Ephesians Explanatory Translation (member version)
Welcome members.
We hope you enjoy the beginnings of this Explanatory Translation of Ephesians.
Chapter 1
1 I am Paul and I write to you the words Jesus Christ has commissioned me to write according to the will of God. I write to those who God made to be His own—different from those who belong to this world—to you Ephesians who have trusted in Christ Jesus.
2 I want you to know that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are continually bestowing on you their great favor and they are working to give you wholeness in your soul so you will not have any anxiety in your spirit, but instead will be filled up with the goodness of God. 3 As a matter of fact, because you are in Christ, God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed you, and is blessing you, and will always continue to bless you with every spiritual blessing that exists in the heavenly realm. There is no limit to how much blessing He is working to lavish on you. 4 Because even before the world began, God the Father decided that He would make you and me to live in His presence as holy and completely without fault in His sight. He committed Himself to do all this for us because that is who He is and what He is like: committed to our benefit at the expense of His benefit no matter what the cost.
5 & 6 He decided way back then to adopt you and me into His family as His children, and all this would be accomplished through what Jesus Christ did. It pleased Him to do all this for us because He wants us to experience the extreme joy—the extreme joy that comes when we gratefully praise Him for the glorious favor He freely lavishes on us who are in His beloved Son.
7 The price God paid for his lavish gift was the blood of Jesus Christ when He died in our place, buying us back, forgiving all the bad things we do. He did all this for us because that is just who He is and what He is like—He sacrifices Himself so we can experience the great riches of His blessings. 8 God continually pours His unimaginably great riches into our lives, but He does it carefully, using great wisdom and understanding, so it ultimately does us good and not harm (because we know that often if we get exactly what we wish for, it ends up being a really bad idea).
9 & 10 And one way God wisely blesses us is by revealing the vastness of Christ’s work for us—riches that until now have been kept in the secret places of eternity. Because the nature and purpose of God is to, now that the time is exactly right, to reunite in Christ all things on earth with all things in heaven. 11 And that includes us! According to His plan before time began, God the Father predestined you and me to be re-united with Christ and to be co-inheritors of all things with Him. 12 God has done all this so that we who trust in Christ will joyfully exult in and proclaim His awesome accomplishments. We do this because we know with certainty that the finished work of Jesus Christ guarantees all these will be ours even though many of them have not yet been received.
13 & 14 And the down-payment and guarantee of all those promises is God’s own Holy Spirit, whom you have already received, when you heard and trusted in the truth of God that you are saved by the work of Christ. God has done all this so we will see and proclaim the great magnitude of what kind of person Christ is to have done all this for us.
15, 16 & 17 As you have grabbed hold of these truths it has resulted in you having a more solid trust in the Lord Jesus. And it has spawned a deeper attitude of sacrificial love in you so that you are considering all the others that God has set apart to be His own heirs—that you consider each other to be more important than yourself. Yes, I have heard about all this, and it causes me to always remember to pray for you. And what specifically am I praying for you?
First, I am thanking God for you and for doing all of this in you! And then I am praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of great and immeasurable magnificence, would give you a spirit of wisdom so you will be more spiritually prosperous and skilled in navigating the challenges of life, and that He would reveal to you a better and better understanding of Who He truly is and what He is truly like. 18 For you who He has called to be His own: I am praying that He would enlighten the eyes of your heart that you would be even more convinced of the absolute certainty of what God has in store for you. Specifically, I am praying that God would make clear to you what are the enormous riches of His inheritance that He has in you!
19 I pray that God would make known to you the exceeding greatness of His overwhelming power. He exerts this power to benefit us, as we trust Him to be strong for us. 20 This is the same power and strength He used to raise Christ from the dead, and to seat Christ in the heavenly realms at His right hand in the place of authority over everything. 21 And by “everything,” I mean that Jesus Christ is above every other ruling force; and every other authority; and every other power; and every other ruler; and every other reputation; all of which are now subject to His will. And He has this supreme power and authority not only in this present age, but He will continue to have it throughout the entirety of the age to come.
22 In other words, God the Father has put all these rulers and powers and reputations under Christ’s feet, so they are forever subject to whatever Christ says. 23 And God did this because of the Church, which is the body of Christ. The Church has Christ’s entire priority and focus because He is in the process of filling it with ALL that He is. [Translator’s note: The implication here is that the Church is not only just the most important thing in history, but it means that, because He is filling us with ALL that He is, the Church is the ONLY reason for human history!]
