Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, Ephesians

Part 1

Produced by Martin Ward

Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, Ephesians

Third Edition 1913

R. F. Weymouth

Book 49 Ephesians

001:001 Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God: To God's people who are in Ephesus--believers in Christ Jesus.

001:002 May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

001:003 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has crowned us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ;

001:004 even as, in His love, He chose us as His own in Christ before the creation of the world, that we might be holy and without blemish in His presence.

001:005 For He pre-destined us to be adopted by Himself as sons through Jesus Christ--such being His gracious will and pleasure--

001:006 to the praise of the splendour of His grace with which He has enriched us in the beloved One.

001:007 It is in Him, and through the shedding of His blood, that we have our deliverance--the forgiveness of our offences-- so abundant was God's grace,

001:008 the grace which He, the possessor of all wisdom and understanding, lavished upon us,

001:009 when He made known to us the secret of His will. And this is in harmony with God's merciful purpose

001:010 for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it-- the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in Heaven and things on earth, to find their one Head in Him.

001:011 In Him we Jews have been made heirs, having been chosen beforehand in accordance with the intention of Him whose might carries out in everything the design of His own will,

001:012 so that we should be devoted to the extolling of His glorious attributes--we who were the first to fix our hopes on Christ.

001:013 And in Him you Gentiles also, after listening to the Message of the truth, the Good News of your salvation--having believed in Him--were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit;

001:014 that Spirit being a pledge and foretaste of our inheritance, in anticipation of its full redemption--the inheritance which He has purchased to be specially His for the extolling of His glory.

001:015 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which prevails among you, and of your love for all God's people,

001:016 offer never ceasing thanks on your behalf while I make mention of you in my prayers.

001:017 For I always beseech the God of our Lord Jesus Christ-- the Father most glorious--to give you a spirit of wisdom and penetration through an intimate knowledge of Him,

001:018 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened so that you may know what is the hope which His call to you inspires, what the wealth of the glory of His inheritance in God's people,

001:019 and what the transcendent greatness of His power in us believers as seen in the working of His infinite might

001:020 when He displayed it in Christ by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His own right hand in the heavenly realms,

001:021 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.

001:022 God has put all things under His feet, and has appointed Him universal and supreme Head of the Church, which is His Body,

001:023 the completeness of Him who everywhere fills the universe with Himself.

Part 2

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,

Part 3

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 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.

Continue reading Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, Ephesians free in the Wunder reader →