The Epistle of Paul to the
EPHESIANS
1
Salutation
1 Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, that is, the faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Sovereign Jesus Christ.
Some concentrated theology
A paean of doctrinal praise
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ;
4 just as He[F] chose us in Him[S] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him[F], in love,
5 having predestined us into an adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, into Him[S], according to the good pleasure of His[F] will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved;
7 in whom we have the redemption through His[S] blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His[F] grace,
8 that He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and intelligent design,
9 having made known to us the ‘secret’ of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him[S],
10 with a view to administering the fullness of the times, so as to bring all things together under one head in Christ—those on the heavens and those on the earth—in Him[S],
11 in whom we were also assigned an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him[F] who works all things according to the decision of His will,
12 so that we should be to the praise of His glory, we who first trusted in the Christ;
13 about whom, to be sure, we had heard the true Word—the Gospel of your salvation; by whom, since you also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is the down payment on our inheritance until the release of the possession, to the praise of His glory.
Some doctrinal praying
15 Because of this, having heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,
16 I really do not stop giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:
17 that the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the real knowledge of Himself,
18 the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know 1) what is the hope of His[F] calling, and 2) what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and 3) what the exceeding greatness of His power into us who are believing, according to the demonstration of the extent of His might
20 which He exercised in the Christ when He raised Him[S] from among the dead and seated Him at His[F] right, in the heavenly realms,
21 far above every ruler and authority and power and dominion—even every name that can be named, not only in this age but also in the next.
22 In short, He[F] placed everything under His[S] feet, and appointed Him to be Head over everything in the Church,
23 which is His body, the complement of Him who fills everything in every way.