Ephesians

Eph 1:1  Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God’s holy people, faithful in Christ Jesus  (Paul does not introduce himself or write to unholy people who have no faith in Jesus.) 

1:2  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from The Lord Jesus Christ.  (God asks The Father and The Son to bless The Catholics in Ephesus with both “Grace” and “Peace”.) 

1:3  Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of Heaven in Christ.  Of all the people in Ephesus and the world, only Catholics have received “all the spiritual blessings of Heaven”.) 

1:4  Thus He chose us in Christ before the world was made to be holy and faultless before Him in love,  (We Catholics did not “choose” God.  God “chose us” to be blessed.) 

1:5 marking us out for Himself beforehand, to be adopted sons, through Jesus Christ. Such was His purpose and good pleasure, 

1:6  to the praise of the glory of His grace, His free gift to us in the Beloved, 

1:7   in Whom, through His Blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace 

1:8   which He has showered on us in all wisdom and insight.  (St. Paul is referring to at least Two of the Seven Catholic Sacraments, Reconciliation and Communion. Therefore, we may conclude:  The Body and Blood of Jesus,  when worthily received, does contain “all wisdom and insight” that we need to get into Heaven.) 

1:9  He has let us know the mystery of His purpose, according to His good pleasure which He so kindly made in Christ from the beginning 

1:10  for Him to act upon when the times had run their course: that He would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.  (The “times” began to “run their course” 15 trillion light years ago, when God spoke the still-expanding Universe Into Being with First Word of Creation:  “Let there be light.”  He made the spreading galaxies of stars to provide that “light “ before setting our world spinning around one of them.  God made sure that no one on earth could ever see an end to His Power, no matter how powerful telescopes and microscopes could be.  That gave people Free Will, which only Catholics are blessed to use to find God.) 

1:11  it is in Him that we have received our heritage, marked out beforehand as we were, under the plan of The One Who guides all things as He decides by His own will, 

1:12  chosen to be, for the praise of His glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before He came.  (All that God made, from the tiniest parts of electrons to the largest stars, are all “in praise of His glory.”) 

1:13   Now you too, in Him, have heard the message of the truth and the gospel of your salvation, and having put your trust in it you have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise,  (All Creation was made so that His Chosen People would be able to believe in and obey Jesus and be with Him, forever in The Eternal Joy of Heaven.”) 

1:14  who is the pledge of our inheritance, for the freedom of the people whom God has taken for his own, for the praise of His Glory. 

1:15  That is why I, having once heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love for all God’s holy people, (Catholics love each other, no matter where on the world they live.)  

1:16  have never failed to thank God for you and to remember you in my prayers.  (Catholics assume from that word of St. Paul that he still “never fails”  to intercede for all the Catholics in the world and has been praying for us throughout the past 2,000 years while continuing to do so.) 

1:17  May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of Him. 

1:18  May He enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope His call holds for you, how rich is the glory of the heritage He offers among His holy people, 

1:19  and how extraordinarily great is the power that He has exercised for us believers; this accords with the strength of His power 

1:20  at work in Christ, the power which He exercised in raising Him from the dead and enthroning Him at His right hand, in Heaven,  (The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus are described.) 

1:21 far above every principality, ruling force, power or sovereignty, or any other name that can be named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 

1:22  He has put all things under His feet, and made Him, as He is above all things, the Head of the Church; 

1:23  which is His Body, the fullness of Him who is filled, all in all. (Again, only Catholics see the Miracle of Receiving The Actual Body and Blood, “the fulness of Him”,  in Catholic Communion from The God Who is Powerful enough to provide That Holy Food.) 

Eph 2:1  And you were dead, through the crimes and the sins 

2:2  which used to make up your way of life when you were living by the principles of this world, obeying the ruler who dominates the air, the spirit who is at work in those who rebel.   (The “principles of this world” take form in Satan and the evil spirits that coalesce  from  the frequencies of evil that take living form as demons.) 

