Study Desk

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,

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

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.

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,

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

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

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

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.

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,

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,

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.

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.

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--

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.

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.

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,

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--

in order fully to equip His people for the work of serving--for the building up of Christ's body--

if at least you have heard His voice and in Him have been taught--and this is true Christian teaching--

For this reason, laying aside falsehood, every one of you should speak the truth to his fellow man; for we are, as it were, parts of one another.