Support One Another
6 Brothers and sisters, 1 if a person 2 is discovered in some sin, 3 you who are spiritual 4 restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness. 5 Pay close attention 6 to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too. 2 Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Let each one examine 7 his own work. Then he can take pride 8 in himself and not compare himself with 9 someone else. 5 For each one will carry 10 his own load.
6 Now the one who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with the one who teaches 11 it. 7 Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. 12 For a person 13 will reap what he sows, 8 because the person who sows to his own flesh 14 will reap corruption 15 from the flesh, 16 but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9 So we must not grow weary 17 in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. 18 10 So then, 19 whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith. 20
Final Instructions and Benediction
11 See what big letters I make as I write to you with my own hand!
12 Those who want to make a good showing in external matters 21 are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do so 22 only to avoid being persecuted 23 for the cross of Christ. 13 For those who are circumcised do not obey the law themselves, but they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your flesh. 24 14 But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which 25 the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For 26 neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for 27 anything; the only thing that matters is a new creation! 28 16 And all who will behave 29 in accordance with this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on the Israel of God. 30
17 From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body. 31
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be 32 with your spirit, brothers and sisters. 33 Amen.
Salutation
1 From Paul, 1 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], 2 the faithful 3 in Christ Jesus. 2 Grace and peace to you 4 from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 Blessed 5 is 6 the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed 7 us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. 4 For 8 he chose us in Christ 9 before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished 10 in his sight 11 in love. 12 5 He did this by predestining 13 us to adoption as his 14 sons 15 through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure 16 of his will – 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace 17 that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. 18 7 In him 19 we have redemption through his blood, 20 the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. 9 He did this when he revealed 21 to us the secret 22 of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth 23 in Christ, 24 10 toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up 25 all things in Christ – the things in heaven 26 and the things on earth. 27 11 In Christ 28 we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, 29 since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will 12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope 30 on Christ, 31 would be to the praise of his glory. 13 And when 32 you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation) – when you believed in Christ 33 – you were marked with the seal 34 of the promised Holy Spirit, 35 14 who is the down payment 36 of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, 37 to the praise of his glory.
Prayer for Wisdom and Revelation
15 For this reason, 38 because I 39 have heard 40 of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love 41 for all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you 42 in my prayers. 17 I pray that 43 the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, 44 may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation 45 in your growing knowledge of him, 46 18 – since the eyes of your 47 heart have been enlightened 48 – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, 49 what is the wealth of his glorious 50 inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the incomparable 51 greatness of his power toward 52 us who believe, as displayed in 53 the exercise of his immense strength. 54 20 This power 55 he exercised 56 in Christ when he raised him 57 from the dead and seated him 58 at his right hand in the heavenly realms 59 21 far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And God 60 put 61 all things under Christ’s 62 feet, 63 and he gave him to the church as head over all things. 64 23 Now the church is 65 his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. 66
New Life Individually
2 And although you were 1 dead 2 in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which 3 you formerly lived 4 according to this world’s present path, 5 according to the ruler of the kingdom 6 of the air, the ruler of 7 the spirit 8 that is now energizing 9 the sons of disobedience, 10 3 among whom 11 all of us 12 also 13 formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath 14 even as the rest… 15
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! 16 – 6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 to demonstrate in the coming ages 17 the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward 18 us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you are saved 19 through faith, 20 and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 it is not from 21 works, so that no one can boast. 22 10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. 23
New Life Corporately
11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body 24 by human hands – 12 that you were at that time without the Messiah, 25 alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, 26 having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 27 14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one 28 and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, 15 when he nullified 29 in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man 30 out of two, 31 thus making peace, 16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed. 32 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 18 so that 33 through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 20 because you have been built 34 on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 35 with Christ Jesus himself as 36 the cornerstone. 37 21 In him 38 the whole building, 39 being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
