This mystery is great – but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], the faithful in Christ Jesus.

who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

namely, that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

But practicing the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head.

and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

so that he may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

– since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience,

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ’s full stature.