For it is by his mercy that you have been saved through faith. It is not by your own action, it is the gift of God.

And he has given us some men as apostles, some as prophets, some as missionaries, some as pastors and teachers,

You also were dead because of the offenses and sins

Henceforth you must grow strong through union with the Lord and through his mighty strength.

For we have to struggle, not with enemies of flesh and blood, but with the hierarchies, the authorities, the master-spirits of this dark world, the spirit-forces of evil on high.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm.

You also have heard the message of the truth, the good news of your salvation, and believed in him, and through union with him you have been marked with the seal of the holy Spirit that was promised,

You who are husbands must love your wives, just as Christ loves the church and gave himself for her,

You married women must subordinate yourselves to your husbands, as you do to the Lord,

For he has made us, creating us through our union with Christ Jesus for the life of goodness which God had predestined us to live.

Do not get drunk on wine, for that is profligacy, but be filled with the Spirit,

It is through union with him and through his blood that we have been delivered and our offenses forgiven,

So I, the prisoner for the Lord's sake, appeal to you to live lives worthy of the summons you have received;

Through him he chose us out before the creation of the world, to be consecrated and above reproach in his sight in love.

He has put everything under his feet and made him the indisputable head of the church,

To him who by the exertion of his power within us can do unutterably more than all we ask or imagine,

and subordinate yourselves to one another out of reverence to Christ.

So you are no longer foreigners or strangers, but you are fellow-citizens of God's people and members of his family.

You fathers, too, must not irritate your children, but you must bring them up with Christian training and instruction.

Children, as Christians obey your parents, for that is right.

For this reason I kneel before the Father

So follow God's example, like his dear children,

Use every kind of prayer and entreaty, and at every opportunity pray in the Spirit. Be on the alert about it; devote yourselves constantly to prayer for all God's people

As you read that, you will be able to understand the insight I have into the secret of the Christ

You must not offend God's holy Spirit, with which you have been marked for the Day of Redemption.

There is but one body and one Spirit, just as there is but one hope that belongs to the summons you received.

We must lovingly hold to the truth and grow up into perfect union with him who is the head??hrist himself.

in the abundance of his mercy which he has lavished upon us.

You must be kind to one another, you must be tender-hearted, and forgive one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

But God is so rich in mercy that because of the great love he had for us,

No bad word must ever pass your lips, but only words that are good and suited to improve the occasion, so that they will be a blessing to those who hear them.

So remember that you were once physically heathen, and called uncircumcised by those who called themselves circumcised, though only physically, by human hands.

You must put on God's armor, so as to be able to stand up against the devil's stratagems.

Be very careful, then, about the way you live. Do not act thoughtlessly, but like sensible men,

in order to fit his people for the work of service, for building the body of Christ,

and speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and sacred songs. Sing praise to God with all your hearts;

So what I mean and insist upon in the Lord's name is this: You must no longer live like the heathen, with their frivolity of mind and darkened understanding.

and take salvation for your helmet, and for your sword the Spirit, which is the voice of God.

for a husband is the head of his wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, which is his body, and is saved by him.

You are built upon the apostles and prophets as your foundation, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's people who are steadfast in Christ Jesus;

Therefore have nothing to do with them.

to win praise for his glory, by having been the first to believe in Christ.

in the midst of which you once lived under the control of the present age of the world, and the master-spirit of the air, who is still at work among the disobedient.

Be angry, but do not sin. The sun must not go down upon your anger;

So you must lay aside falsehood and each tell his neighbor the truth, for we are parts of one another.

You must lay aside with your former habits your old self which is going to ruin through its deceptive passions.

But each one of us has been given mercy in Christ's generous measure.

Have nothing to do with the profitless doings of the darkness; expose them instead.

for you know that everyone, slave or free, will be rewarded by the Lord for his good conduct.

You who are slaves, obey your earthly masters, in reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would the Christ,

But immorality or any form of vice or greed must not be so much as mentioned among you; that would not be becoming in God's people.

