The Living Bible (374 page)

Ephesians
2

Once you were under God’s curse, doomed forever for your sins.
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 You went along with the crowd and were just like all the others, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air, who is at work right now in the hearts of those who are against the Lord.
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 All of us used to be just as they are, our lives expressing the evil within us, doing every wicked thing that our passions or our evil thoughts might lead us into. We started out bad, being born with evil natures, and were under God’s anger just like everyone else.

    
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 But God is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much
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 that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again
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when he raised Christ from the dead—only by his undeserved favor have we ever been saved—
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 and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with him in the heavenly realms—all because of what Christ Jesus did.
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 And now God can always point to us as examples of how very, very rich his kindness is, as shown in all he has done for us through Jesus Christ.

    
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 Because of his kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves;
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it too is a gift from God.
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 Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it.
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 It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.

    
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 Never forget that once you were heathen and that you were called godless and “unclean” by the Jews. (But their hearts, too, were still unclean, even though they were going through the ceremonies and rituals of the godly, for they circumcised themselves as a sign of godliness.)
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 Remember that in those days you were living utterly apart from Christ; you were enemies of God’s children, and he had promised you no help. You were lost, without God, without hope.

    
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 But now you belong to Christ Jesus, and though you once were far away from God, now you have been brought very near to him because of what Jesus Christ has done for you with his blood.

    
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 For Christ himself is our way of peace. He has made peace between us Jews and you Gentiles by making us all one family,
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breaking down the wall of contempt
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that used to separate us.
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 By his death he ended the angry resentment between us, caused by the Jewish laws that favored the Jews and excluded the Gentiles, for he died to annul that whole system of Jewish laws. Then he took the two groups that had been opposed to each other and made them parts of himself; thus he fused us together to become one new person, and at last there was peace.
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 As parts of the same body, our anger against each other has disappeared, for both of us have been reconciled to God. And so the feud ended at last at the cross.
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 And he has brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were very far away from him, and to us Jews who were near.
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 Now all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles, may come to God the Father with the Holy Spirit’s help because of what Christ has done for us.

    
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 Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.

    
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 What a foundation you stand on now: the apostles and the prophets; and the cornerstone of the building is Jesus Christ himself!
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 We who believe are carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful, constantly growing temple for God.
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 And you also are joined with him and with each other by the Spirit and are part of this dwelling place of God.

Ephesians
3

I, Paul, the servant of Christ, am here in jail because of you—for preaching that you Gentiles are a part of God’s house.
^2-3
 No doubt you already know that God has given me this special work of showing God’s favor to you Gentiles, as I briefly mentioned before in one of my letters. God himself showed me this secret plan of his, that the Gentiles, too, are included in his kindness.
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 I say this to explain to you how I know about these things.
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 In olden times God did not share this plan with his people, but now he has revealed it by the Holy Spirit to his apostles and prophets.

    
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 And this is the secret: that the Gentiles will have their full share with the Jews in all the riches inherited by God’s sons; both are invited to belong to his Church, and all of God’s promises of mighty blessings through Christ apply to them both when they accept the Good News about Christ and what he has done for them.
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 God has given me the wonderful privilege of telling everyone about this plan of his; and he has given me his power and special ability to do it well.

    
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 Just think! Though I did nothing to deserve it, and though I am the most useless Christian there is, yet I was the one chosen for this special joy of telling the Gentiles the Glad News of the endless treasures available to them in Christ;
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 and to explain to everyone that God is the Savior of the Gentiles too, just as he who made all things had secretly planned from the very beginning.

    
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 And his reason? To show to all the rulers in heaven how perfectly wise he is when all of his family—Jews and Gentiles alike—are seen to be joined together in his Church
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 in just the way he had always planned it through Jesus Christ our Lord.

    
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 Now we can come fearlessly right into God’s presence, assured of his glad welcome when we come with Christ and trust in him.

    
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 So please don’t lose heart at what they are doing to me here. It is for you I am suffering, and you should feel honored and encouraged.

    
^14-15
 When I think of the wisdom and scope of his plan, I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father of all the great family of God—some of them already in heaven and some down here on earth—
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 that out of his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you the mighty inner strengthening of his Holy Spirit.
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 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love;
^18-19
 and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself.

    
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 Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.
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 May he be given glory forever and ever through endless ages because of his master plan of salvation for the Church through Jesus Christ.

Ephesians
4

I beg you—I, a prisoner here in jail for serving the Lord—to live and act in a way worthy of those who have been chosen for such wonderful blessings as these.
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 Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.
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 Try always to be led along together by the Holy Spirit and so be at peace with one another.

    
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 We are all parts of one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future.
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 For us there is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
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 and we all have the same God and Father who is over us all and in us all, and living through every part of us.
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 However, Christ has given each of us special abilities—whatever he wants us to have out of his rich storehouse of gifts.

    
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 The psalmist tells about this, for he says that when Christ returned triumphantly to heaven after his resurrection and victory over Satan, he gave generous gifts to men.
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 Notice that it says he returned to heaven. This means that he had first come down from the heights of heaven, far down to the lowest parts of the earth.
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 The same one who came down is the one who went back up, that he might fill all things everywhere with himself, from the very lowest to the very highest.

    
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 Some of us have been given special ability as apostles; to others he has given the gift of being able to preach well; some have special ability in winning people to Christ, helping them to trust him as their Savior; still others have a gift for caring for God’s people as a shepherd does his sheep, leading and teaching them in the ways of God.

    
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 Why is it that he gives us these special abilities to do certain things best? It is that God’s people will be equipped to do better work for him, building up the Church, the body of Christ, to a position of strength and maturity;
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 until finally we all believe alike about our salvation and about our Savior, God’s Son, and all become full-grown in the Lord—yes, to the point of being filled full with Christ.

    
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 Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.
^15-16
 Instead, we will lovingly follow the truth at all times—speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly
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—and so become more and more in every way like Christ who is the Head of his body, the Church. Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly, and each part in its own special way helps the other parts, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

    
^17-18
 Let me say this, then, speaking for the Lord: Live no longer as the unsaved do, for they are blinded and confused. Their closed hearts are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds against him, and they cannot understand his ways.
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 They don’t care anymore about right and wrong and have given themselves over to impure ways. They stop at nothing, being driven by their evil minds and reckless lusts.

    
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 But that isn’t the way Christ taught you!
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 If you have really heard his voice and learned from him the truths concerning himself,
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 then throw off your old evil nature—the old you that was a partner in your evil ways—rotten through and through, full of lust and sham.

    
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 Now your attitudes and thoughts must all be constantly changing for the better.
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 Yes, you must be a new and different person, holy and good. Clothe yourself with this new nature.

    
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 Stop lying to each other; tell the truth, for we are parts of each other and when we lie to each other we are hurting ourselves.
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 If you are angry, don’t sin by nursing your grudge. Don’t let the sun go down with you still angry—get over it quickly;
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 for when you are angry, you give a mighty foothold to the devil.

    
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 If anyone is stealing he must stop it and begin using those hands of his for honest work so he can give to others in need.
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 Don’t use bad language. Say only what is good and helpful to those you are talking to, and what will give them a blessing.

    
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 Don’t cause the Holy Spirit sorrow by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who marks you to be present on that day when salvation from sin will be complete.
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 Stop being mean, bad-tempered, and angry. Quarreling, harsh words, and dislike of others should have no place in your lives.
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 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ.