Ephesians 3:14

Eph_3:14-21

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

A pattern of prayer

The worldly proverb is, Every man for himself and God for us all; the true Christian practice is, to follow Christ:--I have prayed for thee, that thy strength fall not; Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. And in following the Lord, to follow St. Pauls advice and example:--For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What an intercession this is which St. Paul makes for the Ephesians! It is a pattern of intercessory prayer; it is rightly grounded; it seeks the most precious gifts on behalf of his brethren; it has the highest designs in view in asking their bestowment.

I. The faith on which his prayer was founded.

1. The Fatherhood of God. This is the foundation thought of the Lords prayer--Our Father. The Father will not fail us.

2. The brotherhood of the saints in Christ. Heaven and earth are knit into one in Jesus. Of whom the whole family, every race, in heaven and earth is named. The sense is that all the classes and communities of heaven and earth own a common paternity.

II. The great gifts St. Paul sought for others in this prayer.

1. The infusion of spiritual strength--to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.

2. The indwelling of Christ--that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.

3. The establishment of their hearts in the love of God rooted and grounded in love.

III. The design of his prayer for the bestowment on them of these gifts. Such spiritual strength, and such an indwelling, were to lead to--

1. Their comprehension of the love of Christ. This is St. Pauls paradox; to know the unknowable, to know the nature, if we cannot know the extent, of the love of Christ.

2. Their being filled with the fulness of God. Where the Son of God dwells, there is the fulness of God. Such is a brief outline of an exposition of this most precious of prayers. (Canon Vernon Hutton.)

St. Pauls prayer for Gentile Christians

A great prayer all through. This may be seen from--

I. The ideal it presents. The loftiest possibilities of the Christian life are conceived of as open to Gentile equally with Jew.

II. The petition it embodies.

1. Spiritual life as a whole is besought of God as His gift.

2. It is through the continuous operation of the Divine Being that spiritual life is sustained and advanced.

3. Yet is the growth of the spiritual life conceived of as involving the activity of the subject in whom it is manifested. Faith, love, and hope, are active principles in every child of God.

III. The plea it urges. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)

Christian prayer

1. Our prayers should be addressed to God the Father.

2. Our prayers should be addressed to God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Our prayers should be addressed to God with deep humility.

4. Our prayers should be addressed to God for Christian eminence.

5. Prayers should be addressed to God both by ministers and people. (G. Brooks.)

The ladder of prayer

1. You see that the prayer begins with the gracious petition that we may be strengthened--strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, according to the riches of His glory; the object being, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. Before the Lord can dwell in us we must be strengthened--mentally and spiritually strengthened. To entertain the high and holy one--to receive into our soul the indwelling Christ--it is necessary that the temple be strengthened, that there be more power put into every pillar and into every stone of the edifice. It is taken for granted that we have already been washed and cleansed, and so made fit for Christ to come and dwell within us. But we need also to be strengthened; for, unless we become stronger in all spiritual life, how is Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith? Unless we become stronger in love, and in all the graces of the Spirit, how can we worthily entertain such a guest as the Lord Jesus? Ay, and we even need that our spiritual perception should be strengthened, that we may be able to know Him when He does come and dwell in us. We must be strengthened into stability of mind, that so Christ may dwell, abide, reside in our hearts by faith.

2. Now, having stood on the first step of the ladder, Paul goes on to pray that, when we are strengthened, we may be inhabited: that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. When the house is ready to receive Him, and strong enough for such a wondrous inhabitant, may Jesus come, not to look about Him as He did when He went into the temple, but to abide with us--to dwell in our hearts by faith.

3. This third step is a broad one, and it has three parts to it.

(1) Its first part is establishment--That ye, being rooted and grounded in love. When you are strengthened, and when Jesus dwells in your heart, then you are no longer carried about with every wind of doctrine, but you are rooted, like a cedar in Lebanon which receives but recks not of the stormy wind.

