Ephesians 2–5

Chapter 2

¹and you, being dead in your offences and sins— ²in 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: ³among 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:

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

¹¹Wherefore remember that ye, once nations in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that called circumcision in the flesh done with the hand; ¹²that 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: ¹³but now in Christ Jesus ye who once were afar off are become nigh by the blood of the Christ.

¹⁴For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of enclosure, ¹⁵having 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; ¹⁶and might reconcile both in one body to God by the cross, having by it slain the enmity; ¹⁷and, 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. ¹⁸For through him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God, ²⁰being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone, ²¹in whom all the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord; ²²in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

Chapter 3

¹For 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, ³that by revelation the mystery has been made known to me, (according as I have written before briefly, ⁴by which, in reading it, ye can understand my intelligence in the mystery of the Christ,) ⁵which 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, ⁶that 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; ⁷of which I am become minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me, according to the working of his power. ⁸To 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, ⁹and 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, ¹⁰in order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God, ¹¹according to the purpose of the ages, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, ¹²in whom we have boldness and access in confidence by the faith of him. ¹³Wherefore I beseech you not to faint through my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

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

Chapter 4

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

²with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love; ³using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling; ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all. ⁷But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ. ⁸Wherefore he says, Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men. ⁹But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things; ¹¹and he has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, ¹²for 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; ¹³until 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; ¹⁴in 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; ¹⁵but, holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ: ¹⁶from 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.

¹⁷This 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, ¹⁸being 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, ¹⁹who having cast off all feeling, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greedy unsatisfied lust. ²⁰But ye have not thus learnt the Christ, ²¹if ye have heard him and been instructed in him according as the truth is in Jesus; ²²namely your having put off according to the former conversation the old man which corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts; ²³and being renewed in the spirit of your mind; ²⁴and your having put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness. ²⁵Wherefore, having put off falsehood, speak truth every one with his neighbour, because we are members one of another. ²⁶Be angry, and do not sin; let not the sun set upon your wrath, ²⁷neither give room for the devil. ²⁸Let the stealer steal no more, but rather let him toil, working what is honest with his hands, that he may have to distribute to him that has need. ²⁹Let no corrupt word go out of your mouth, but if there be any good one for needful edification, that it may give grace to those that hear it. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which ye have been sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹Let all bitterness, and heat of passion, and wrath, and clamour, and injurious language, be removed from you, with all malice; ³²and be to one another kind, compassionate, forgiving one another, so as God also in Christ has forgiven you.

Chapter 5

¹Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, ²and walk in love, even as the Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.

³But fornication and all uncleanness or unbridled lust, let it not be even named among you, as it becomes saints; ⁴and filthiness and foolish talking, or jesting, which are not convenient; but rather thanksgiving. ⁵For this ye are well informed of, knowing that no fornicator, or unclean person, or person of unbridled lust, who is an idolater, has inheritance in the kingdom of the Christ and God. ⁶Let no one deceive you with vain words, for on account of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. ⁷Be not ye therefore fellow-partakers with them; ⁸for ye were once darkness, but now light in the Lord; walk as children of light, ⁹(for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,) ¹⁰proving what is agreeable to the Lord; ¹¹and do not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather also reprove them, ¹²for the things that are done by them in secret it is shameful even to say. ¹³But all things having their true character exposed by the light are made manifest; for that which makes everything manifest is light. ¹⁴Wherefore he says, Wake up, thou that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee. ¹⁵See therefore how ye walk carefully, not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶redeeming the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷For this reason be not foolish, but understanding what is the will…