Bible Reading Plan – Day 328

₁From Paul, who by God's will is an apostle of Christ Jesus —

To God's people in Ephesus, who are faithful in their life in union with Christ Jesus:

₂May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

₃Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ he has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. ₄Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him.

Because of his love ₅God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his sons and daughters — this was his pleasure and purpose. ₆Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son! ₇For by the blood of Christ we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God, ₈which he gave to us in such large measure!

In all his wisdom and insight ₉God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ. ₁₀This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.

₁₁All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning. ₁₂Let us, then, who were the first to hope in Christ, praise God's glory!

₁₃And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised. ₁₄The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are his. Let us praise his glory!

₁₅For this reason, ever since I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people, ₁₆I have not stopped giving thanks to God for you. I remember you in my prayers ₁₇and ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you the Spirit, who will make you wise and reveal God to you, so that you will know him. ₁₈I ask that your minds may be opened to see his light, so that you will know what is the hope to which he has called you, how rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people, ₁₉and how very great is his power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength ₂₀which he used when he raised Christ from death and seated him at his right side in the heavenly world. ₂₁Christ rules there above all heavenly rulers, authorities, powers, and lords; he has a title superior to all titles of authority in this world and in the next. ₂₂God put all things under Christ's feet and gave him to the church as supreme Lord over all things. ₂₃The church is Christ's body, the completion of him who himself completes all things everywhere.

₁In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. ₂At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God. ₃Actually all of us were like them and lived according to our natural desires, doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds. In our natural condition we, like everyone else, were destined to suffer God's anger.

₄But God's mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, ₅that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved. ₆In our union with Christ Jesus he raised us up with him to rule with him in the heavenly world. ₇He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus. _8-9For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it. ₁₀God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.

₁₁You Gentiles by birth — called “the uncircumcised” by the Jews, who call themselves “the circumcised” (which refers to what men do to their bodies) — remember what you were in the past. ₁₂At that time you were apart from Christ. You were foreigners and did not belong to God's chosen people. You had no part in the covenants, which were based on God's promises to his people, and you lived in this world without hope and without God. ₁₃But now, in union with Christ Jesus, you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ₁₄For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies. ₁₅He abolished the Jewish Law with its commandments and rules, in order to create out of the two races one new people in union with himself, in this way making peace. ₁₆By his death on the cross Christ destroyed their enmity; by means of the cross he united both races into one body and brought them back to God. ₁₇So Christ came and preached the Good News of peace to all — to you Gentiles, who were far away from God, and to the Jews, who were near to him. ₁₈It is through Christ that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, are able to come in the one Spirit into the presence of the Father.

₁₉So then, you Gentiles are not foreigners or strangers any longer; you are now fellow-citizens with God's people and members of the family of God. ₂₀You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself. ₂₁He is the one who holds the whole building together and makes it grow into a sacred temple dedicated to the Lord. ₂₂In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his Spirit.

₁For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles, pray to God. ₂Surely you have heard that God in his grace has given me this work to do for your good. ₃God revealed his secret plan and made it known to me. (I have written briefly about this, ₄and if you will read what I have written, you can learn about my understanding of the secret of Christ.) ₅In past times human beings were not told this secret, but God has revealed it now by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets. ₆The secret is that by means of the gospel the Gentiles have a part with the Jews in God's blessings; they are members of the same body and share in the promise that God made through Christ Jesus.

₇I was made a servant of the gospel by God's special gift, which he gave me through the working of his power. ₈I am less than the least of all God's people; yet God gave me this privilege of taking to the Gentiles the Good News about the infinite riches of Christ, ₉and of making all people see how God's secret plan is to be put into effect. God, who is the Creator of all things, kept his secret hidden through all the past ages, ₁₀in order that at the present time, by means of the church, the angelic rulers and powers in the heavenly world might learn of his wisdom in all its different forms. ₁₁God did this according to his eternal purpose, which he achieved through Christ Jesus our Lord. ₁₂In union with Christ and through our faith in him we have the boldness to go into God's presence with all confidence. ₁₃I beg you, then, not to be discouraged because I am suffering for you; it is all for your benefit.

₁₄For this reason I fall on my knees before the Father, ₁₅from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its true name. ₁₆I ask God from the wealth of his glory to give you power through his Spirit to be strong in your inner selves, ₁₇and I pray that Christ will make his home in your hearts through faith. I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, ₁₈so that you, together with all God's people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ's love. ₁₉Yes, may you come to know his love — although it can never be fully known — and so be completely filled with the very nature of God.

₂₀To him who by means of his power working in us is able to do so much more than we can ever ask for, or even think of: ₂₁to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, for ever and ever! Amen.

₁I urge you, then — I who am a prisoner because I serve the Lord: live a life that measures up to the standard God set when he called you. ₂Be always humble, gentle, and patient. Show your love by being tolerant with one another. ₃Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together. ₄There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope to which God has called you. ₅There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ₆there is one God and Father of all, who is Lord of all, works through all, and is in all.

₇Each one of us has received a special gift in proportion to what Christ has given. ₈As the scripture says: