Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech: Ephesians | Page 2

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 of Christ, 003:009 and to show all men in a clear light