So then, you [Gentiles] are no longer foreigners and aliens [i.e., to God's promises. See verse 12], but you are fellow-citizens with the saints [i.e., God's holy people], and are part of God's family.

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

That you were at that time without Christ, being cut off from any part in Israel's rights as a nation, having no part in God's agreement, having no hope, and without God in the world.

For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God;

He is a down payment of our inheritance, until God's own possession [i.e., His people] receives redemption. [Note: Here "redemption" refers to receiving a new body in heaven]. May this bring about praise to God's splendor.

and what God's tremendous power [working] in us believers is. [This power is] the same as that utilized by God's mighty strength,

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],

And do not grieve God's Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed [i.e., given evidence of God's ownership] until the day of redemption [i.e., until you receive your new body in heaven. See 1:14].

Grace to you and peace [inner calm and spiritual well-being] from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I pray that your minds will be enlightened so that you will know what the hope is, to which God has called you, and what the glorious abundance is, of God's inheritance in the saints [Note: Paul wanted them to appreciate the value God placed on them],

For we are God's masterpiece, created in the Messiah Jesus to perform good actions that God prepared long ago to be our way of life.

and to enlighten everyone about God's secret plan -- a secret that has been hidden for ages in God who has created all things.

Put on the full armor of God [for His precepts are like the splendid armor of a heavily-armed soldier], so that you may be able to [successfully] stand up against all the schemes and the strategies and the deceits of the devil.

It is in [fellowship with] Christ that we [Jewish Christians] also were selected as [God's] inheritance [i.e., to receive His never ending blessings], having been predetermined according to the plan of God, who works out everything in harmony with what He wants.

until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.

Yet grace [God’s undeserved favor] was given to each one of us [not indiscriminately, but in different ways] in proportion to the measure of Christ’s [rich and abundant] gift.

Let it not be in acts of eye-service as if you had but to please men, but as Christ's bondservants who are doing God's will from the heart.

so that you, along with all the saints [i.e., God's holy people], will be [spiritually] strong enough to grasp how wide and long and high and deep [Christ's love is];

once lived while gratifying the cravings of our lower nature, as we continued to carry out the impulses of our lower nature and its thoughts, and by nature we were exposed to God's wrath, as the rest of mankind.

that is, if you have heard how God's favor has been entrusted to me for you,

for which I was called to serve in accordance with the gift of God's unmerited favor which was bestowed on me by the exercise of His power--

for the immediate equipment of God's people for the work of service, for the ultimate building up of the body of Christ,

So you must keep on following God's example, as dearly loved children of His,

But sexual vice and any form of immorality or sensual greed must not so much as be mentioned among you, as that is the only course becoming in God's people;

Stop letting anyone deceive you with groundless arguments about these things, for it is because of these very sins that God's anger comes down upon the disobedient.

So you must take on God's full armor, so as to be able to take a stand in the day when evil attacks you, and, after having completely finished the contest, to hold your own.

Keep on praying in the Spirit, with every kind of prayer and entreaty, at every opportunity, be ever on the alert with perfect devotion and entreaty for all God's people,

In union with him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses, according to the riches of God's grace

You, too, are being built in him, along with the others, into a place for God's Spirit to dwell.

which in previous generations was not made known to human beings as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This is that secret:

and to clothe yourselves with the new nature, which was created according to God's image in righteousness and true holiness.