Chapter 2
1-3 You used to live your life clueless and uncaring, continually wandering into all sorts of error and sin. You just did whatever the lusts of your body and mind wanted. You blindly followed the dictates and leading of the evil spirits who willfully appealed to whatever fleshly impulses you felt at the moment. In the same way, we all refused to be persuaded by God about truth, and were therefore subject to His wrath in all that we did, just like everyone else around us who were also clueless about God.
4 But God, who cares so much more about your welfare than He does about His own, committed Himself to have mercy on you and to bless you no matter what it cost Him.
5-6 For we were dead and helpless as we constantly, blindly, stumbled into error. But God decided He would pay the whole price necessary to save us and raise us from this death and make us alive in Christ Jesus. And not just alive in Christ, but He exalted us to the extreme position of being seated with Christ on His throne, sharing with us His authority over all the heavenly realms.
7 And why did He do this? He did all this in order to spectacularly show us the extravagant riches of Christ, which are now all ours, because He freely lavishes all of them on us who are in Christ Jesus; and not only now, but also in all the ages to come.
8-9 God made a decision: to show you extreme favor and save you by pulling you up out of sin and healing the damage sin has caused in your life. What does he ask of you in return? Only this: that you trust Him to do all of it for you, because you can't bring a thing to the table. You can't contribute a thing, and you don't deserve a bit of it. But He does it all as a free gift anyway, no strings attached.
But I'll say it again--none of this was your doing. You don't bring a shred you can hold onto and feel good about that might obligate God to help you. That's why it's 100% God's doing, His gift to you.
10 And what was God’s purpose in doing this for you? Remember His plan is to bless you, and from the beginning He has planned and worked to create you and then save you by the sacrificial work of Christ Jesus, so you could experience His goodness. He displays His goodness in the healing activities He has planned for you to participate in and enjoy.
11-13 Thinking about this great salvation we have in Christ Jesus, let’s take a moment to put it all into historical perspective. You gentiles used to be regarded as foreigners to the promises and heritage of God.
You were regarded as foreigners by the Jews because they were included from ancient times into the covenants of God (as given through Abraham and Moses). They lived out their inclusion into these covenants by conforming to the fleshly ordinance of circumcision that God gave to Abraham and his descendants. And for generations they also subjected themselves to the ordinances of the Law given by God through Moses.
In contrast, you gentiles, because you were not circumcised or subject to the Law of Moses, you were separated from God and from the promised hope of salvation that would come to the descendants of Abraham. You used to be on the outside, alienated from the covenants of God. But now, because of Christ Jesus, you are on the inside by the power of the blood of Christ being sacrificed for you. And you are now completely exalted as equal heirs with the Jews to receive all the same promises of God.
14-17 Christ has abolished in His flesh the need for these ancient commandments and decrees. For Jesus Christ Himself is our completeness before God. Because Christ Himself has made up all the deficits in our righteousness, which He did through the sacrifice of His life on the cross. God now sees nothing lacking in our righteousness as we now stand in the blood of Christ before Him. This applies equally to those who have spent their whole life being diligent about doing what God requires in His Law and also to those who are just now hearing the truth about God for the first time.
There used to be a wall of hostile pride between those who devoted their lives to obeying God and those who didn’t know or care anything about God. But the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross is so powerful that it completely demolishes all arguments that would elevate the righteousness of those who would claim some merit before God because of their obedience. Both sides now know that the ONLY justification they can have before God is the blood of Christ. Jesus Christ has annulled any claim of those who think they could earn some merit before God through their obedience to His Law.
The blood sacrifice of Christ on the cross is so powerful that it alone has become the ONLY reason for God declaring us righteous. It alone unifies all of us in Christ. This is true both for those who have been carefully diligent to devote their lives to obeying God’s Law, and also for those who used to ignore God as they pursued their own selfish agenda.
18 And what is the proof that we all have equal standing before God? The fact that God’s Holy Spirit indwells each of us and therefore provides everyone one of us (who is in Christ) with unhindered full access to God the Father.
19 So then, even those who are new to this relationship with God are not treated as strangers or outsiders or less important, but we all are now equal members in God’s household, fully equal in all aspects of merit and right standing before God.
20-22 Each of us has a critically important role to play in the home God is building for Himself, in which He dwells in each of us by His Holy Spirit. This home has a foundation that was laid by the apostles and prophets as directed by Jesus Christ Himself. And because God Himself dwells in you, each of you fill an indispensable place in the superstructure.
