to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He has made us accepted in the One having been loved.

In [fellowship with] Christ we have redemption [i.e., we have been bought back from Satan] through His blood, and have forgiveness of sins according to the abundance of God's unearned favor,

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,

in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will;

so that we who were the first to hope in Christ [who first put our confidence in Him as our Lord and Savior] would exist to the praise of His glory.

in whom ye also have trusted, having heard the word of the truth, the glad tidings of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

(the eyes of your hearts having been enlightened), so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what [are] the riches of the glory of his inheritance among the saints,

of which number we all have formerly been, leading our dissolute lives in gratifying the desires of our sensual imaginations: and were indeed obnoxious to the divine displeasure, as other. Gentiles were:

even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved),

for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

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

For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them.

that ye were at that time apart from Christ, having been alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope, and without God, in the world;

But now [at this very moment] in Christ Jesus you who once were [so very] far away [from God] have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who has made the two into one, and by whom the middle wall of division has been broken down,

and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.

You are a building which has been reared on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus Himself,

in whom every building having been fitly framed together, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord;

by whom also ye have been built up together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

(if indeed ye have heard of the administration of the grace of God which has been given to me towards you,

that by revelation the mystery has been made known to me, (according as I have written before briefly,

by reading which you can understand my knowledge of the mystery of Christ,??5 which in other generations was not made known to the children of men as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit,

which in other generation was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;

I mean the truth that the Gentiles are joint heirs with us Jews, and that they form one body with us, and have the same interest as we have in the promise which has been made good in Christ Jesus through the Good News,

in which I have been appointed to serve, in virtue of the work which God, in the exercise of His power within me, has graciously entrusted to me.

To me, less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given, to announce among the nations the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ,

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

that the Christ may dwell through the faith in your hearts, in love having been rooted and founded,

having been rooted and grounded in love, so that ye may be able to grasp with all the sanctified what is the breadth and length and depth and height,

I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you therefore to walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called,

There is one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling;

But to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ.

Whose thoughts are dark, to whom the life of God is strange because they are without knowledge, and their hearts have been made hard;

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

If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.

He who has been a thief must steal no more, but, instead of that, should work with his own hands in honest industry, so that he may have something of which he can give the needy a share.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which ye have been sealed for the day of redemption.

be kind to each other, be tender-hearted, be generous to each other as God has been generous to you in Christ.

So, it says, "You who are asleep, wake up and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you [i.e., illuminate you]." [Note: The foregoing words may have been an early saying, used at someone's immersion, which included the ideas of "rising up" (See Col. 2:12) and "illumination" (See Heb. 6:4)].