We should praise God for having chosen and redeemed us, having revealed his plan to unite all things under Christ, and causing Christ to rule over all his people.

Ephesians 1:3-14

3 Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of our relationship with Christ, he has blessed us spiritually in every way by giving us blessings that come from heaven. 4 Before God created the world, he chose us to be his people because of our ◄relationship with/union with► Christ, in order that God could consider us to be completely holy [DOU]. Because God loves us, 5 he decided long ago that he would adopt us to be as though we were his own children because of what Jesus Christ has done. He decided to do that because it pleased him to do that. 6 He did it in order that we would praise him for acting very kindly toward us in a wonderful way that we did not deserve. He did it because of our relationship with his beloved Son {one, who is also God, whom he loves}.

7 When the blood of Christ flowed when he died [MTY], it was as though he paid a price to free/save us from the guilt of our sins. That ◄provided a way/made it possible► for God to act very kindly toward us to forgive us for having sinned. 8 He acted very kindly toward us and enabled us to become wise about many [HYP] things and to understand his truth. 9 He has enabled us to know the things that he had planned secretly (OR, that he had not revealed to anyone yet). He did that because he wanted to do that, and because he planned to do that by means of the things Christ would do. 10 God planned that at the time that he appointed, he would unite all things/beings in heaven and all things/beings on earth (OR, all beings in heaven and all things on earth), and cause Christ to be the one who will rule them [MET]. 11 Because of our close relationship with Christ, God has also chosen us (inc) (OR, us (exc) Jews) to receive what he has promised to give us. He decided long ago to do that. It was exactly what he planned. He accomplishes everything exactly as he plans and desires, 12 in order that we(exc) Jews, who confidently expected the Messiah to do great things for us before the non-Jews expected such things (OR, we (inc) who were already confidently expecting Christ to do great things for us) will praise him for his greatness. 13 You Ephesians also heard the true message, the good message about how God saves you. People put their seal on something to show that it belongs to them. Similarly, when you believed in Christ, God showed that you also belong to him by sending you the Holy Spirit as he promised to do [MET]. 14 The Holy Spirit is like [MET] a ◄deposit/down payment►. That is, he ◄guarantees/assures us► that we will receive all that God has promised to give us, at the time when God will give to those who belong to him [MET] everything that Christ freed us to receive. God also assures you that you belong to him, in order that you would praise him for his greatness.