 This Verse is one of the most brilliant descriptions of the source of every human evil: 

2:3  We too were all among them once, living only by our natural inclinations, obeying the demands of human self-indulgence and our own ideas and whims; our nature made us no less liable to God’s retribution than the rest of the world.   (That is a must be-memorized summation of every vanity that keeps people from asking God to let them Be Catholic!  Those who reject The Church are, in actual fact:  “Obeying the demands of human self-righteousness and our own ideas”. 

2:4  But God, being rich in faithful love, through the great love with which He loved us, 

2:5  even when we were dead in our sins, brought us to life with Christ — it is through grace that you have been saved (St. Paul frequently reminds us we are not saved by laws and rules, but by the “grace” of following Jesus.  He clearly divides the world’s population into two groups:  Those who put Jesus first and those who do not.  His next advice makes the rewards of “faith in Jesus” clear.) 

2:6  and raised us up with Him and gave us a place with Him in Heaven, in Christ Jesus.  

2:7  This was to show for all ages to come, through His Goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how extraordinarily rich He is in grace. 

2:8   Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God ;  (May every person on earth be blessed to ignore both “human self-righteousness”  and the self-serving “whims” or “ideas”  that lead the rest of the world away from both God “and” His Heaven.) 

2:9  not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. 

2:10   We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life.   (When we became Catholic, we became God’s “work of art” that is lovingly framed and on His wall!) 

2:11  Do not forget, then, that there was a time when you who were Gentiles by physical descent, termed the uncircumcised by those who speak of themselves as the circumcised by reason of a physical operation,  (It is impossible for any “physical operation”, whether circumcision or following other human laws, to save us.) 

2:12  do not forget, I say, that you were at that time separate from Christ and excluded from membership of Israel, aliens with no part in the covenants of the Promise, limited to this world, without hope and without God.  (Before Jesus, Gentiles had no hope of not being “Limited to this world”!) 

2:13   But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far off have been brought close, by the blood of Christ.   (Now, Catholic Gentiles are closer to God than those who stayed in God’s “Old Religion” of rules and laws piled on top of more rules and laws!) 

2:14  For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one entity and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, by destroying in His Own Person the hostility, 

2:15 that is, the Law of commandments with its decrees. His purpose in this was, by restoring peace, to create a single New Man out of the two of them,  (Jesus Christ was the “single, New Man”, a Teaching reinforced by the fact that He never “married” any person or human idea, but remained “single”  in every way.) 

2:16  and through the cross, to reconcile them both to God in one Body; in his own person he killed the hostility.  (Now, there is only One People of God among whom there is no “hostility” toward The Church Spoken Into Being by Jesus Christ’s Church-Creating Word to His First Pope:   Catholics.) 

2:17  He came to bring the good news of peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.  (Today, thanks to the efforts of 2,000 years of Catholic priests and religious and those who follow their teachings, fewer people than ever are “far off” from seeing how important <em>”The Grace”</em> of Jesus is.) 

2:18  Through Him, then, we both in The One Spirit have free access to The Father. 

2:19  So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow-citizens with the holy people of God and part of God’s household.   

2:20 You (Every Catholic is among “the works of art” in 20:10.), are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.  (Only Catholics are “built upon the foundations of the Apostles and Prophets” well enough to be “part of God’s Household” because we are in The Church Spoken Into Being upon that “cornerstone”, The Church-Creating Word of Jesus to His First Catholic Pope:  “And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My  Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”!) 

2:21 Every structure knit together in Him grows into a holy temple in the Lord:    (Paul is telling Catholics that we are living parts of God’s eternal “Temple” and that we are in “God’s Household”.) 

2:22  and you too, in Him, are being built up into a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit.    (God and the Holy Spirit live within every Practicing Catholic.) 

Eph 3:1 It is because of this that I, Paul, a prisoner of the Lord Jesus on behalf of you pagans. . .  (St. Paul describes Gentiles as “pagans”.) 

3:2 You have surely heard the way in which God entrusted me with the grace He gave me for your sake;  

3:3  He made known to me by a revelation the mystery I have just described briefly  (God’s “Revelation” to Paul let him see History from Creation until his own time.  God had gifted him with an incredibly powerful mind that could take in, and solve, That Greatest “Mystery” that few others could solve as fully as St. Paul.) 