(2) Side by side with this very blessed establishment in the faith, for which I would bow my knee, as Paul did for the Ephesians, that you may all have it, comes a comprehension of Divine love. How anxiously do I desire your firm settlement in the truth, for this is an age which needs rooted and grounded saints. Side by side with that, however, we would have you receive this further blessing, namely, a comprehension of the love of Christ: that ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the arithmetician makes calculations and arrives at clear ideas. As a mechanic cubes a quantity and takes its length, and depth, and height, so may the Lord Jesus Christs love be to you no more an airy dream, but a substantial fact, about which you know distinctly, being taught of the living God by the Holy Spirit.

(3) Acquaintance. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The top of the ladder

To know the love of Christ.

I. What it is to know the love of Christ.

1. The way in which we come by our knowledge. Personal acquaintance, by having Christ dwelling in you so that you see Him, hear Him, feel His touch, and enjoy His blessed company.

2. The certainty there is in it. We cannot be certain of anything, says someone. Well, perhaps you cannot. But the man who has Christ dwelling in him says, There is one thing I am certain of, and that is the love of Christ to me. I am assured of the loveliness of His character and the affection of His heart. He would not cheer and encourage me; He would not rebuke and chasten me, as He does, if He did not love me. He gives me every proof of His love, and therefore I am sure of it.

3. What a blessed knowledge this is! Talk they of science? No science can rival the science of Christ crucified. Knowledge? No knowledge can compare with the knowledge of the love that passeth knowledge. How sweet it is to know love! Who wants a better subject to exercise his mind upon? Who would not be a scholar, when the book he reads in is the heart of Christ?

II. To know so as to be filled. It is not every kind of knowledge that will fill a man. Many forms of knowledge make a man more empty than he was before. But if you get a knowledge of Christs love, it is a filling knowledge, for it contents the soul. Imagination itself is content with Jesus. Hope cannot conceive anything more lovely; she gives up all attempts to paint a fairer than He; and she cries, Yea, He is altogether lovely. Once more, when the love of Christ comes to work upon the soul, when it brings with it all its choice treasures, then the mind of the believer is filled with the fulness of God. Christ does not long dwell in an unfurnished house. Oh, the blessedness of knowing the love of Christ! It fills the spirit to the full.

III. What it is to be filled with all the fulness of God. Does it not mean that self is banished; for if the fulness of God has filled you, where is room for self? Does it not mean that the soul is perfectly charmed with all that God does for it? Filled with all the fulness of God. Does it not mean that every power of the entire nature is solaced and satisfied?

IV. Wherever Christ dwells in the heart by faith we receive the fulness of God into our spirit, with the design that we may overflow. If you go forth filled with God, you are provided for every emergency. Come calamity or prosperity, whatever shape the temptation may assume, if the love of Christ has filled you with the fulness of God you are ready for it. If you are full with a Divine fulness, your lips scatter gems more precious than pearls and diamonds. Filled with all the fulness of God, your paths, like Gods paths, drop fatness. Do you not know Christian men of that sort? They are millionaire Christians who make others rich. If the Lord has brought us to His fulness, it is a very high state to be in. Oh, that the Holy Ghost would fill us also according to our capacity! If the water carts go along the road in dusty weather with nothing in them, they will not lay the dust; and if you Christians go about the world empty, you will not lay the dust of sin which blinds and defiles society. If you go to a fountain and find no water flowing, that fountain mocks your thirst; it is worse than useless: therefore do not forget that if you ever become empty of grace, you mock those who look to you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Pauls prayer for the Ephesian Christians

