Office of Readings
Ephesians 1:16-2:10
I
have never failed to remember you in my prayers and to thank God for
you. May the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you
a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to
full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that
you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has
promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power
that he has exercised for us believers. This you can tell from the
strength of his power at work in Christ, when he used it to raise him
from the dead and to make him sit at his right hand, in heaven, far
above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination, or any other
name that can be named not only in this age but also in the age to come.
He has put all things under his feet and made him, as the ruler of
everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of
him who fills the whole creation.
And you were dead, through the crimes and the sins in
which you used to live when you were following the way of this world,
obeying the ruler who governs the air, the spirit who is at work in the
rebellious. We all were among them too in the past, living sensual
lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas; so
that by nature we were as much under God’s anger as the rest of the
world. But God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his
mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with
Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up
with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.
This was to show for all ages to come, through his
goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace.
Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by
anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you
have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of
art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning
he had meant us to live it.