3:4  a reading of it will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.  

3:5  This mystery, as it is now revealed in the Spirit to His Holy Apostles and Prophets, was unknown to humanity in previous generations:  (St. Paul was the first to be blessed to put all the necessary facets of Creation together to understand that both God and His Word take form in The Catholic Church by the Moving of The Holy Spirit in the minds of “God’s beloved works of art”.) 

3:6  that the gentiles now have the same inheritance and form the same Body and enjoy the same promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.  (The “warring parts” of Creation were reduced to two:  Catholics and all who fought against them.) 

3:7  I have been made the servant of that Gospel by a gift of grace from God Who gave it to me by the workings of His power.  

3:8  I, who am less than the least of all God’s holy people, have been entrusted with this special grace, of proclaiming to the Gentiles the unfathomable treasure of Christ  

3:9  and of throwing light on the inner workings of the mystery kept hidden through all the ages in God, the Creator of everything.  

3:10  The purpose of this was, that now, through the Church, the principalities and ruling forces should learn how many-sided God’s wisdom is,  

3:11  according to the plan which he had formed from all eternity in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (That plan was that Gentiles would be saved and those who lived in self-praise,  Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes would not.) 

3:12  In him we are bold enough to approach God in complete confidence, through our faith in him;  

3:13  so, I beg you, do not let the hardships I go through on your account make you waver; they are your glory.  

3:14 This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before The Father,  

3:15 from whom every fatherhood, in heaven or on earth, takes its name.  (We see one reason why Catholic priests are addressed as “Father”. 

3:16 In the abundance of His glory may He, through His Spirit, enable you to grow firm in power with regard to your inner self,  (“your inner self” is the soul of all who would follow St. Paul into the Catholic Church.) 

3:17 so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love,  

3:18 with all God’s holy people you will have the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth;  (We Catholics, like Paul are blessed to “grasp” the “breadth and the length” of enough reasons to be gratefully Catholic that we become and remain so.) 

3:19 so that, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, you may be filled with the utter fullness of God.  

3:20 Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.  

3:21 glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.  

Ep 4:1  I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you therefore to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you were called.  

4:2 With all humility and gentleness, and with patience, support each other in love. 

 Then, Catholics are blessed to focus on One Word that is in, or added as accurate descriptions one time after another in the next verses of Chapter 4.  May all be blessed to focus on One Word in The Bible:  The Word “One”! 

 4:3 Take every care to preserve the (one) unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together.  (A reminder that St. Paul repeatedly made to the lapsed Catholics of Galatia in his earlier Letter to The Galatians when he told them to: “Be Catholic and Stay Catholic!” 

4:4 There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is the (one) goal of your (one)  calling by (one) God.  

4.5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  (Catholics are blessed to think intelligently enough to apply the meaning of the word “one” to “The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church Spoken Into Being by The Church-Creating Word of Jesus to (one)  First Catholic Pope:  “And I (One God) say unto you (one man) thou art Peter (the one man has one name) and on this (one) rock I build My (one) Church and the gates of hell (all the powers of evil in Creation are reduced to one collective phrase) shall not prevail against it (His One Church).  I give you (one man, One Church) the (one set of) keys to the (One) Kingdom of Heaven.”   

The next verses reinforce the importance of “One”.  Anyone who understands the meaning of one word will be Catholic!  That Word is “one”.) 

4:6 and one God and (one) Father of all, over all, through all and within all.  

4:7 On each one of us God’s favor has been bestowed in whatever way Christ allotted it.  

4:8 That is why it says: He went up to the heights, took captives, He gave gifts to humanity.  

4:9 When it says, ‘He went up’, it must mean that he had gone down to the deepest levels of the earth.  

4:10 The one who went down is none other than the one who went up above all the heavens to fill all things.  

4:11 And to some, His ‘gift’ was that they should be apostles; to some prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers;   (Many Catholics are those things to our families and friends.  No one helps so many neighbors as much as our Catholic priests and religious.) 

