Study Desk

Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist.

So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world?

You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years.

But even though my condition tempted you to reject me, you did not despise me or turn me away. No, you took me in and cared for me as though I were an angel from God or even Christ Jesus himself.

Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you.

I'll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.

For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace.

But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.

It certainly isn't God, for he is the one who called you to freedom.

I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.

envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them.

Don't be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.

May God's peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God.

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God's holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.