Ephesians 1

₁I am Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing this letter to the believers who live in the city of Ephesus and who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus. ₂I pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will give you grace and peace.

₃We praise God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because He is very good to us. We belong to Christ and the Holy_Spirit has given us all the good things in heaven. ₄God has chosen us to belong to Christ. Yes, before God made the world, He chose us to be holy and full of love and without fault when He looks at us. ₅Before God made the world, He decided that we would be his children. He sent Jesus Christ to the world so that we could become God's children. This is what He wanted to do. ₆So we praise God for the wonderful grace that He has given us because we belong to his Son, whom He loves very much. _7-8Christ gave his blood and his life. He died for us and that is how God has forgiven our sins and made us free. This is how God has shown us how wonderful his grace is. Yes, He has shown his grace in many ways, and He has given us his wisdom to understand his love.

₉No one before knew what God had decided about Christ, but now God has told us this secret. This is how God wanted to save us. ₁₀He decided when it would be the right time for Christ to bring everything in heaven and on earth together to belong to Him.

₁₁God chose us long ago to belong to Him and to get all his blessings. That is why He sent Christ to the world to do what He had planned. ₁₂God did this because He wanted us to praise his glory. This means those of us who were the first to believe and who know that Christ will save us. ₁₃You in Ephesus also belong to Christ, because someone has told you the true Good_News that God wants to save you, and you believe it. God gave you the Holy_Spirit, that He promised to give to us, to show everyone that you belong to Him. ₁₄God gave us his Holy_Spirit. This was his first blessing to us and now we know that He will also give us everything that He has promised and He will free us so that we will belong only to Him. This is why we praise our God and our King.

₁₅Someone has told me that you believe in the Lord Jesus and that you love everyone who belongs to God. ₁₆That is why, when I pray, I always thank God for you and I think of you in my prayers. ₁₇I also ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father who is King, to give you spiritual wisdom and show you how you can get to know Him better. ₁₈I pray that God will help you really to know what He has promised to give you and everything you can hope to get, because He has chosen you to belong to Him.

₁₉I pray that you will know how strong God's power is in the lives of those of us who believe in Him. ₂₀This is the same power that God used when He made Christ live again and let Him sit in the most important place next to Him in heaven. ₂₁Christ is more important than everyone and everything that wants to rule over this world and more important than anyone we can think of, now and in the time to come. _22-23God made Christ defeat all his enemies and made Him the Head of everything to help the church. The church is the body of Christ. He makes the church live and gives true_life to the church and to all.