Ephesians

Chapter 1

1 Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God’s will, to the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus who are at Ephesus. 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; 4  according as he has chosen us in him before the world’s foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love; 5  having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6  to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved: 7  in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace; 8  which he has caused to abound towards us in all wisdom and intelligence, 9  having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself 10  for the administration of the fulness of times; to head up all things in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth; in him, 11  in whom we have also obtained an inheritance, being marked out beforehand according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will, 12  that we should be to the praise of his glory who have pre-trusted in the Christ: 13  in whom ye also have trusted, having heard the word of the truth, the glad tidings of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14  who is the earnest of our inheritance to the redemption of the acquired possession to the praise of his glory.

15  Wherefore I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is in you, and the love which ye have towards all the saints, 16  do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you at my prayers, 17  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him, 18  being enlightened in the eyes of your heart, so that ye should know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19  and what the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, 20  in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead, and he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies, 21  above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come; 22  and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, 23  which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all:

Chapter 2

1  and you, being dead in your offences and sins— 2  in which ye once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience: 3  among whom we also all once had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh, doing what the flesh and the thoughts willed to do, and were children, by nature, of wrath, even as the rest:

4  but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us, 5  (we too being dead in offences,) has quickened us with the Christ, (ye are saved by grace,) 6  and has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, 7  that he might display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 8  For ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this not of yourselves; it is God’s gift: 9  not on the principle of works, that no one might boast. 10  For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them.

11  Wherefore remember that ye, once nations in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that called circumcision in the flesh done with the hand; 12  that ye were at that time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13  but now in Christ Jesus ye who once were afar off are become nigh by the blood of the Christ.

14  For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of enclosure, 15  having annulled the enmity in his flesh, the law of commandments in ordinances, that he might form the two in himself into one new man, making peace; 16  and might reconcile both in one body to God by the cross, having by it slain the enmity; 17  and, coming, he has preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off, and the glad tidings of peace to those who were nigh. 18  For through him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father. 19  So then ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God, 20  being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone, 21  in whom all the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord; 22  in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

Chapter 3

1  For this reason I Paul, prisoner of the Christ Jesus for you nations, 2  (if indeed ye have heard of the administration of the grace of God which has been given to me towards you, 3  that by revelation the mystery has been made known to me, (according as I have written before briefly, 4  by which, in reading it, ye can understand my intelligence in the mystery of the Christ,) 5  which in other generations has not been made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the power of the Spirit, 6  that they who are of the nations should be joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus by the glad tidings; 7  of which I am become minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me, according to the working of his power. 8  To me, less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given, to announce among the nations the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ, 9  and to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God, who has created all things, 10  in order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God, 11  according to the purpose of the ages, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12  in whom we have boldness and access in confidence by the faith of him. 13  Wherefore I beseech you not to faint through my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

14  For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15  of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, 16  in order that he may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; 17  that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, 18  in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; 19  and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God. 20  But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think, according to the power which works in us, 21  to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen).

Chapter 4

1  I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you therefore to walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called,

2  with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love; 3  using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. 4  There is one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling; 5  one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6  one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all. 7  But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ. 8  Wherefore he says, Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men. 9  But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10  He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things; 11  and he has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, 12  for the perfecting of the saints; with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ; 13  until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ; 14  in order that we may be no longer babes, tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching which is in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning with a view to systematized error; 15  but, holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ: 16  from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to the working in its measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love.

17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye should no longer walk as the rest of the nations walk in the vanity of their mind, 18  being darkened in understanding, estranged from the life of God by reason of the ignorance which is in them, by reason of the hardness of their hearts, 19  who having cast off all feeling, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greedy unsatisfied lust. 20  But ye have not thus learnt the Christ, …