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Paul's Relationship to the Divine Mystery

¹ For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— ² if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, ³ that by revelation the divine secret was made known to me, as I wrote before briefly. ⁴ When reading this, you will be able to understand my insight into this secret of Christ. ⁵ Now this secret was not disclosed to people in former generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, ⁶ namely, that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. ⁷ I became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God's grace that was given to me by the exercise of his power. ⁸ To me—less than the least of all the saints—this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ ⁹ and to enlighten everyone about God's secret plan—a secret that has been hidden for ages in God who has created all things. ¹⁰ The purpose of this enlightenment is that through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God should now be disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms. ¹¹ This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, ¹² in whom we have boldness and confident access to God because of Christ's faithfulness. ¹³ For this reason I ask you not to lose heart because of what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

Prayer for Strengthened Love

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on the earth is named. ¹⁶ I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think, ²¹ to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.