glory! And you too trusted him, when you had heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. And after you gave your confidence to him you were, so to speak stamped with the promised Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance, until the day when God completes the redemption of what is his own; and that will again be to the praise of his glory.
I thank God for you, and pray for you This is why since I heard of this faith of yours in the Lord Jesus and the love which you bear towards fellow-Christians, I thank God continually for you and I never give up praying for you; and this is my prayer. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the all-glorious Father, will give to you spiritual wisdom and the insight to know more of him: that you may receive that inner illumination of the spirit which will make you realize how great is the hope to which he is calling you--the magnificence and splendour of the inheritance promised to Christians--and how tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God. That power is the same divine energy which was demonstrated in Christ when he raised him from the dead and gave him the superior to any command, authority, power or control, and which carries with it a name far beyond any name that could ever be used in this world or the world to come.
God has placed everything under the power of Christ and has set him up as supreme head to the Church. For the Church is his body, and in that body lives fully the One who fills the whole wide universe.
Ephesians 2
We were all dead: God gave us life through Christ
You were spiritually dead through your sins and failures, all the time that you followed this world's ideas of living, and obeyed the evil ruler of the spiritual realm--who is indeed fully operative today in those who disobey God. We all lived like that in the past, and followed the desires and imaginings of our lower nature, being in fact under the wrath of God by nature, like everyone else. But even though we were dead in our sins God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, gave us life together with Christ--it is, remember, by grace that you are saved--and has lifted us to take our place with him in Christ Jesus in the Heavens. Thus he shows for all the ages to come the tremendous generosity of the grace and kindness he has expressed towards us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith. This does not depend on anything you have achieved, it is the free gift of God; and because it is not earned no man can boast about it. For God has made us what we are, created in Christ Jesus to do those good deeds which he planned for us to do.
You were gentiles, we were Jews. God has made us fellow-Christians Do not lose sight of the fact that you were born "gentiles", known by those whose bodies were circumcised by the hand of man as "the uncircumcised". You were then without Christ, you were utter strangers to God's chosen community, Israel, and you had no knowledge of , or right to, the promised agreements. You had nothing to look forward to and no God to whom you could turn. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off are brought near through the shedding of Christ's blood. For Christ is our living peace. He has made us both one by breaking down the barrier and enmity which lay between us. By his sacrifice he removed the hostility of the Law, with all its commandments and rules, and made in himself out of the two, Jew and gentile, one new man, thus producing peace. For he reconciled both to God by the sacrifice of one body on the cross, and by his act killed the enmity between them. Then he came and brought the good news of peace to you who ere far from God and to us who were near. And it is through him that both of us now can approach the Father in the one Spirit.
So you are no longer outsiders or aliens, but fellow-citizens with every other Christian--you belong now to the household of God. Firmly beneath you is the foundation, God's messengers and prophets, the corner-stone being Christ Jesus himself. In him each separate piece of building, properly fitting into its neighbor, grows together into a temple consecrated to the Lord. You are all part of this building in which God himself lives by his Spirit.
Ephesians 3
God has made me minister to you gentiles
It is in this great cause that I, Paul, have become a prisoner of Christ Jesus for you gentiles. For you must have heard how God gave me grace to become your minister, and how he allowed me to understand his secret by giving me a direct revelation. What I have written briefly of this above will explain to you my knowledge of the mystery of Christ. This secret was hidden to past generations of mankind, But it has now, by the Spirit, been made plain to God's consecrated messengers and prophets. It is simply this: that the gentiles are to be equal heirs with his chosen people, equal members and equal partners in God's promise given by Christ Jesus through the gospel. And I was made a minister of that gospel by the grace he freely gave me, and by the action within me of his own power. Yes, to me, less than the least to of all Christians, has God given this grace, to enable me to proclaim to the gentiles the gospel of the incalculable riches of Christ, and to make plain to all men the meaning of that divine secret which he who created everything has kept hidden from the creation until now. The purpose is that all the angelic powers should now see the complex wisdom of God's plan being worked out through the Church, in conformity to that timeless purpose which he centered in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It is in this same Jesus, because we have faith in him, that we dare, even with confidence, to approach God. So then I beg you not to lose heart because I am now suffering on your behalf. Indeed, you should be honoured.