The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation through the knowledge of himself,

We must not be babies any longer, blown about and swung around by every wind of doctrine through the trickery of men with their ingenuity in inventing error.

until we all attain unity in faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and reach mature manhood, and that full measure of development found in Christ.

Make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the tie of peace.

For he is himself our peace. He has united the two divisions, and broken down the barrier that kept us apart,

one God and Father of all, who is above us all, pervades us all, and is within us all.

There is but one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

and beg him out of his wealth of glory to strengthen you mightily through his Spirit in your inner nature

This is why I, Paul, whom Jesus the Christ has made a prisoner for the sake of you heathen??2 if at least you have heard how I dealt with the mercy of God that was given me for you,

For once you were sheer darkness, but now, as Christians, you are light itself. You must live like children of light,

You must give up all bitterness, rage, anger, and loud, abusive talk, and all spite.

he exerted in raising Christ from the dead, and seating him at his right hand in heaven,

(which in past ages was not disclosed to mankind as fully as it has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets)

He foreordained us to become his sons through Jesus Christ, in fulfilment of his generous purpose,

So you must take God's armor, so that when the evil day comes you will be able to make a stand, and when it is all over to hold your ground.

You who are masters, too, must treat your slaves in the same way, and cease to threaten them, for you know that their Master and yours is in heaven, and that he will show no partiality.

This is why I, for my part, since I have heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that prevails among you and among all God's people,

enlightening the eyes of your mind so that you may know what the hope is to which he calls you, and how gloriously rich his inheritance is among God's people,

But now through your union with Christ Jesus you who were once far away have through the blood of Christ been brought near.

We all lived among them once, indulging our physical cravings and obeying the impulses of our lower nature and its thoughts, and by nature we were doomed to God's wrath like other men.

with perfect humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another lovingly.

and through your faith to let Christ in his love make his home in your hearts. Your roots must be deep and your foundations strong,

And he raised us with Christ, and through our union with Christ Jesus made us sit down with him in heaven,

so that we might praise the splendid blessing which he has given us through his beloved Son.

he made us, dead as we were through our offenses, live again with the Christ. It is by his mercy that you have been saved.

The man who stole must not steal any more; he must work with his hands at honest toil instead, so as to have something to share with those who are in need.

and put on the new self which has been created in likeness to God, with all the uprightness and holiness that belong to the truth.

So it says, "When he went up on high, he led a host of captives, And gave gifts to mankind."

and lead loving lives, just as Christ loved you and gave himself for you, as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

to consecrate her, after cleansing her with the bath in water through her confession of him,

and making clear how the secret purpose is to be worked out which has been hidden away for ages in God the creator of all things,

For you may be sure that no one who is immoral, or greedy for gain (for that is idolatry) can have any share in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

which is his body, filled by him who fills everything everywhere.

What does "he went up" mean, except that he had first gone down to the under parts of the earth?

At that time you had no connection with Christ, you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the agreements about God's promise; with no hope and no God in all the world.

and in arranging, when the time should have fully come, that everything in heaven and on earth should be unified in Christ??11 the Christ through whom it is our lot to have been predestined by the design of him who in everything carries out the purpose of his will,

Therefore a man must leave his father and mother and attach himself to his wife, and they must become one.

you must make sure what pleases the Lord.

For it is under his control that the whole system, adjusted and united by each ligament of its equipment, develops in proportion to the functioning of each particular part, and so builds itself up through love.

Stand your ground, then, with the belt of truth around your waist, and put on uprightness as your coat of mail,

Whatever anyone may say in the way of worthless arguments to deceive you, these are the things that are bringing God's anger down upon the disobedient.

