UST EPH Chapter 1

1 I am Paul. The Messiah Jesus sent me to represent him because that is what God wanted. I write this letter to the people whom God has set apart for himself who are living [in the city of Ephesus][fn] and who are loyal to the Messiah Jesus. 2 May God our Father and our Lord Jesus the Messiah continue to be kind to you and make you peaceful.

3 Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah! He has blessed us with every kind of spiritual blessing that comes from heaven because we belong to the Messiah. 4 In fact, even before God created the world, he chose us to belong to the Messiah, so that the Messiah could make us completely holy for him. Because God loves us, 5 he decided long ago to adopt us as his own children by means of Jesus the Messiah. It pleased him to do this, so he did what he wanted to do. 6 Because of this, we now praise God for being so amazingly kind to us, far beyond what we could deserve, as he blessed us by means of his Son whom he loves.

7 When Jesus died in our place, he paid the price for our sin. That is, when he died for us, God forgave us our sins because that is how abundantly and generously kind he is. 8 God knew that we would need him to be extremely kind to us in this way because God knows everything and is completely wise. 9 In this way, God has now revealed to us his plan that he had not revealed to anyone before—a plan that he was pleased to accomplish through the work of the Messiah. 10 In this plan, when the time was just right, the Messiah would unite all things under himself so that all things in heaven and all things on earth would belong to the Messiah. 11 Because of what the Messiah has done, God has also claimed us as his own. He planned to do this long ago, and he always does exactly what he wishes to do. 12 In God’s plan, we Jews, who were the first to trust in the Messiah, would live to praise God because he is so great. 13 Then you non-Jews also heard the true message, the good news of how God saves you, and you believed in the Messiah. When you did that, God marked you as belonging to the Messiah by giving you the Holy Spirit, as he had promised to do. 14 The Holy Spirit is like a down payment that proves that God will also give to us everything else that he has promised to give to us at that time when he will release everything that he has for us. Praise God because he is so great!

15 Because God has done all of this for you, and because people have told me how you trust in the Lord Jesus and how much you love all the believers, 16 I thank God for you constantly as I talk to God about you when I pray to him. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, the glorious Father, will give you his Spirit to make you wise and to reveal God to you so that you can continually know him better. 18 I pray that God may enable you to see things as they truly are so that you may know the wonderful plan that God has for us because he has called us to be his people. I pray that you may know how wonderful and abundant are the things he promises to give to us and to all the believers. 19 And I pray that you will know how exceedingly powerfully God acts for us who believe in the Messiah. He is just as powerfully strong for us 20 as he was for the Messiah when he caused the Messiah to become alive again after he died, and raised him to the place of highest honor in heaven. 21 The Messiah rules as supreme there over every ruler and powerful spirit on every level of authority and over every being that people revere. He rules over them not only now, but forever. 22 God has made everything to be subject to the Messiah and has appointed the Messiah as the ruler over everything among all believers everywhere. 23 We believers relate to the Messiah as the parts of a person’s body relate to its head. He supplies what is lacking for all believers just as he completes everything everywhere.

Many early versions do not include, in the city of Ephesus.

EPH C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6