Study Desk

My brothers and sisters, God called you to be free, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful self. Serve each other with love.

Anyone who is learning the teaching of God should share all the good things he has with his teacher.

Do not be fooled: You cannot cheat God. People harvest only what they plant.

It is not important if a man is circumcised or uncircumcised. The important thing is being the new people God has made.

From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted. To God's holy people living in Ephesus, believers in Christ Jesus:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world.

Because of his love, God had already decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. That was what he wanted and what pleased him,

and it brings praise to God because of his wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely, in Christ, the One he loves.

which he has given to us so fully and freely. God, with full wisdom and understanding,

let us know his secret purpose. This was what God wanted, and he planned to do it through Christ.

In Christ we were chosen to be God's people, because from the very beginning God had decided this in keeping with his plan. And he is the One who makes everything agree with what he decides and wants.

So it is with you. When you heard the true teaching—the Good News about your salvation—you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he had promised.

That Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will receive what God promised for his people until God gives full freedom to those who are his—to bring praise to God's glory.

I have not stopped giving thanks to God for you. I always remember you in my prayers,

asking the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you will know him better.

I pray also that you will have greater understanding in your heart so you will know the hope to which he has called us and that you will know how rich and glorious are the blessings God has promised his holy people.

God used to raise Christ from the dead and put him at his right side in the heavenly world.

God has put Christ over all rulers, authorities, powers, and kings, not only in this world but also in the next.

God put everything under his power and made him the head over everything for the church,