Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech: Ephesians | Page 2

001:023 the completeness of Him who everywhere fills the universe
with Himself. 002:001 To you Gentiles also, who were dead through
your offences and sins, 002:002 which were once habitual to you while
you walked in the ways of this world and obeyed the Prince of the
powers of the air, the spirits that are now at work in the hearts of the
sons of disobedience--to you God has given Life. 002:003 Among them
all of us also formerly passed our lives, governed by the inclinations of
our lower natures, indulging the cravings of those natures and of our
own thoughts, and were in our original state deserving of anger like all
others. 002:004 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the intense
love which He bestowed on us, 002:005 caused us, dead though we
were through our offences, to live with Christ--it is by grace that you
have been saved-- 002:006 raised us with Him from the dead, and
enthroned us with Him in the heavenly realms as being in Christ Jesus,
002:007 in order that, by His goodness to us in Christ Jesus, He might
display in the Ages to come the transcendent riches of His grace.
002:008 For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith; and

that not of yourselves. It is God's gift, and is not on the ground of
merit-- 002:009 so that it may be impossible for any one to boast.
002:010 For we are God's own handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for
good works which He has pre-destined us to practise. 002:011
Therefore, do not forget that formerly you were Gentiles as to your
bodily condition. You were called the Uncircumcision by those who
style themselves the Circumcised--their circumcision being one which
the knife has effected. 002:012 At that time you were living apart from
Christ, estranged from the Commonwealth of Israel, with no share by
birth in the Covenants which are based on the Promises, and you had
no hope and no God, in all the world. 002:013 But now in Christ Jesus
you who once were so far away have been brought near through the
death of Christ. 002:014 For He is our peace--He who has made Jews
and Gentiles one, and in His own human nature has broken down the
hostile dividing wall, 002:015 by setting aside the Law with its
commandments, expressed, as they were, in definite decrees. His
design was to unite the two sections of humanity in Himself so as to
form one new man, 002:016 thus effecting peace, and to reconcile Jews
and Gentiles in one body to God, by means of His cross--slaying by it
their mutual enmity. 002:017 So He came and proclaimed good news
of peace to you who were so far away, and peace to those who were
near; 002:018 because it is through Him that Jews and Gentiles alike
have access through one Spirit to the Father. 002:019 You are therefore
no longer mere foreigners or persons excluded from civil rights. On the
contrary you share citizenship with God's people and are members of
His family. 002:020 You are a building which has been reared on the
foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, the cornerstone being Christ
Jesus Himself, 002:021 in union with whom the whole fabric, fitted and
closely joined together, is growing so as to form a holy sanctuary in the
Lord; 002:022 in whom you also are being built up together to become
a fixed abode for God through the Spirit. 003:001 For this reason I Paul,
the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles-- 003:002 if, that
is, you have heard of the work which God has graciously entrusted to
me for your benefit, 003:003 and that by a revelation the truth hitherto
kept secret was made known to me as I have already briefly explained
it to you. 003:004 By means of that explanation, as you read it, you can
judge of my insight into the truth of Christ 003:005 which in earlier

ages was not made known to the human race, as it has now been
revealed to His holy Apostles and Prophets through the Spirit-- 003:006
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, 003:007 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. 003:008 To me who am less than the least
of all God's people has this work been graciously entrusted--to
proclaim to the Gentiles the Good News of the exhaustless wealth