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God picked Paul to help the people that are not Jews
1 You mob know about me, Paul, that I am in jail now. You see, I told you mob the message about Jesus. But the bosses didn’t like me talking about Jesus to people that are not Jews. So they put me in jail.
2 And you know that God was very good to me, and he picked me to tell you his message.
3 You see, a long time ago, God planned to save people that are not Jews, as well as Jewish people. At that time he didn’t tell everybody about it, but later he told it to me. Remember, I already wrote to you about this.
4 When you read those words, you will understand that I know what God planned about Christ.
5 God didn’t tell that message to the people that lived before me. But now, God picked Jesus’s special workers and other people that tell his messages, and God’s spirit told them his plan.
6 And this is what God planned. He will be good to everyone that believes the good news about Jesus. It doesn’t matter if they are Jews, or not Jews. If they believe in Jesus, God will save them. Both will get what God promised. They both belong to the same mob now. They both belong to God, just like arms and legs belong to the same body.
7 God was really good to me. He used his power to help me to be strong. Then he gave me this special job. I have to tell people this good news about Jesus.
8 I’m not important. All of God’s people are more important than me. But God was good to me, and he gave me this special job. He sent me to tell the people that are not Jews about the really great things that Jesus Christ can give them. These things are so great that nobody can understand them properly.
9 And God sent me to help everyone to understand the message about his plan. A long time ago, when God made everything, he didn’t tell anyone that message. He kept it secret at that time.
10 But now God wants everyone to hear that message. He wants to use his church people to show all the spirit bosses, everywhere, that God is really wise, and that he understands all about everything.
11 God always planned to save people, and he sent our leader, Jesus Christ, to do it.
12 We trust in Jesus, and we are joined to him, so we can come to God, and we can be sure that he will listen to us. We don’t have to be frightened of him.
13 So when some people make trouble for me, don’t let that worry you. I tell you God’s word, and they don’t like it, so they make trouble for me. But don’t worry. I want you to be strong. You can always feel happy whenever they make trouble for me.
Paul asked God to help the Christians be strong
14 When I think about all these things that our father does, I get down on my knees and pray to him.
15 He made everything in the world, and everything in heaven, and he put every family here too.
16 He is very great, and he can work powerfully in you, so I pray that he will do that. I pray that his spirit will make your spirits strong, inside yourselves.
17 I pray that you will trust Jesus Christ properly, so that he will live inside you. I pray that you will always love God properly, and that you will always love other people too, so that you will always keep standing strong for him, like the roots of a tree always keep it standing up strong.
18-19 I pray for you, and for all God’s people. I pray that you will know, in a powerful way, that Jesus Christ loves us very much. He loves us so much that nobody can properly know all about it. But I want you to understand that he loves everybody very much, so that you will become like him in every way, and you will live the good way he wants you to live.
20-21 We have to thank God now. His power works in us, and he does really great things. He can do a lot more than we can ask him for. He can even do more than we can think about. And we are God’s people. We are his church. So we always have to praise God and show everyone that he is very great and good. We have to show them what Jesus Christ does, and that he is really great. And we have to keep on doing it for ever and ever. Yes, that’s right.