4:12 to knit God’s (one) holy people together (Into One vast, 2,000 year old Tapestry) woven (of the threads of billions of Catholic souls for His “artwork in Heaven”!)  for the work of service to build up The (One) Body of Christ,  

4:13 until we all reach unity (Oneness) in (one) faith and (one) knowledge of the (one) Son of God and form the (one) perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself. (Everyone leaving a Catholic Church after receiving Communion has reached “oneness” with God and neighbors.) 

4:14 Then we shall no longer be children, or tossed one way and another, and carried hither and thither by every new gust of teaching, at the mercy of all the tricks people play and their unscrupulous cleverness in deliberate deception.  

4:15 If we live by the (one) truth and in love, we shall grow completely into Christ, who is the (one) head  

4:16 by whom the (one) whole Body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each (one)  individual part to work according to its (one) function. So the body grows until it has built itself up in love.  

4:17 So this I say to you and attest to you in the (one) Lord, do not go on living the empty-headed life that the Gentiles live.   (That “One Flaw” is then described: 

4:18 Intellectually they are in the dark, and they are estranged from the life of God, because of the ignorance which is the consequence of closed minds.   (It is the willful “closing” of many minds that keep them from being Catholic.) 

Then, St. Paul describes the hostility of those who are angry at Catholics and our Church for disagreeing with their belief that they are “saved” for maintaining the illusion that God loves them for attacking His Son and His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church built on love of, and obedience to, God and their neighbors.

4:19 Their sense of right and wrong once dulled, they have abandoned all self-control and pursue to excess every kind of uncleanness.  (The first step to possibly damnable error always begins with one thing, “dulling the sense of right and wrong.”) 

4:20 Now that is hardly the (one) way you have learnt Christ,  

4:21 unless you failed to hear Him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus.  (Was that “failure” willful?) 

4:22 You were to put aside your old self, which belongs to your old way of life and is corrupted by following illusory desires.  (The only way we may be “born again”, is to “put aside our old self”.) 

4:23 Your mind was to be renewed in spirit  (Many refused to be “renewed in spirit” and obey He Who Fulfilled the Prophecies they pretend to honor.  That “pretense” fills many with anger that increases every time they think about Prophecies they do not obey.)

4:24 so that you could put on the New Man that has been created on God’s principles, in the uprightness and holiness of the truth.  

4:25 So from now on, there must be no more lies. Speak the truth to one another, since we are all parts of one another.  (We learn from St. Paul that any attack on Truth is an attack on The Catholic Church because “The Body of Christ” is under assault with every lie told about Her.) 

4:26 Even if you are angry, do not sin: never let the sun set on your anger  

4:27 or else you will give the devil a foothold.   (We see that “anger” is a dangerous enemy among the Seven Tribes of demons:  pride, envy, greed, gluttony, anger, lust, and sloth.  “Anger” gives the other demons a foothold from which demons lead billions of minds and bodies into sin.  The greatest “anger” on earth has driven Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes against God and neighbors every time they consider that God has removed them from their place of privilege.) 

4:28 Anyone who was a thief must stop stealing; instead he should exert himself at some honest job with his own hands so that he may have something to share with those in need.  (It is better to work than to “steal”.  But, “anger”  always helps to justify every theft and every sin.) 

4:29 No foul word should ever cross your lips; let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasion offers, and do good to your listeners;  (Do not let the “anger” that drives every profanity be shared with anyone!) 

4:30 do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with His seal, ready for the day when we shall be set free.   (That is a very clear warning to not sin and not offend The One Holy Spirit!) 

4:31 Any bitterness or bad temper or anger or shouting or abuse must be far removed from you and so must every kind of malice.   (Once again, the importance of controlling “anger” helps us keep other sins from overwhelming us.) 

4:32 Be generous to one another, sympathetic, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.

5:1 As God’s dear children, then, take Him as your (one) pattern, 

5:2 and follow Christ by loving as He loved you, giving Himself up for us as an offering and a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God.  

5:3 Among you there must be not even a mention of sexual vice or impurity in any of its forms, or greed: this would scarcely become the holy people of God!  

5:4 There must be no foul or salacious talk or coarse jokes — all this is wrong for you; there should rather be thanksgiving.  

