Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech: Ephesians | Page 3

what my stewardship is. It is the stewardship of the truth which from all the Ages lay concealed in the mind of God, the Creator of all things-- 003:010 concealed in order that the Church might now be used to display to the powers and authorities in the heavenly realms the innumerable aspects of God's wisdom. 003:011 Such was the eternal purpose which He had formed in Christ Jesus our Lord, 003:012 in whom we have this bold and confident access through our faith in Him. 003:013 Therefore I entreat you not to lose heart in the midst of my sufferings on your behalf, for they bring you honour. 003:014 For this reason, on bended knee I beseech the Father, 003:015 from whom the whole family in Heaven and on earth derives its name, 003:016 to grant you--in accordance with the wealth of His glorious perfections--to be strengthened by His Spirit with power penetrating to your inmost being. 003:017 I pray that Christ may make His home in your hearts through your faith; so that having your roots deep and your foundations strong, in love, you may become mighty to grasp the idea, 003:018 as it is grasped by all God's people, of the breadth and length, the height and depth-- 003:019 yes, to attain to a knowledge of the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, so that you may be made complete in accordance with God's own standard of completeness. 003:020 Now to Him who, in exercise of His power that is at work within us, is able to do infinitely beyond all our highest prayers or thoughts-- 003:021 to Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, world without end! Amen. 004:001 I, then, the prisoner for the Master's sake, entreat you to live and act as becomes those who have received the call that you have received-- 004:002 with all lowliness of mind and unselfishness, and with patience, bearing with one another lovingly, and earnestly striving to maintain, 004:003 in the uniting bond of peace, the unity given by the Spirit. 004:004 There is but one body and but one Spirit, as also when you were called you had one and the same hope held out to you. 004:005 There is but one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 004:006 and one God and Father of all, who rules over all, acts through all, and dwells in all. 004:007 Yet to each of us individually grace was given, measured out with the munificence of Christ. 004:008 For this reason Scripture says: "He re-ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and gave gifts to men." 004:009 (Now this "re-ascended"--what does it mean but that He had first descended into the lower regions of the earth? 004:010 He who descended is the same as He who ascended again far above all the Heavens in order to fill the universe.) 004:011 And He Himself appointed some to be Apostles, some to be Prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, 004:012 in order fully to equip His people for the work of serving-- for the building up of Christ's body-- 004:013 till we all of us arrive at oneness in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and at mature manhood and the stature of full-grown men in Christ. 004:014 So we shall no longer be babes nor shall we resemble mariners tossed on the waves and carried about with every changing wind of doctrine according to men's cleverness and unscrupulous cunning, making use of every shifting device to mislead. 004:015 But we shall lovingly hold to the truth, and shall in all respects grow up into union with Him who is our Head, even Christ. 004:016 Dependent on Him, the whole body--its various parts closely fitting and firmly adhering to one another--grows by the aid of every contributory link, with power proportioned to the need of each individual part, so as to build itself up in a spirit of love. 004:017 Therefore I warn you, and I implore you in the name of the Master, no longer to live as the Gentiles in their perverseness live, 004:018 with darkened understandings, having by reason of the ignorance which is deep-seated in them and the insensibility of their moral nature, no share in the Life which God gives. 004:019 Such men being past feeling have abandoned themselves to impurity, greedily indulging in every kind of profligacy. 004:020 But these are not the lessons which you have learned from Christ; 004:021 if at least you have heard His voice and in Him have been taught-- and this is true Christian teaching-- 004:022 to put away, in regard to your former mode of life, your original evil nature which is doomed