Prescript from God’s Kingdom Apostle - From Paul, one of the apostles of the [anointed] King Jesus through God’s purpose, to the ones set apart in Ephesus who are loyal believers in King Jesus. 2 May God our father and the Lord Jesus, the king, give you grace and peace!
Praise for God's Kingdom Purpose - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the king, who has crowned us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in the King. 4 He chose us in Him before before creation was made, so as to be set apart and unblemished before Him in love. 5 He pre-destined us for Himself, to be adopted through Jesus the king. That’s how He wanted it, and that’s what gave Him delight, 6 so that the glory of His grace, the grace He poured on us in His beloved one, might receive its due praise. 7 In the king, and through His blood, we have deliverance — that is, our sins have been forgiven — through the wealth of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. Yes, with all wisdom and insight 9 He has made known to us the secret of His purpose, just as He wanted it to be and set it forward in Him 10 as a blueprint for when the time was ripe. His plan was to sum up the whole cosmos in the king — yes, everything in heaven and on earth, in Him. 11 In Him [the king] we have received the [promised] inheritance! We were selected beforehand in Him, according to the intention of the One who does all things in accordance with the counsel of His purpose. 12 This was so that we [Jews] who first hoped in the king would be devoted to extolling His glorious attributes. 13 In Him you too [Gentiles], who heard the message of truth, the good news of your salvation, and believed it — you were given the baptismal seal of the promised Holy Spirit. 14 The Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the time when the people who are God’s special possession are finally reclaimed and freed. This, too, is for the extolling of His glorious attribute of grace.
Prayer for God’s Kingdom People - Since I first heard of your loyal faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, 16 I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, 17 especially that the God of King Jesus our Lord, the father of glory, would give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in full knowledge of Him, 18 and to have the eyes of your inmost self opened to God’s revelation. Then you will know exactly what the hope God’s call of you means; you will know the wealth of the glory of His promised inheritance in God’s people 19 and what the transcendent greatness of His power in us believers truly is, as seen in the working of His infinite might: 20 this was the power at work in the king when God raised Him from the dead and sat Him at His right hand at heaven’s throne, 21 high above all other government and authority and power and dominion, and every title of sovereignty used either in this Age or in the Age to come. 22 Yes: God has “put all things under His feet” (Ps. 8), and has appointed Him universal and supreme Head of the Church, which is His Body. 23 Now the church is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (This translation is edited/adapted from several sources: NT Wright, Weymouth, NET, NLT2, and GS trans. from the Greek text)