5:5 For you can be quite certain that nobody who indulges in sexual immorality or impurity or greed — which is worshipping a false god — can inherit The Kingdom of God.  

5:6 Do not let anyone deceive you with empty arguments: it is such behavior that draws down God’s retribution on those who rebel against him.  

5:7 Make sure that you do not throw in your lot with them.  (St. Paul is telling people of every time and place:  “Be Catholic!  Stay Catholic!”)

5:8 You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; behave as children of light,  

5:9 for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and uprightness and truth.  

5:10 Try to discover what the Lord wants of you,  (God has given each one of us abilities as unique as our fingerprints.  One helpful aide is St. Anthony, The Patron Saint of Lost Things.  May everyone, and not just Catholics, be blessed to ask him to help us find how God “wants” us to find and use the wonderful gifts He has given each (one) of us!) 

5:11 take no part in the futile works of darkness but, on the contrary, show them up for what they are.  

5:12 The things which are done in secret are shameful even to speak of;  (This verse teaches us that when we have done something we are ashamed to talk about, we have done something “shameful”. 

5:13 but anything shown up by the light will be illuminated  (God’s “light” is stronger than darkness.)

5:14 and anything illuminated is itself a light. That is why it is said: Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.   (An odd thought:  “When Catholics see our priest holding up The Communion Wafer at Every Catholic Mass, Catholics know that our “mind is illuminated” by the reflected light “shining” from what is transformed into The Body of Jesus by The Catholic Miracle of Transubstantiation.   Even non-Catholics in the Mass can see that and set their souls aglow with Christ’s “light shining” into every mind and soul.) 

5:15 So be very careful about the sort of lives you lead, like intelligent and not like senseless people.  

5:16 Make the best of the present time, for it is a wicked age.  

5:17 This is why you must not be thoughtless but must recognize what is the will of the Lord.  

5:18 Do not get drunk with wine; this is simply dissipation; be filled with the Spirit.  

Eph 5:19 Sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs among yourselves, singing and chanting to the Lord in your hearts,  

5:20 always and everywhere giving thanks to God who is our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (Keeping our minds busy thanking God for our blessings keeps us from wasting time on sin.) 

5:21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.   (Our love for God and His Mercy should lead us to serve others rather than try to force our neighbors to serve us.) 

 In Verses 5:22 through 6:4, St. Paul extends Teachings of God’s call to His  Church to families within The Church.  May every married person look at St. Paul as “The Best Marriage Counselor in History!”  He is! 

 5:22 Wives should be subject to their husbands as to the Lord,  (This makes husbands more loving.) 

5:23 since, as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife;  (The married couple is “one body” in Christ.) 

5:24 and as the Church is subject to Christ, so should wives be to their husbands, in everything.  (All parts of the one body obey the mind.  Loving wives bring their husband’s mind in accord with theirs.) 

5:25 Husbands should love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her  (Every husband must “sacrifice” themselves and their vanities to serve their wives.) 

5:26 to make her holy by washing her in cleansing water with a form of words,  (‘cleansing words’ wash away the “dirtiness” of disagreement that leads to disrespect.) 

5:27 so that when he took the Church to Himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless.  (Disagreements keep families , and The Church, from being  “holy and spotless”.) 

5:28 In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself.   (God’s Command to: “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” is specifically applied to every married couple.) 

5:29 A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, (Catholics must strive to make our minds and bodies as holy as God wants The every part of The Body of Christ to be. 

5:30 because we are parts of His (one) Body.  (That Passage should end with an exclamation point!) 

5:31 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh.  (Again, every man and woman properly married to each other is “one body”.) 

5:32 This mystery has great significance, but I am applying it to Christ and the Church.  

5:33 To sum up: you also, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband.   (May every Married Couple guide themselves thereby.) 

 

6:5 Workers, be obedient to those who are, according to human reckoning, your masters, with deep respect and sincere loyalty, as you are obedient to Christ:  (Every good work is there to do because God wants it to be done properly.) 

6:6 not only when you are under their eye, as if you had only to please human beings, but as slaves of Christ who wholeheartedly do the will of God.   (God has placed supervisors in their positions.  Honoring them is honoring God.) 