He has given us perfect insight into his secret purpose and understanding of it, in following out the design he planned to carry out in Christ,

It is he who went down who has also gone up above all the heavens, to fill the universe.

so that the many-sided wisdom of God may now through the church be made known to the rulers and authorities in heaven,

To me, the very least of all his people, this favor has been given, of preaching to the heathen the inexhaustible wealth of the Christ,

for it is through him that we both with one Spirit are now able to approach the Father.

always give thanks for everything to God our Father, as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Besides all these, take faith for your shield, for with it you will be able to put out all the flaming missiles of the evil one,

But each one of you must love his wife just as he loves himself, and the wife, too, must respect her husband.

and how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe; like the mighty strength

yet when anything is exposed by the light, it is made visible, and anything that is made visible is light.

For while it is degrading even to mention their secret practices,

fulfilling the eternal purpose which God carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.

and to kill the feud between them with his cross and in one body reconcile them both to God with it.

for they have become callous, and abandoned themselves to sensuality, greedily practicing every kind of vice.

In order that you also may know how I am, our dear brother Tychicus, a faithful helper in the Lord's service, will tell you all about it.

There must be no indecency or foolish or scurrilous talk??ll that is unbecoming. There should be thanksgiving instead.

That is the very reason I am sending him, to let you know how I am, and to cheer your hearts.

He came with the good news of peace for you who were far away and for those who were near;

God's blessing be with all who have an unfailing love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

from whom every family in heaven or on earth takes its name,

at least if you have really become acquainted with him and been instructed in him, and in union with him have been taught the truth as it is found in Jesus.

for the sake of which I am an envoy, and in prison. Pray that, when I tell it, I may have the courage to speak as I ought.

not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God.

Just as the church is in subjection to Christ, so married women must be, in everything, to their husbands.

God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give the brothers peace and love, with faith.

for no one ever hates his own person, but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ does with the church,

So I ask that what I am having to suffer for your sake may not make me lose heart, for it does you honor.

So it says, "Wake up, sleeper! Rise from the dead, And Christ will dawn upon you!"

in order to bring the church to himself in all her beauty, without a flaw or a wrinkle or anything of the kind, but to be consecrated and faultless.

God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

and through his human nature put an end to the feud between us, and abolished the Law with its rules and regulations, in order to make peace and create out of the two parties one new man by uniting them with himself,

and to understand Christ's love, so far beyond our understanding, so that you may be filled with the very fulness of God.

and for me, that when I open my lips I may be given a message, so that I may boldly make known the secret of the good news,

and make the most of your opportunity, for these are evil times.

That is the way husbands ought to love their wives??s if they were their own bodies; a man who loves his wife is really loving himself,

So do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

be glory through the church and through Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever. Amen.

It has not been earned, so that no one can boast of it.

They are estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that exists among them and their obstinacy of heart,

You must adopt a new attitude of mind,

to show the incomparable wealth of his mercy throughout the ages to come by his goodness to us through Christ Jesus.

and you are yourselves built up into a dwelling for God through the Spirit.

far above all hierarchies, authorities, powers, and dominions, and all titles that can be bestowed not only in this world but in the world to come.

Do your duties heartily and willingly, as though it were for the Lord, not for men,

which is the advance installment of our inheritance, so that we may get full possession of it, and praise his glory for it.

you must not give the devil a chance.

"You must honor your father and mother"??hat is the first commandment accompanied with a promise??3 "so that you may prosper and have a long life on earth."

that through union with Christ Jesus the heathen are fellow-heirs with the Jews, belong to the same body and share the promise with them, through the good news

and how the secret was made known to me by revelation, as I have just briefly written.

and on your feet put the readiness the good news of peace brings.

for which I became a worker by virtue of the gift of God's mercy which by the exercise of his power he has given me.

That is not the way you have been taught what Christ means,

Through union with him and through faith in him, we have courage to approach God with confidence.

so that you and all God's people may be strong enough to grasp what breadth, length, height, and depth mean,

for light leads to perfect goodness, uprightness, and truth;

This is a great secret, but I understand it of Christ and the church.

never cease to thank God for you when I mention you in my prayers.

for we are parts of his body.

Through him every part of the building is closely united and grows into a temple sacred through its relation to the Lord,