I. It was his desire that they might be strong-minded men and women. There exists a prejudice against strong-minded men, and a still greater prejudice against strong-minded women. This may be attributable to the circumstance that many strong-minded men and women are also strong-willed, and somewhat disposed to domineer. There exists, also, a prejudice, for which expression has been found in the assertion, that ignorance is the mother of devotion. With none of these prejudices had the apostle any sympathy. He considered nothing so likely to awaken true worship as far-reaching, clear, comprehensive, and correct views of truth; and it was his desire that they to whom he wrote might have all the intellectual vigour necessary to the full enjoying of all the blessings of Christianity. Of James Wait, the Pious Shepherd--I quote from memory the title of his memoir, published many years ago, by Mr. Maclaurin of Coldingham--it is stated, that when seated at the Lords table at Stitchel Brae, and subsequently at Kelso, there was vouchsafed to him an overpowering revelation of the glory of the Lord, and of His love to mankind sinners. He said, I was no sooner set down at the table, than I found such a flood of the Spirits consolation poured in upon my soul, that I was obliged to cover myself with my plaid, to keep it from the eyes of others. I found myself obliged to plead that the Lord would strengthen the vessel or hold His hand; for I found that I could not bear up. He felt that it was becoming more than he could stand, and that if carried further, he must expire in an agony of bliss. Thus would I illustrate what I mean. Yes I there are needed strong-minded men and women to sustain the conceptions which may be formed of infinite and eternal verities! Mark the phraseology employed by the apostle: That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. When the ship by which he sailed from Myra was in peril at Clauda, they undergirded the ship. The expression before us is suggestive of strengthening by bracings within, as well as by girdings without; and it is expressive of a desire, that they to whom he wrote might be strong-minded men and women. But this exhausts not the expression of the apostles desire on behalf of his brethren.

II. It was his desire that they might be strong-minded men and women, thoroughly imbued with a Christ-like spirit. Mark his expression! Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man: that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. What is it that is meant, when it is said, as sometimes it is, by persons who do not hesitate to speak profanely, The devil is in the man? Is it not this: the man acts as if the devil had taken possession of his heart, and was influencing him in his every act? Corresponding to this seems the import of the expression employed--that Christ may dwell in your hearts--that you may be strong-minded men and women, thoroughly imbued with a Christ-like spirit--strengthened with all might in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.

III. That they might be strong-minded men and women, thoroughly imbued with a Christ-like spirit, and understanding how comprehensive religion is. The views entertained by many in regard to what is comprehended in religion, are very narrow indeed. What is the love of Christ? Our love to Christ may be called the love of Christ: thus do we speak of the love of gold. Christs love to us may be called the love of Christ: thus do we speak of a mothers love to her child. But there is yet another idea which may be expressed by the phrase, the love of Christ; and to express this idea, does it appear to me, that the phrase is employed by the apostle here. That idea I would illustrate thus: one doctrine of the apostle was, that the whole duty of man to man was comprehended in love. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another. To this love, apparently, the apostle refers--the love inculcated by Christ, and manifested by Christ--a love embracing every duty of man, to himself, to his fellowmen, and to his God. It was his desire that they might be strong-minded men and women, thoroughly imbued with a Christ-like spirit; that they, being rooted and grounded in love, might be able to comprehend how all-comprehensive religion is, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, extending, as it did, far far beyond what they knew or dreamed of. He says not, as many seem to suppose, that it cannot be known--on the contrary, he wished and prayed that it might be known by them. His wish was: Oh that they but knew how all-comprehensive religion is, and would live up to the conception which they attained! or, as I have expressed it, that they might be--

IV. Strong-minded men and women, thoroughly imbued with a Christ-like spirit, understanding how comprehensive religion is, and maintaining a corresponding God-like walk and conversation. It is to such a manifestation of godliness that we are destined and called. A captious objector, or a careless unconcerned reader, may say, How can man be filled with all the fulness of God?--how can the finite comprehend the infinite? In a volume entitled, The Tongue of Fire, there was given a beautiful illustration of the import of the apostles figure. The illustration was double. The phraseology employed has long since escaped me, but the effect produced upon my mind remains. In substance the illustration was as follows:--There is a dewdrop hanging suspended from a blade of grass bent and pendent with its weight. While we are yet gazing on it, there falls upon it the slanting rays of the morning sun, and it shines as if it were itself a thing of light. It contains not, nor can it contain, the whole of the rays streaming from the orb of day. These illumine the whole hemisphere, and penetrate far on all sides into the depths of space--creating a sphere of light, sustained by successive rays, which it may require thousands of years to traverse, with all the velocity for which light is famous, the radius from the centre to the circumference, so vast the sphere; but that little dewdrop is filled with that fulness of light--to the full extent of its limited capacity full! Again: There is a marble cistern, filled to overflowing with the pellucid water of a perennial spring. It contains not, nor can it contain, all the waters of the fountain; it has been overflowing for years; but it is itself full--to its limited capacity filled--filled to overflowing--filled with the fulness of the fountain! Such is the illustration employed by the apostle: filled with all the fulness of God. It is an illustration or expression suggestive, at least, of two ideas, both of them calling for consideration. That ye might be filled, every faculty and affection of the soul sanctified--filled. Filled with all the fulness of God--every Divine perfection having its counterpart in the life and spirit of the man; the justice of God having its counterpart in the justice of the man; the holiness of God its counterpart in the holiness of the man; the truthfulness of God in the truthfulness of the man; the long suffering of God its counterpart in long suffering manifested by the man. Every faculty and affection sanctified, and every perfection of God having its counterpart in the life and spirit of the man--the result of all being a God-like walk and conversation. (J. C. Brown, LL. D.)

