Ephesians 3:1-13

So I, Paul, am a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am a prisoner for you who are not Jews. Surely you know that God gave me this work to tell you about his grace. God let me know his secret plan. He showed it to me. I have already written a little about this. And if you read what I wrote, then you can see that I truly understand the secret truth about the Christ. People who lived in other times were not told that secret truth. But now, through the Spirit, God has shown that secret truth to his holy apostles and prophets. This is that secret truth: that the non-Jews will receive what God has for his people, just as the Jews will. The non-Jews are together with the Jews as part of the same body. And they share together in the promise that God made in Christ Jesus. The non-Jews have all of this because of the Good News. By God’s special gift of grace, I became a servant to tell that Good News. God gave me that grace through his power. I am the least important of all God’s people. But God gave me this gift—to tell the non-Jewish people the Good News about the riches of Christ. Those riches are too great to understand fully. And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for God’s secret truth. That secret truth has been hidden in God since the beginning of time. God is the One who created everything. His purpose was that through the church all the rulers and powers in the heavenly world will now know God’s wisdom, which has so many forms. This agrees with the purpose God had since the beginning of time. And God carried out his plan through Christ Jesus our Lord. In Christ we can come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this through faith in Christ. So I ask you not to become discouraged because of the sufferings I am having for you. My sufferings bring honor to you.