May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be praised, for He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in [fellowship with] Christ. [Note: The term "heavenly realms" is used somewhat differently throughout this book. Here it refers to Christians as part of the church on earth].

And God placed everything in subjection under His [i.e., Christ's] feet, and appointed Him to be head over all things to the church,

which is His [spiritual] body. The church is completely filled by Christ [or, "Christ is completely filled by God"], who completely fills everything in every way.

God raised us up with Christ [See Col. 2:12] and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms [i.e., in the church. See 1:3] in [fellowship with] Christ Jesus.

by abolishing in His fleshly body the [entire Jewish] law of commandments contained in decrees. [This was] so that He could create in [unity with] Himself one new person [i.e., the church] out of the two peoples [i.e., Jews and Gentiles], thereby bringing about peace [between them].

In [harmony with] Him the entire building [i.e., the church] is properly assembled, rising into a dedicated temple for the Lord. [See I Cor. 3:16-17].

This secret plan is that the Gentiles [now] share in the inheritance along with us [Jews], and are fellow-members of the body [i.e., the church], and that they share, along with us [Jews], in the promise of the Gospel, in [fellowship with] Christ Jesus.

This was done so that now God's many-sided wisdom could be made known through the church, to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms [Note: "Heavenly realms" here refers to the world around us, where these angelic beings (good or bad) view the unfolding of God's wonderful plan],

[I say] may there be praise to God in the church and in [or, "for"] Christ Jesus throughout all generations of people for ages and ages. May it be so.

There is [only] one body [i.e., church] and one Holy Spirit, just as God also gave you one hope when He called you [See Titus 3:7].

for the purpose of equipping the saints [i.e., God's holy people] for the work of serving [others], in order to build up the [spiritual] body of Christ [i.e., the church].

But [instead], we should speak [and practice] truth in a loving way, so that we can, in all respects, grow up [spiritually] into [union with] Christ, who is the head [i.e., of His body, the church].

For the husband is the [spiritual] head over his wife, just as Christ is also the [spiritual] head over the church, since He is the Savior of the body.

But just as the church submits to Christ, so wives also should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, you should love your wives just as Christ also loved the church, and gave up His life for her,

[This is] so He could present the church to Himself in all her splendor, without any kind of stain or wrinkle, but that she should be holy and without [moral] flaw.

For no [normal] person ever hated his own [physical] body, but [instead] he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ also does for the church,

The secret [truth] of this is great, but I am talking about Christ and the church.