I pray that you will know God's power in practice As I think of this great plan I fall on my knees before the Father (from whom all fatherhood, earthly or heavenly, derives it's name), and I pray that out of the glorious riches of his resources he will enable you to know the strength of the Spirit's inner re-inforcement--that Christ may actually live in your hearts by faith. And I pray that you, rooted and founded in love yourselves, may be able to grasp (with all Christians) how wide and long and deep and high is the love of Christ--and to know for yourselves that love so far above our understanding. So will you be filled through all your being with God himself!
Now to him who by his power within us is able to do infinitely more than we ever dare to ask or imagine--to him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever, amen!
Ephesians 4
Christians should be at one, as God is one
As the Lord's prisoner, then, I beg you to live lives worthy of your high calling. Accept life with humility and patience, generously making allowances for each other because you love each other. Make it your aim to be at one in the Spirit, and you will be bound together in peace. There is one Body and one Spirit, just as it was to one hope that you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is the one over all, the one working through all and the one living in all.
God's gifts vary, but it is the same God who gives To each one of us is given his measure of grace from the richness of Christ's gift. Thus the scripture says: When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, And gave gifts unto men.Note the implication here--to say that Christ "ascended" means that he must previously have "descended", that is to the depth of this world. The one who made this descent is the same person as he who has now ascended high above the very Heavens--that he might fill the whole universe.
His "gifts unto men" were varied. Some he has made his messengers, some prophets, some teachers of the gospel; to some he gaze the power to guide and teach his people. His gifts were made that Christians might be properly equipped for their service, that the whole body might be built up until the time comes when, in the unity of common faith and common knowledge of the Son of God, we arrive at real maturity--that measure of development which is meant by "the fullness of Christ".
True maturity means growing up "into" Christ We are not meant to remain as children at the mercy of every chance wind of teaching, and of the jockeying of men who are expert in the crafty presentation of lies. But we are meant to speak the truth in love, and grow up in every way into Christ, as the head. For it is from the head that the whole body, as a harmonious structure knit together by the joints with which it is provided, grows by the proper functioning of individual parts, and so builds itself up in love.
Have no more to do with the old life! Learn the new This is instruction, then, which I give you in the Lord's name. Do not live any longer the futile lives of gentiles. For they live in a world of shadows, and are cut off from the life of God through their deliberate ignorance of mind and sheer hardness of heart. They have lost all decent feelings and abandoned themselves to sensuality, practicing any form of impurity which lust can suggest. But you have learned nothing like that from Christ, if you have really heard his voice and understood the truth that Jesus has taught you. No, what you learned was to fling off the dirty clothes of the old way of living, which were rotted through and through with lust illusions, and, with yourselves mentally and spiritually re-made, to put on the clean fresh clothes of the new life which was made by God's design for righteousness and the holiness which is no illusion.
Finish, then, with lying and let each man tell his neighbor the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. If you are angry, be sure that it is not a sinful anger. Never go to bed angry--don't give the devil that sort of foothold.
The new life means positive good The man who used to be a thief must give up stealing, and do an honest day's work with his own hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need.
Let there be no more foul language, but good words instead--words suitable for the occasion, which God can use to help other people. Never wound the Holy Spirit. He is, remember, the seal upon you of your eventual full redemption.
Let there be no more bitter resentment or anger, no more shouting or slander, and let there be no more bad feeling of any kind among you. Be kind to each other, be compassionate. Be as ready to forgive others as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.
So then you should try to become like God, for you are his children and he loves you. Live your lives in love--the same sort of love which Christ have us and which he perfectly expressed when he gave himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice well-pleasing to God. But as for sexual immorality in all its forms, and the itch to get your hands on what belongs to other people--don't even talk about such things; they are no fit subjects for Christians to talk about. The key-note of your conversation should not be coarseness or silliness or flippancy--which are quite out of place, but a sense of all that we owe to God. Ephesians 5
Evil is as utterly different from good as light from darkness For of this you can be quite certain: that neither the immoral nor the dirty-minded nor the covetous man (whose greed makes him worship gain) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Don't let anyone fool you with empty words. It is these very things which bring down the wrath of God upon the disobedient. Have nothing to do with men like that--once you were "darkness" but now as Christians you are "light". Live then as children of the light. The light produces in men all that is good and right and true. Let your lives be living proofs of the things which please God. Steer clear of the fruitless activities of darkness; let your lives expose their futility. (You know the sort of things I mean--to detail their secret doings is too shameful to mention.) For light is capable of showing up everything for what it really is. It is even possible for light to turn the thing it shines upon into light also. Thus it is said: Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.
