Ephesians 3

₁I, Paul, am now in jail because I belong to Christ Jesus. I am in jail because I told you, the Gentiles, about Christ. ₂I have told you how good God was to me when He gave me this work of telling you that He loves you. ₃God told me and showed me what his message of Christ is, the message that no one knew before. This is what I have written to you in this letter. ₄As you read this letter, you will see that I understand the message and secrets of Christ. ₅In the past, people did not know the message of Christ, but God has now sent his Holy_Spirit to give this message to his holy apostles and prophets. ₆This message says: You are Gentiles, but because you believe this Good_News, you also belong to Christ Jesus, and God will give you the blessings that He has promised to give to the Jews. You and the Jews are now together like one body.

₇God was very good to me and He gave me a gift. He changed my life with his power and He called me to give this Good_News to you. ₈Yes, God was very good to me. I am not as important as any of the other people who belong to God, but God chose me to go and tell the Good_News to the Gentiles. The Good_News is that Christ is very good to people. He gives them more blessings than they can understand. ₉For a very long time God, who made everything, did not tell anyone what He wanted to do. No one knew his message about Christ. But now God has told me to help everyone understand what He is doing. ₁₀That is why the church can now tell everything and everyone who wants to rule the world about the wonderful wisdom of God.

₁₁God had decided long ago what He wanted to do and He sent Christ Jesus our Lord to do it. ₁₂We belong to Christ and we believe in Him. That is why we are not afraid to ask God to give us something. We believe that God will do what He said. ₁₃I pray that you will not be discouraged when I suffer to help you. No, you can be proud that I am suffering.

₁₄That is why I kneel down and pray to Him, our Father. ₁₅He is the Father who gives life to everyone in heaven and on earth. ₁₆I pray and ask God, our King, that his Holy_Spirit will help you to believe more strongly. ₁₇I pray that you will believe in Christ, that He will live in your hearts and that your lives will be full of love. ₁₈Then you will understand how great Christ's love is for you, how wide, how long, how high and how deep it is. You and the other people who belong to God will know this. ₁₉You must know how much Christ loves you. It is much more than you realise. Then you will understand how good God really is.

_20-21Yes, the church, that is everyone who belongs to Christ Jesus, must praise God, because God is very strong and He gives his power to work in us. He can do much more than we can think or ask of Him. Everyone must praise Him, our King, forever. Amen.