[Translator’s note: As you read and study and pray about this chapter, please don’t miss this: No one of us has followed the law of God satisfactorily. We all are found guilty and condemned before God if we are judged on the basis of the way we have lived and what we have done. But Jesus Christ Himself has already substituted his complete righteousness for our unrighteousness (because when we are at our best, on our own we all fall short, way short, of God’s glory), so we each of us who are in Christ already stands perfectly righteous before God. It is for this reason that God finds no grounds for condemnation in any of us—because we each stand before God already clothed in the complete righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself.]
Chapter 3
1-5 I have a secret! This is a secret that, up until now, God has kept hidden from all previous generations, (9-10) and even from the angels. But now, God has revealed it to His apostles and has told me to share it with those of you who have accepted that I am an apostle, compelled by Christ to share such things with you. For God has commissioned me to share this mystery that has been hidden from the ages but now has been revealed to me by God’s Holy Spirit so I could write it, and you could read it and absorb the mind-blowing truth of the way God’s grace works in the Church.
So, if you are ready to hear this secret and know and accept the power of the blood of Christ, here it is: (6-8) The cost of your righteous standing before God is infinite, but Jesus Christ has completely paid this infinite price. As I have said, the power of the shed blood of Christ is yours whether you are a Jew who has devoted his whole life to serving God, or whether you are a gentile who has recently forsaken a life of rebellion against God, and you now plead only the shed blood of Jesus Christ as your only merit before God. Both of you have equal standing before God because He only sees Christ when He looks at you, and nothing you have done, good or bad, enters into His assessment of your righteousness, which is really good for you because the cost is infinite and that is way beyond our ability to achieve. [translator’s note: the implication here is that our sin is an infinite error because it is the violation of the infinite holiness of God, and therefore requires infinite payment.]
Both the Jew and the gentile will receive exactly the same reward and standing before God because the blood of Christ is that powerful.
6-7 This is the Gospel: the message of the undeterred intention of God to rescue us from our sin and exalt us all as equal heirs in Christ. And God is showing His great free and unhindered favor to us by using His great power to make me to be an enthusiastic and effective messenger of this Gospel to you.
8 To do this, God has given me the lowest status of anyone in society because He has made me to be the servant to all; no one is my servant, and I am delighted to be the servant to everyone else as I carry out this calling to preach and teach you about this mystery of the infinite riches of Christ that God is bestowing on you!
9-11 God has been right to keep this mystery hidden—a right that is His alone because, after all, He is the creator of all things. He has kept it hidden from all previous generations until now because now it has finally been fulfilled by the life and sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This has been His eternal plan all along, … but He kept it hidden not only from all previous generations on earth, but also from all the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. Just think about how magnificent is the wisdom of God that He should reveal this, His greatest truth, to the angelic hosts by what they now see is at work in the Church!
12 And what do these angelic watchers see? Well, among other things, one surprising thing they see is that, for we humans who are persuaded by God to accept Christ’s sacrifice for us, we are now given free and unfettered access directly to the throne of God (something they do not have); we can each of us now come freely before Him boldly making our petitions and being confident He will hear and answer us according to our needs.
12-13 Don’t you see how exciting all this is? How thrilling it is that we have access directly to God almighty that not even the angels have? Don’t you see how extremely important this makes you in the sight of all the heavenly hosts!!! In light of this, please, please, please do not lose heart when you see the tribulation I have to endure to bring this good news to you. Instead of being discouraged by my suffering, you should be rejoicing at the great favor God is showing you—I know I am!
14-16 So, what am I doing about all this? I am on my knees praying to our Heavenly Father who is the one who gives everyone their unique family status in the real social hierarchy of all beings. I am praying that His Holy Spirit would powerfully encourage and strengthen each of you in your inner person. How powerful? With the full power that comes from experiencing the infinite riches of His glory that are yours in Christ Jesus!
17 And how do we experience the infinite riches of Christ’s glory? Well, you have to realize that your faith comes from being firmly persuaded that Christ lives in your hearts, which in turn comes from each of you considering the others among you as more important than yourself.
18-19 Now here is the really big deal about all this: God’s plan is to completely fill you with all the infinite fullness of who He is! This, of course, is way beyond the ability of any of us to comprehend with our finite minds. But you will come to experientially know the full measure of all aspects of the way Christ considers YOUR benefit MORE important than HIS own, which will be revealed as you all work together to treat each other as more important than yourselves.
20-21 For you see, God’s full glory becomes apparent to everyone, both now and throughout all the ages to come, by what is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and in His body, the Church. Our part in this happens when we ask God for His provision and then He answers by His Holy Spirit powerfully working in us to deliver His provisions in a way that WAY more than exceeds anything we could have possibly imagined. In this way the Glory of God becomes apparent to all!!!
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