Prayer that God enlighten the Ephesians to see his gracious power
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
Three times in the doxology just completed (verses 3-14) Paul urged the Ephesians to praise God for the great spiritual blessings they had received in the Father’s electing them, the Son’s redeeming them, and the Spirit’s bringing them to faith and sealing their salvation. Recall that God did all this “to the praise of his glory.”
In the spirit of praise and thanksgiving, Paul now prays, “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”
From the book of Acts we know that Paul served in Ephesus for three years. Because Paul here says “I heard about your faith,” some have concluded that the letter could not have been intended for the Ephesians, because Paul would not speak that way to people whom he had served for three years. Note, however, that Paul had been in captivity in Rome for almost three years by the time he wrote this letter. Hence, it is entirely likely that Paul’s best and most recent source of information about the readers was what he had heard via the reports that had come to him.
Be that as it may, it doesn’t change Paul’s model prayer of praise to God for the faith and love of his readers, for whom he prays constantly. Faith and love are not essentially different. Love is simply faith in action, and both are produced by the gospel, which alone can win hearts and lives for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s prayer, however, is not restricted to praise. He adds a petition, or request, for the Ephesians. “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”
Only in and through Christ may sinful people approach God in prayer. Hence Paul addresses God as “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father.” He is not only Christ’s Father, but by our faith in Christ, he is also our Father. Hence we may come to him boldly and confidently, as “dear children coming to their dear Father.” This is what Paul does when he asks the Father to give the Ephesians a gift, that is, “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.”
“Spirit” with a capital S would suggest that Paul is praying for the Holy Spirit to impart wisdom to the Ephesians. Such an understanding is certainly possible. But because Paul in the next verse prays that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened,” it is perhaps likelier that Paul is here asking God to give the Ephesians enlightened hearts and minds, which come from learning God’s truths as they are revealed in his Holy Word. Paul’s prayer is that the Ephesians grow in their understanding of these truths so they may know God ever more fully.