Ephesians 2:3

Plain English Version

And it wasn’t only you mob that were bad. We were all bad. We were like those other people in this world. We did whatever we wanted to do. We did whatever made us feel good. We did whatever our own bodies and minds told us to do. And that made God angry with us, just like he is angry with everyone else.

Cross References

Genesis 5:3

Adam lived a long time. He was 130 years old when he had his son called Seth. He was a human being, just like Adam, his father.

Genesis 6:5

God looked at the people on the earth, and he saw them doing lots of bad things. He knew the way they were thinking. They were thinking bad things all the time. God saw that the people were very bad.

Genesis 8:21

God smelled the meat cooking on that stone table, and he was happy. Then God said to himself, “People always just want to do bad things. They do that all their lives, from when they are little kids, right up until the time they die. But I will never again punish them the same way that I did this time. I will never again finish up everything that breathes air, and I will never again curse the earth. While the earth is still here, the seasons will stay the same. There will always be day and night, and every year there will be a hot time and a cold time, a wet season and a dry season. There will always be a right time to plant seeds for food, and a right time to get the food from those plants.”

Mark 4:19

but after that, they let other things stop them, so they don’t live properly for God. They worry too much about the things they want in this life. They start to think too much about money, and they trick themselves. They want a lot of different things all the time, and they worry too much about all those things. They just think about what they want for themselves, and that stops them listening properly to God’s word, so they can’t live properly for God.

John 1:13

Yes, those people are in God’s family, but they were not born into it the way kids are born into human families. And they did not come from what a human mother or father wanted. God himself gave them new life and made them his kids.

John 8:44

So, really, your father is the devil, the boss over the bad spirits, and you do anything he wants you to do. He was always a murderer and a liar, and nothing he says is true. Whenever he tells lies, he is just doing what he likes to do. All lies come from him. It is like he is the father of all lies.

Acts 14:16

He let the people in every country go their own way, up until now,

Romans 1:24

So God let them go their own way, and they did whatever they felt like doing. They did whatever their dirty minds thought about, so they did bad things with each other’s bodies.

Romans 13:14

But instead, you have to be like our leader, Jesus Christ, so that whenever other people look at you, it will be like they see him. And whenever that bad part inside you makes you want to do something bad, take no notice of it. Just don’t think about doing that bad thing.

Romans 2:14

There are people that aren’t Jewish, but sometimes they do good things just like the law says. They don’t have that law, but they know in their minds what is right and what is wrong.

Romans 5:10

It is like this. We were God’s enemies, then his son Jesus died for us, so now we are God’s friends. And that’s not all. Now that we are God’s friends, Jesus lives in us and saves us.

Romans 5:9

And that’s not all. Jesus Christ bled and died instead of us, so now God tells us, “You are all right,” and he will not be angry with us when he judges everyone.

Romans 6:12

So don’t just think about the law that comes from Moses. It talks about the bad things people do. If you just think about that, you will want to do those same bad things yourself. Then that law will be your boss, and your bodies will make you want to do bad things too. Don’t be like that. Don’t let any part of your body be your boss. Don’t do whatever it wants. Instead, you have to give your bodies to God and let him use you to do good things. You have to think about him all the time, and remember that he is very good to you, and that he made you alive again in a new way. If you think like that, you will not want to do anything bad. God is really good to you. That law is not your boss any more.

Romans 7:18

We know that we can’t do anything good by ourselves. We want to do the right thing, but we can’t.

1 Corinthians 4:7

You yourselves are no better than other people. God gave you everything that you have. So you can’t reckon that you are really smart, and that you got it for yourselves.

Galatians 3:22

God says in his book that everyone does bad things. They can’t stop doing those bad things. But if we listen to what God promises us, and if we believe in Jesus Christ, he will save us.

Ephesians 2:2

You didn’t do what God wants, but instead, you always did bad things, just like the other people in this world do. You used to do the things the devil wants. He is the boss over those strong bad spirits that are in the air. That devil is working now inside everyone that will not do what God wants.

Ephesians 4:22

You learned that we all have a bad part inside us that gets us to only think about what we want for ourselves, and it gets us to go wrong, and it gets us to do bad things. And you learned that now we have to turn around and stop doing those things. So don’t take any notice of that old bad part inside you. Don’t think about those bad things any more,

Colossians 1:21

And I’m talking about you too. At first you were not God’s friends. You were his enemies. You always thought in a bad way, and then you did bad things.

1 Thessalonians 4:13

Christian friends, we are going to tell you now about people that have already died. We don’t want you to be sad when you think about them. Other people, that don’t believe in Jesus, they don’t know what will happen to them after they die. So when their friends die, they get really sad. But if our Christian friends die, we don’t have to be really sad like those other people. Listen, we want you to understand this properly.

1 Thessalonians 5:6

So don’t be like other people that aren’t ready for Jesus to come back, like they are asleep. Instead, you have to think properly about what is happening, like people that are awake.

1 Timothy 6:9

But people that try to get lots of money, they let the devil trick them. The devil is the boss over the bad spirits. He gets those people to want things so much that they will do anything to get them. That’s how they fall into the devil’s trap. They do silly things, and bad things too. The devil really wrecks them.

Titus 3:3

You know, we were like that before we believed in Jesus. We did silly things too. We didn’t do what God told us to do. People tricked us, and we believed things that were not true. And we wanted to do all sorts of bad things. We couldn’t stop ourselves. If anybody had a lot of things, we wanted those things for ourselves, and we were angry with those people. We hated people, and people hated us.

1 Peter 1:14

In the past, you didn’t know that God was good. So at that time you did all the bad things you wanted to do. But now you are God’s kids. So you have to stop doing those bad things,

2 Peter 2:14

They are always looking for a woman to sleep with, like a man sleeps with his wife. They do bad things, and they keep looking for more bad things to do. If somebody doesn’t strongly trust Christ, those people will trick that person and get them to go wrong. They are really greedy, wanting lots of money and things. They are the sort of people that God says he will properly punish.

2 Peter 2:18

That mob teach with words that sound good, but they are useless. They say we are free now, so we can do anything we like. They say that it is all right to do bad things. That is what they teach, but it is wrong. You know, there are some people that used to go wrong, but then they turned around and started to go right. But now those liars are tricking them and getting them to go wrong again. Those liars tell them that they can do any bad things they like, to get their bodies to feel good. Those liars promise to free people, but they themselves are not free. They can’t stop themselves from doing bad and dirty things. It’s like this. If somebody can’t stop themselves from doing something, that thing is their boss and they have to work for it. So it’s like those bad things are their boss. They are not free.