The Christian temple: its material and magnitude

I. The peculiar fitness requested for them as forming the material of the spiritual temple (verses 16, 17). It is very clear that the building idea pervades this passage throughout. The reference to the dwelling of Christ in the heart decides this. The apostles mind was so engrossed by this figure of a temple--the knowledge that he was writing to people who were familiar with temple architecture having possibly something to do with it--that each individual Christian presents himself to his mind as a stone in a glorious temple. And all his thoughts assume a corresponding form and colouring. He asks that they might be strengthened with might in the inner man. In this he shows his anxiety that they might prove true stones, possessing qualities befitting the glory and the character of the building; that they might be subjected to such a process as would impart to them the quality of soundness, a most desirable quality in a stone. Upon its soundness depends its capability of bearing strain, of carrying weight, and resisting the ravages of the elements. The quality of the stones composing a building determines the strength and stability of the building itself. Two things are declared respecting this process, namely, its manner and means.

1. The manner of it--That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. The strengthening is secured by the indwelling of Christ. This is not a literal or physical indwelling. The nature of the indwelling is implied by the expression by faith. Contact of Christians with Him by faith results in the transmission to them of His qualities.

2. The text describes the means of the indwelling--by faith and by the Spirit. Here we have both the agent and the instrument employed to secure the indwelling. There is a beautiful interblending of the human and Divine in this transaction. The Spirit promotes faith; faith receives Christ; and Christ constitutes the strengthening. The strengthening consists in the transfusion of the soul with Christs characteristic traits of strength and firmness. This process is effected by the operation of faith; faith, again, is a mental act prompted by the spirit. If we adhere to the figure of a house, as the term dwell seems to suggest, the whole process may be represented thus--Christ comes to dwell in the heart with a view to impart strength to it, but He must be admitted into it through the door, which is faith; then, again, this door must be opened by the porter, the Spirit, as in the example of Lydia, whose heart, we are expressly told, the Lord opened to the reception of the things spoken by Paul.

II. We notice the second request of this prayer, that they might have enlarged and Christ-honouring conceptions of the magnitude of the temple of which they formed a part. Most people connect the words in verse 18 with the love of Christ referred to in the following verse. The structure of the Greek seems opposed to this interpretation; also the logic of the passage. Can it be true that the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of which we are so definitely to comprehend, is beyond our knowledge? We must look, then, for some other reference to fit the words. What had the apostle uppermost in his mind? Was it not the Christian temple so beautifully described in the last words of chapter 2 as being in course of building? The purport of the thought would seem to be this temple. The apostle knew how narrow and contracted the thoughts of many Jewish Christians, especially, were respecting this glorious institution. He is, therefore, anxious to lift their minds cut of the narrow rut of their traditional exclusiveness. He wants them to rise to a truer and nobler conception of this glorious spiritual temple--to comprehend its breadth, and length, and depth, and height. By its breadth and length he describes its area as covering the whole earth, as contemplating all nations within its scope. By its depth and height he measures its elevation; it includes the whole family on earth and in heaven, the Church militant and the Church triumphant. In a word, then, we have the area and elevation of the spiritual temple, the Church, in the one ease covering the earth, in the other reaching to the heavens.