You know the truth--let your life show it! Live life then, with a due sense of responsibility, not as men who do not know the meaning of life but as those who do. Make the best use of your time, despite all the evils of these days. Don't be vague but grasp firmly what you know to be the will of the Lord. Don't get your stimulus from wine (for there is always the danger of excessive drinking), but let the Spirit stimulate your souls. Sing among yourselves psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, your voices making music in your hearts for the ears of the Lord! Thank God the Father at all times for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And "fit in with" each other, because of your common reverence for Christ.
Christ and the Church pattern the relationship for husband and wife You wives must learn to adapt yourselves to your husbands, as you submit yourselves to the Lord, for the husband is the "head" of the wife in the same way that Christ is the head of the Church and savior of the Body. The willing subjection of the Church to Christ should be reproduced in the submission of wives to their husbands in everything. The husband must give his wife the same sort of love that Christ gave to the Church, when he sacrificed himself for her. Christ gave himself to make her holy, having cleansed her through the baptism of his Word--to make her an altogether glorious Church in his eyes. She is to be free from spots, wrinkles or any other disfigurement--a Church holy and perfect.
So men ought to give their wives the love they naturally have for their own bodies. The love a man gives his wife is the extending of his love for himself to enfold her. Nobody ever hated his own body; he feeds it and looks after it. And that is what Christ does for his Body, the Church. And we are all members of that Body. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and twain shall become one flesh. The marriage relationship is a great mystery, but I see it as a symbol of the marriage of Christ and his Church.
In practice what I have said amounts to this: let every one of you who is a husband love his wife as loves himself, and let every wife respect her husband.
Ephesians 6
Children and parents: servants and masters
Children, the right thing for you to do is to obey your parents as those whom the Lord has set over you. The first commandment to contain a promise was:Honour thy father and mother that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.
Fathers, don't over-correct your children or make it difficult for them to obey the commandment. Bring them up with Christian teaching in Christian discipline.
Slaves, obey your human masters loyally with a proper sense of respect and responsibility, as service rendered to Christ; not only working when your are being watched, as if looking for human approval, but as servants of Christ conscientiously doing what you believe to be the will of God. Work cheerfully as if it were for the Lord and not for a man. You may be sure that the Lord will reward each man for good work irrespectively of whether he be slave or free. And as for you employers, act towards those who serve you in the same way. Do not threaten them, but remember that both you and they have the same Lord in Heaven, who makes no distinction between master and man.
Be forewarned and forearmed in your spiritual conflict In conclusion be strong--not in yourselves but in the Lord, in the power of his boundless strength. Put on God's complete armour so that you can successfully resist all the devil's craftiness. For our fight is not against any physical enemy: it is against organizations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil. Therefore you must wear the whole armour of God that you may be able to resist evil in its day of power, and even when you have fought to a standstill you may still stand your ground. Take your stand then with truth as your belt, integrity your breastplate, the gospel of peace firmly on your feet, salvation as your helmet and in your hand the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Above all be sure you take faith as your shield, for it can quench every burning missile the enemy hurls at you. In all your petitions pray at all times with every kind of spiritual prayer, keeping alert and persistent as you pray for all Christ's men and women. And pray for me, too, that I may be able to speak the message here boldly, to make known the secret of that gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may speak out about it as is my plain and obvious duty.
Tychicus, beloved brother and faithful Christian minister, will tell you personally about my affairs and how I am getting on. I am sending him to you bringing this letter for that purpose, so that you will know exactly how we are and may take fresh heart.
Peace be to all Christian brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with unfailing love.
This posting is part of an advertisement for, and introduction to the Phillips translationOnline version of the J.B. Phillips New Testament
