The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Epistle of the Blessed Apostle Paul to the Ephesians
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Chapter 2
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1 2 3 4 5 6
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He found you dead men; such were your transgressions, such were the sinful ways
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you lived in. That was when you followed the fashion of this world, when you owned a prince whose domain is in the lower air, that spirit whose influence is still at work among the unbelievers.
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We too, all of us, were once of their company; our life was bounded by natural appetites, and we did what corrupt nature or our own calculation would have us do, with God’s displeasure for our birthright, like other men.
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How rich God is in mercy, with what an excess of love he loved us!
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Our sins had made dead men of us, and he, in giving life to Christ, gave life to us too; it is his grace that has saved you;
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raised us up too, enthroned us too above the heavens, in Christ Jesus.
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He would have all future ages see, in that clemency which he shewed us in Christ Jesus, the surpassing richness of his grace.
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Yes, it was grace that saved you, with faith for its instrument; it did not come from yourselves, it was God’s gift,
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not from any action of yours, or there would be room for pride.
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No, we are his design; God has created us in Christ Jesus, pledged to such good actions as he has prepared beforehand, to be the employment of our lives.

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Remember, then, what you once were, the Gentiles, according to all outward reckoning; those who claim an outward circumcision which is man’s handiwork call you the uncircumcised.
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In those days there was no Christ for you; you were outlaws from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to every covenant, with no promise to hope for, with the world about you, and no God.
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But now you are in Christ Jesus; now, through the blood of Christ, you have been brought close, you who were once so far away.
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He is our bond of peace; he has made the two nations one, breaking down the wall that was a barrier between us, the enmity there was between us, in his own mortal nature.
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He has put an end to the law with its decrees, so as to make peace, remaking the two human creatures as one in himself;
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both sides, united in a single body, he would reconcile to God through his cross, inflicting death, in his own person, upon the feud.
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So he came, and his message was of peace for you who were far off, peace for those who were near;
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far off or near, united in the same Spirit, we have access through him to the Father.
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You are no longer exiles, then, or aliens; the saints are your fellow citizens, you belong to God’s household.
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Apostles and prophets are the foundation on which you were built, and the chief corner-stone of it is Jesus Christ himself.
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In him the whole fabric is bound together, as it grows into a temple, dedicated to the Lord;
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in him you too are being built in with the rest, so that God may find in you a dwelling-place for his Spirit.