to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He did make us accepted in the beloved,

in which He did abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

which is an earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory.

which He wrought in the Christ, having raised him out of the dead, and did set him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

which is his body, the fulness of Him who is filling the all in all,

in which once ye did walk according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience,

and God, being rich in kindness, because of His great love with which He loved us,

for of Him we are workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God did before prepare, that in them we may walk.

in regard to which ye are able, reading it, to understand my knowledge in the secret of the Christ,

which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit --

of which I became a ministrant, according to the gift of the grace of God that was given to me, according to the working of His power;

according to a purpose of the ages, which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord,

wherefore, I ask you not to faint in my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

Call upon you, then, do I -- the prisoner of the Lord -- to walk worthily of the calling with which ye were called,

and to put on the new man, which, according to God, was created in righteousness and kindness of the truth.

and make not sorrowful the Holy Spirit of God, in which ye were sealed to a day of redemption.

and be not drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in the Spirit,

which is the first command with a promise, 'That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live a long time upon the land.'

above all, having taken up the shield of the faith, in which ye shall be able all the fiery darts of the evil one to quench,

and the helmet of the salvation receive, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the saying of God,

for which I am an ambassador in a chain, that in it I may speak freely -- as it behoveth me to speak.