6:7 Work willingly for the sake of The Lord and not for the sake of human beings. (As workers show their fellow workers that they are doing their work for God, others are inspired to avoid putting personal gain before obeying God’s Commandments.  All are brought closet to God.) 

6:8 Never forget that everyone, whether a worker or a free man, will be rewarded by the Lord for whatever work he has done well.   (God knows when we workers give into the soul-polluting sins of pride, envy, greed, gluttony, anger, lust, and sloth.  Those sins are easily identified when present by seeing if we are being tempted by initials that form a New Word, the acronym:  (peggals”) 

6:9 And those of you who are employers, treat your workers in the same spirit; do without threats, and never forget that they and you have the same Master in heaven and there is no favoritism with him.   (We must evaluate those around us by the quality and quantity of their work, not by how much they compliment us.) 

 

St. Paul blesses us with advice on how we should strive to live:
 

6:10 Finally, grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of His power.   (If we keep getting closer to God we gain the “strength” to do more, making us more pleasing to Him by not wasting our remaining time on earth.) 

6:11 Put on the full armor of God so as to be able to resist the devil’s tactics.  (Human “armor” may be shields of wicker, bronze, or bullet-proof vests.  “the full armor of God” includes His Guardian Angels that defend our mind from demons. They help us resist every temptation to sin that tries to enter and separate parts of our mind from God.) 

6:12 For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the principalities and the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world, the spirits of evil in the heavens.  (The seven sins of pride, envy, greed, gluttony, anger, lust, and sloth have angels with higher powers who lead us into temptation when the lesser demons in those “tribes of evil beings” fail.) 

6:13 That is why you must take up all God’s armor, or you will not be able to put up any resistance on the evil day, or stand your ground even though you exert yourselves to the full.   (We need His angels to defend us from the specific temptations that work to keep our souls from God because we need God’s Help from His Blessed Guardians.) 

 St. Paul tells us what to wear in our battles with evil: 

 6:14 So stand your ground, with truth a belt round your waist, and uprightness a breastplate, (The “belt” keeps our protection in place.  The “uprightness” lets us see our enemies directly!) 

6:15 wearing for shoes on your feet the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace (Those “shoes” are our version of “steel-toed boots” with spikes on the soles to help us “stand our ground”!) 

6:16 and always carrying the shield of faith so that you can use it to quench the burning arrows of the Evil One.   (The “shield of faith”  is made from a “spiritual asbestos” that keeps us from the painful eternity the “evil one’s burning arrows” are designed to inflict on our soul.) 

6:17 And then you must take salvation as your helmet and the sword of the Spirit, that is, The Word of God.   (When we protect our mind with the desire to save our soul, and search “The Word of God” for swords with which to defend ourselves against the specific arguments, people, and sometimes actual “weapons” wielded by demons the devil sends against us, we will prevail.) 

6:18 In all your prayer and entreaty keep praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all God’s holy people, (Getting our soul into Heaven is a continue battle. Until death, the devil tries to lead us into some sin that will let him torture our soul forever in the pits of hell.) 

6:19 and pray for me to be given an opportunity to open my mouth and fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel  (We must help all who “fearlessly” help us defend all souls, including our own,  from the eternal agony of the evil one.) 

6:20 of which I am an ambassador in chains; pray that in proclaiming it I may speak as fearlessly as I ought to.  (Even a great “ambassador in chains” like St. Paul asks us to pray their “fearlessness” may continue.) 

6:21 So that you know, as well, what is happening to me and what I am doing, my dear friend Tychicus, my trustworthy helper in the Lord, will tell you everything.  

6:22 I am sending him to you precisely for this purpose, to give you news about us and encourage you thoroughly.  (God helped St. Paul continue  his Catholic Ministry to the new Catholic Churches in Ephesus.) 

6:23 May God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ grant peace, love and faith to all the brothers.  

6:24 May grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, in life imperishable.  (May we all stay Faithful to The Church-Creating Word of Jesus Christ to His First Catholic Pope:  “And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”)