Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV)
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Paul begins with “for this reason,” which points to the previous section in which brings out two truths:
- Paul is a legitimate apostle, called and empowered. Therefore he has both a right and a responsibility to approach God’s throne on behalf of not only the Ephesians, but on behalf of Christians everywhere.
- The Church has a vital job to do: to make known the manifold wisdom of God through making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). That job requires divine power, which is always dependent on passionate prayer.
Paul then makes five interlinked petitions:
- That out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being – God’s goal in us is that His power flowing through our lives will enable us to be witnesses of the gospel with our actions as well as our words. This is why Jesus, when He talked about the coming of the Holy Spirit, focused on power to be a witness (Acts 1:8). Many of us want power for victorious living, and the Holy Spirit will provide that as well. But Jesus identified the key purpose of that power as proclamation of the gospel. These days we have come to rely so strongly on programs and programmed methods of evangelism because we don’t have this power. We make excuses how that divine empowerment was only for the early Church, only available until the Bible was completed. But the proclamation of the gospel is no less a divine activity today than it was 2000 years ago. It is something that cannot be effectively accomplished by human devices and ingenuity. We need the power of the Holy Spirit working though our lives so that ALL of us can do the work of making disciples. This power is not an option, something that only certain people in the Church need. It is essential for all Christians everywhere. We need to be praying this into our own lives and into the lives of the people in our churches starting now!
- So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. – I have always interpreted this verse to be talking about salvation. But in context it means much more, because it is written as a RESULT of the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through our lives. It is pointing to the idea that Christ is in complete control of us, that He is in the driver’s seat, controlling and directing our every thought, word, and deed. This ties to illustration in John 15 of the vine and the branches. After He paints that picture He goes on to say, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 NIV) Praying that Christ will dwell in our hearts by faith is praying that this “remaining in Christ and He in us” will be a reality, so that we can be empowered to carry out the mission of bearing much fruit – new disciples, saved souls who have been saved and made new creations in Jesus.
- And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ – We have very little idea how massive and extensive the love of Christ is. We know that it extended to us, but we have very little idea how passionately Jesus loves ALL people on earth, how passionately He wants them ALL to be saved. Peter tells us that God is actually holding back the return of Jesus so that more can be saved! (2 Peter 3:3-10) God’s love for the lost, for all of the lost is overwhelming, to the point that His plan is to empower and send us all out to tell everyone the good news, so that they can be saved. It is not Jesus’ love for ME that Paul is praying for me to grasp – that has already been abundantly demonstrated to me through His saving me in the first place. It is His love for all of the lost, including all of those that are reachable by me. I can see that a key to this is the phrase “rooted and established in love.” It means to be rooted in love in the same way that a healthy plant is rooted and established in rich, fertile soil. God’s love for all humanity is to be the soil that we grow in, not just a fertilizer that we apply to our lives occasionally. If our whole lives are rooted in God’s love, in the self-sacrificing, other-centered agape love of Christ, we won’t be able to stand the thought that ANYONE would die without knowing Jesus. God’s love for them working though our lives would control our every action every day, just as it did Jesus, and move us to purposefully reach out to them with the gospel at every opportunity.
- And to know this love that surpasses knowledge – The phrase Paul uses here is fascinating. How can we know something that surpasses knowledge? The only way we can do that is to experience it on a much deeper than intellectual level. It has to move beyond theory or theology to become a reality in my own life. The love of God for all of the lost must pulse through my own veins as it did though the veins of Jesus Himself. We will never “understand” it, but we can know it, experience it, as it flows through our lives like a stream.
- That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. – Again, this is pointed to as a RESULT of all that has gone before. As we are strengthened and empowered to do the work of the kingdom, Christ will dwell in our hearts through faith. As we are rooted and established in God’s other-centered, self-sacrificing love, we will begin to grasp the magnitude of that love experientially as it works through our lives. And in the process, as a result of surrendering completely to that love that rushes through us into the lives of others, we will be filled with all of the fullness of God.
Two things amaze me as I read these verses. First is how often we center these verses on ourselves, figuring that the love that is being talked about here is specifically God’s love for US, for ME. Instead, in context, Paul is praying that we will be able to grasp the depth of God’s love for all people, for the lost that still must be reached, so that that love will spur us to action. Secondly, I am amazed that even though praying this kind of love, and power, and fervor into the lives of “ordinary” Christians seems like such a long-shot, Paul is confident that God will not only do all that he is asking, but that He will do immeasurably more than all that we can ask or imagine. Amazing!
Father, this prayer for the Ephesians is really a prayer for me, and for all of your people today. Forgive us, Lord, for often being too preoccupied, too busy, too wrongly focused to actively live out Your love for the lost in our day-to-day lives. Help me to experience and know beyond knowing the reality and immensity of Your love for all humankind, by allowing that saving love to flow through my life. Help me, Lord, to do that today, and every day in the future, and to join Paul in praying that reality into the lives of all of the other Christians I know as well. Amen.