EPHESIANS: ETERNALLY ENCLOSED IN GOD’S PLAN

Part IX: Paul’s Prayer For Believers’ Experiential Unity

(Ephesians 3:14-21)

I. Introduction

A. Paul wrote Ephesians to encourage believers of God’s work to edify the Church regardless what happened to him in his imprisonment (Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672: “Intro. to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians”).

B. Ephesians 3:14-21 thus records Paul’s prayer that his readers might experience God’s spiritual fulfillment in Christian unity for their edification and God’s great glory (as follows):

II. Paul’s Prayer For Believers’ Experiential Unity, Ephesians 3:14-21.

A. Following Paul’s anacoluthon, his break in thought between Ephesians 3:1b and 3:13, he returned to discussing his prayer begun in Ephesians 3:1a for his readers that was based on his revelation back in Ephesians 2:11-22 about God’s gracious union between Hebrew and Gentile believers in the Church.

B. That prayer involved Paul’s request that his readers might grasp the greatness of God’s love that combines Hebrew and Gentile believers into one body that they might experience great love for each other regardless of the wall of division that had existed between them in the dispensation of the Mosaic Law, Ephesians 3:14-19:

1. Paul bowed his knees in prayer before God the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, Ephesians 3:14-15 ESV. The KJV phrase “the whole family in heaven and earth” would mean that “all Creation including angels and humans are one family under the fatherhood of God. But this is problematic grammatically for the Greek has no pronoun (‘His’) before the word ‘whole.’ This also has a problem theologically. A better translation both grammatically and theologically is ‘from whom every family’ (cf. ASV, NASB, RSV). Paul was not saying that God is the Father of all but rather that He is the Prototype of all fatherhood. ‘Father’ is derived from God, not man. He is the first Father, the only One with ‘underived’ fatherhood. Thus every human family derives its name, that is, exists as a family with a father, because of Him” (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 631).

2. The prayer request Paul made to God included God’s graciously granting his believing readers to be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit in their inner being, Ephesians 3:16.

3. Paul’s reason for this request was that his readers by the Holy Spirit’s power might see Christ dwell at home in their hearts by faith, the word “dwell” (katoikesai) suggesting being at home, at the very center of or deeply rooted in his readers’ lives, Ephesians 3:17a; Ibid.

4. The focus Paul exhibited centered on the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:17b), that his readers might come to experience as a way of life the enormity of Christ’s love for all believers, that they might have the strength to comprehend together with all believers the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love, coming to know that love that actually surpasses human knowledge, Ephesians 3:18-19.

5. In so doing, his readers would be equipped to accept one another regardless of their human backgrounds as Hebrews or Gentiles, the burden Paul expressed in his discussion back in Ephesians 2:11-13.

C. Deeply moved as a former Pharisee who had known profound barriers between himself and uncircumcised Gentiles under the Mosaic Law (cf. Philippians 3:4-5), the prayer request Paul had made being so contrary to his past heritage, he ended his report on his prayer with a doxology of praise to the Lord, Ephesians 3:20-21:

1. Paul spoke of God Who was able to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think, Eph. 3:20a.

2. He acknowledged that God could achieve such great things by the power of the Holy Spirit that is at work now within our own hearts as believers, Ephesians 3:20b.

3. The apostle willed that this Lord be glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, and Paul ended this doxology with an “Amen,” asserting its truthfulness, Ephesians 3:21.

Lesson: God’s great work to eliminate the barrier that the Mosaic Law had created between Hebrew and Gentile people through Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross for sin so completely altered the relationship between Hebrew and Gentile believers that Paul prayed for God to provide supernatural enabling by the Holy Spirit for believers just to comprehend God’s infinite love for every believer regardless of his cultural heritage or genetic composition. In this way, Paul hoped for a complete, fulfilling spiritual unity between Hebrew and Gentile believers in Christ, all to the glory of the God of infinite grace.

Application: May we rely on the indwelling Holy Spirit of God to view and thus relate to other believers regardless of their heritage or background in the sphere of God’s infinite love, and that to the glory of the God of grace.