¹ It is because of this that I, Paul, a prisoner of the Lord Jesus on behalf of you gentiles. . .

² You have surely heard the way in which God entrusted me with the grace he gave me for your sake;

³ he made known to me by a revelation the mystery I have just described briefly-

⁴ a reading of it will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.

⁵ This mystery, as it is now revealed in the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, was unknown to humanity in previous generations:

⁶ that the gentiles now have the same inheritance and form the same Body and enjoy the same promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

⁷ I have been made the servant of that gospel by a gift of grace from God who gave it to me by the workings of his power.

⁸ I, who am less than the least of all God's holy people, have been entrusted with this special grace, of proclaiming to the gentiles the unfathomable treasure of Christ

⁹ and of throwing light on the inner workings of the mystery kept hidden through all the ages in God, the Creator of everything.

¹⁰ The purpose of this was, that now, through the Church, the principalities and ruling forces should learn how many-sided God's wisdom is,

¹¹ according to the plan which he had formed from all eternity in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹² In him we are bold enough to approach God in complete confidence, through our faith in him;

¹³ so, I beg you, do not let the hardships I go through on your account make you waver; they are your glory.

¹⁴ This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father,

¹⁵ from whom every fatherhood, in heaven or on earth, takes its name.

¹⁶ In the abundance of his glory may he, through his Spirit, enable you to grow firm in power with regard to your inner self,

¹⁷ so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love,

¹⁸ with all God's holy people you will have the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth;

¹⁹ so that, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, you may be filled with the utter fullness of God.

²⁰ Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine;

²¹ glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.