Ephesians 3:14–17

Prayer that God enable the Ephesians to comprehend the love of Christ


For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 


You may recall that Paul opened this chapter with what we described as the introduction to a prayer. Before getting into the prayer, Paul digressed to explain the mystery that God had revealed to him, that in the Christian church God is pleased to have Jewish and gentile believers in Christ stand as equals. God’s undeserved gift to Paul was choosing him to be the revealer of this mystery, sending him out as the bearer of this good news, particularly to Gentiles.


So that Gentiles in general and his Ephesian readers in particular might understand the true greatness of what God in Christ had done for them, Paul once more returns to his prayer for their enlightenment.


This prayer consists essentially of three petitions followed by a doxology, a statement of praise to God. Paul asks God to grant the Ephesians strength, knowledge, and fullness.


These, however, are not three isolated or separate things. They all hang together. We could connect and expand them a bit by putting them together into one sentence, such as: Paul prays that God would “strengthen” the new man in the Ephesians, in order that they would come to “know” the greatness of Christ’s love and so gain a deeper realization of the “fullness” that is theirs as members of God’s family.


Petition for strength


In Christ, God is the Father of all believers. Hence believers of all time are united into one family, the holy Christian church. That family includes glorified believers already in heaven as well as those still living on earth.


As a member of this great family, Paul comes boldly to God as his heavenly Father. On this occasion his prayer is for other family members, specifically the Ephesians. In humble reverence Paul kneels “before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name” and makes his intercession. He says, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he [God] may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”


Paul requests that God would give the Ephesians strength—spiritual strength, which comes only through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s work affects the “inner being,” that is, the new man created when the Ephesians were brought to faith. This new man grows as the Spirit continues to work in believers through Word and sacrament, making them ever more sure and confident of their salvation as faith in Christ grows.


Causing Christ to dwell in believers’ hearts is the real work of the Holy Spirit. It is important to keep that in mind in an age when people who speak of charismatic gifts of the Spirit are likely to be thinking of speaking in tongues or bringing about healings as though that were the true work of the Spirit.


Recall what Christ on Maundy Thursday evening said about the Holy Spirit’s work: “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me” (John 15:26). The Spirit’s main work is advancing Christ: bringing people to faith in Christ and then strengthening that faith. So Paul asks God to send his Holy Spirit to do his strengthening work in the hearts of the Ephesians “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”