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Paul¡¯s Work for the Non-Jewish People
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1So I, Paul, am a prisoner because I serve Christ Jesus for you who are not Jews. 2Surely you know that God gave me this work through his gracea to help you. 3God let me know his secret plan by showing it to me. I have already written a little about this. 4And if you read what I wrote, you can see that I understand the secret truth about Christ. 5People who lived in other times were not told that secret truth. But now, through the Spiritb, God has made it known to his holy apostlesc and prophetsd6And this is the secret truth: that by hearing the Good Newse, those who are not Jews will share with the Jews in the blessings God has for his people. They are part of the same body, and they share in the promise God made through Christ Jesus.
 7By God's special gift of grace, I became a servant to tell that Good News. He gave me that grace by using his power. 8I am the least important of all God's people. But he gave me this gift - to tell the non-Jewish people the Good News about the riches Christ has. These riches are too great to understand fully. 9And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for his secret truth. That secret truth has been hidden in him since the beginning of time. He is the one who created everything. 10His purpose was that all the rulers and powers in the heavenly places will now know the many different ways he shows his wisdom. They will know this because of the churchf11This agrees with the plan God had since the beginning of time. He did what he planned, and he did it through Christ Jesus our Lord. 12In Christ we come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this because of our faith in Christ. 13So I ask you not to be discouraged because of what is happening to me. My sufferings are for your benefit - for your honor and gloryg.

The Love of Christ
 14So I bow in prayer before the Father. 15Every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name from him. 16I ask the Father with his great gloryg to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spiritb17I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. 18And I pray that you and all God's holy peopleh will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ's love - how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. 19Christ's love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.
 20With God's power working in us, he can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. 21To him be glory in the churchf and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Ameni.
agrace The love and kindness that God shows in his complete willingness to give people favors he does not owe them and blessings they don¡¯t deserve.
bSpirit See ¡°Holy Spirit.¡±
capostle A follower of Jesus chosen to represent him in a special way. During his earthly ministry, Jesus named twelve men as apostles. They had the specific responsibility and authority to represent him and proclaim his message throughout the world. Later, he appeared to Paul and gave him a similar commission, especially to non-Jewish people. Barnabas, Paul¡¯s missionary companion, and James, the brother of Jesus, are also called apostles, as well as several others in the New Testament. Some of these occurrences of the word, however, have the more general sense of ¡°messenger¡± or ¡°representative.¡±
dprophet A person who speaks a message from God. Many of the books in the Old Testament are messages spoken or written by ¡°the prophets,¡± who were some of those God chose to speak for him. God often used dreams or visions to tell or show his prophets what they should say.
eGood News In the Gospels this is usually the news about the coming of God¡¯s kingdom (see above) or its representative Jesus the Messiah. In other places it is, more specifically, the news or message of God¡¯s grace - that he has made a way through Jesus Christ for people to be made right with him and enjoy his blessings now and forever.
fchurch Literally, ¡°assembly¡± or ¡°community,¡± the people who have been brought together as God¡¯s family through their common faith in Jesus Christ. The word often refers to a group of believers who meet together or who live in the same area, but it is also used to mean the worldwide community of all believers in Christ.
gglory A word that refers to the special qualities of God. Often it means brightness, referring to the way he appears to people. Sometimes it means majesty or power, referring to a kind of greatness that cannot be compared to anything in human experience. It can also include the ideas of wealth, honor, fame, or respect, especially in expressions of praise.
hholy people Literally, ¡°saints¡± or ¡°holy ones,¡± a term used in the New Testament to describe followers of Jesus Christ as God¡¯s special people. They are holy because they have been made pure through Christ and belong only to God. See ¡°holy.¡±
iAmen A Hebrew word meaning ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± ¡°True,¡± or ¡°Yes.¡± It is used to express strong agreement with what has been said.