Chapter 1

  Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God: To God's people who are in Ephesus--believers in Christ Jesus.

  May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has crowned us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ;

  even as, in His love, He chose us as His own in Christ before the creation of the world, that we might be holy and without blemish in His presence.

  For He pre-destined us to be adopted by Himself as sons through Jesus Christ--such being His gracious will and pleasure--

  to the praise of the splendour of His grace with which He has enriched us in the beloved One.

  It is in Him, and through the shedding of His blood, that we have our deliverance--the forgiveness of our offences--so abundant was God's grace,

  the grace which He, the possessor of all wisdom and understanding, lavished upon us,

  when He made known to us the secret of His will. And this is in harmony with God's merciful purpose

  for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it--the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in Heaven and things on earth, to find their one Head in Him.

  In Him we Jews have been made heirs, having been chosen beforehand in accordance with the intention of Him whose might carries out in everything the design of His own will,

  so that we should be devoted to the extolling of His glorious attributes--we who were the first to fix our hopes on Christ.

  And in Him you Gentiles also, after listening to the Message of the truth, the Good News of your salvation--having believed in Him--were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit;

  that Spirit being a pledge and foretaste of our inheritance, in anticipation of its full redemption--the inheritance which He has purchased to be specially His for the extolling of His glory.

  For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which prevails among you, and of your love for all God's people,

  offer never ceasing thanks on your behalf while I make mention of you in my prayers.

  For I always beseech the God of our Lord Jesus Christ--the Father most glorious--to give you a spirit of wisdom and penetration through an intimate knowledge of Him,

  the eyes of your understanding being enlightened so that you may know what is the hope which His call to you inspires, what the wealth of the glory of His inheritance in God's people,

  and what the transcendent greatness of His power in us believers as seen in the working of His infinite might

  when He displayed it in Christ by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His own right hand in the heavenly realms,

  high above all other government and authority and power and dominion, and every title of sovereignty used either in this Age or in the Age to come.

  God has put all things under His feet, and has appointed Him universal and supreme Head of the Church, which is His Body,

  the completeness of Him who everywhere fills the universe with Himself.