Ephesians 1:1-2

I am writing this to you people of God in Ephesus, asking that God will bless you.

1I, Paul, am an apostle whom God appointed ◄to represent/to proclaim the message about► Christ Jesus because that is what God wanted. I am writing this letter to you who are the people of God in Ephesus city. You are people who ◄faithfully/continue to► trust in Christ Jesus and who have a close relationship with him.

2I pray that God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord will continue to act kindly toward you and cause you to have inner peace.

We should praise God for having chosen and redeemed us, having revealed his plan to unite all things under Christ, and causing Christ to rule over all his people.

3Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of our relationship with Christ, he has blessed us spiritually in every way by giving us blessings that come from heaven.

4Before God created the world, he chose us to be his people because of our ◄relationship with/union with► Christ, in order that God could consider us to be completely holy [DOU]. Because God loves us,

5he decided long ago that he would adopt us to be as though we were his own children because of what Jesus Christ has done. He decided to do that because it pleased him to do that.

6He did it in order that we would praise him for acting very kindly toward us in a wonderful way that we did not deserve. He did it because of our relationship with his beloved Son {one, who is also God, whom he loves}.

7When the blood of Christ flowed when he died [MTY], it was as though he paid a price to free/save us from the guilt of our sins. That ◄provided a way/made it possible► for God to act very kindly toward us to forgive us for having sinned.

8He acted very kindly toward us and enabled us to become wise about many [HYP] things and to understand his truth.

9He has enabled us to know the things that he had planned secretly (OR, that he had not revealed to anyone yet). He did that because he wanted to do that, and because he planned to do that by means of the things Christ would do.

10God planned that at the time that he appointed, he would unite all things/beings in heaven and all things/beings on earth (OR, all beings in heaven and all things on earth), and cause Christ to be the one who will rule them [MET].

11Because of our close relationship with Christ, God has also chosen us (inc) (OR, us (exc) Jews) to receive what he has promised to give us. He decided long ago to do that. It was exactly what he planned. He accomplishes everything exactly as he plans and desires,

12in order that we(exc) Jews, who confidently expected the Messiah to do great things for us before the non-Jews expected such things (OR, we (inc) who were already confidently expecting Christ to do great things for us) will praise him for his greatness.

13You Ephesians also heard the true message, the good message about how God saves you. People put their seal on something to show that it belongs to them. Similarly, when you believed in Christ, God showed that you also belong to him by sending you the Holy Spirit as he promised to do [MET].

14The Holy Spirit is like [MET] a ◄deposit/down payment►. That is, he ◄guarantees/assures us► that we will receive all that God has promised to give us, at the time when God will give to those who belong to him [MET] everything that Christ freed us to receive. God also assures you that you belong to him, in order that you would praise him for his greatness.

I thank God for your faith, and pray that you will understand more about how powerfully he works on our behalf, just like he did when he caused Christ to become alive again and made him ruler over everything.

15Because of what God has done for you, and because people told me that you continue to trust in the Lord Jesus and that you love all those who belong to God,

16I thank God for you constantly [LIT, HYP]. I ◄mention/pray for► you constantly, whenever I pray.

17I pray that God, who is the glorious/wonderful Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may cause his Spirit to make you wise, and that his Spirit will reveal God to you so that you may fully know him.

18And I pray that God would enable you to understand [MTY] his truth, in order that in your ◄inner beings/hearts► you may know the things that we believers should confidently expect to receive because he chose us to be his people. And I pray that you will know how God will bless his people in a very wonderful way when we finally receive all that he has promised to give us.

19And I pray that you will know how very powerfully God helps us who continue to trust in Christ. He works powerfully for us

20just like he acted powerfully for Christ when he caused Christ to become alive again after he died, and put him in the place of highest/greatest honor [MTY] in heaven.

21There, Christ is the supreme ruler over every powerful spirit of every level of authority. His rank is much higher than any powerful spirit can receive, not only now, but forever.

22God has caused all beings to be subject to Christ [MTY], and he has also appointed Christ, who rules over all things, to rule [MET] over all believers.

23We believers relate to Christ like the parts of a person’s body [MET] relate to its head. Christ uses all his power among us just like he uses his power throughout the whole universe.