1. The source of it. The comprehension indicated comes as the result of being rooted and grounded in love. A strange interblending of figures. Not only has the heart penetrated into the love, but the love penetrates into the heart, transfusing it with its own qualities. What is the result? It is that the heart, so affected, so wrought upon, possesses in its new instinct of love a key to all Gods ways and operations.

2. The universality of its comprehension. It is implied that to comprehend the magnitude of the aim of the Christian Church was a matter which the Ephesian Christians were to attain to in common with all saints. It is the duty of every Christian to attain to clear views on this important matter. It is men who have comprehended this most clearly and appreciated it most fully who have succeeded best in doing great things for God. It is only by the inspiration and enthusiasm born of this great fact that such heroes of the faith as Wesley in England, Carey in India, and Livingstone in Africa, were stimulated and emboldened to attempt the mighty things they achieved in their day.

3. The use of it--And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. Here the apostle tells us that one of the advantages of the realization of the wide-reaching aims and benevolent purposes of the Church was the help it gives to realize the transcendent love of Christ. It sounds paradoxical to speak of knowing that which passeth knowledge. There is a sense, nevertheless, in which it is consistent. The fact of the love being Divine at once places it beyond the utmost stretch of the human mind to measure its force, to fathom its depth, or to scale its height. He to whom, both by reason of sympathy of nature and power of inspiration, was given more than to any other human being the power of fathoming its depth, and measuring its height, represents it as of the very essence of God. Yet this knowledge-defying love, the text tells us, we may know.

This knowledge consists of two things.

1. In being convinced of it as a fact. As Intimated, this conviction, the apostle tells us, comes of duly comprehending the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the Church. The Church, in the magnitude of its conception and comprehensive benevolence, is a standing monument of Christs love, a proof indisputable of its existence and operative force. This much we know of the love of Christ. The sun far surpasses our power of comprehension. We can form no idea of its bulk, of the extent of its forces, of the influence it exerts upon myriad objects embraced by its light and heat. Nevertheless, there is nothing of the existence of which we are more convinced, or with the power of which we are more impressed. Thus it is with the love of Christ.

2. To know the love of Christ means also an assurance of a personal interest in it. It means the conviction that, however it may defy the utmost power of our imagination to measure its magnitude, we are, nevertheless, embraced by it; that it is our moral atmosphere in which we breathe inspiration and power; the spiritual light which infuses, sunlike, gladness and joy into the very core of our life, giving serene rest, and creating unflinching confidence in the midst of universal unrest, and of myriads of turbulent and conflicting elements.

3. The knowledge of Christs love is a qualification for the reception of all the fulness of God. The love of Christ, apprehended in the sense explained, unlocks the soul for the entrance into it of all Gods fulness. This is the apostles climax thought. Here he describes the highest point of spiritual attainment the believing soul is capable of reaching, that is, becoming a depository for all the fulness of God. The love of Christ, apprehended in this deeper manner, brings the whole man under the complete sway of God. For this being filled with all the fulness of God means--

(1) To have an all-pervading consciousness of God; it is to have God in His fulness--in the fact of His goodness, His love, His holiness in the profoundest sense pervading our every thought and action, inspiring them, moulding them, and directing them. In a word, it is God becoming the sole motive power of the soul.

(2) It also means to be endowed to the utmost possible capacity of our being with spiritual power--to be God-endowed as well as God-motived. In this fulness God lays Himself, so to speak, at the service of the soul--in the wealth of His love and the treasures of His grace. (A. J. Parry.)

An ascending prayer

You will see that this prayer is an ascending one. Each petition rises higher than the preceding. Meditating on this prayer is something like ascending an Alpine peak. The first hour or so is comparatively easy work. The giant flanks of the mountain are steep, but still their ascent is not over difficult; but the higher you go, the steeper it becomes, until at last there is just that one glittering pinnacle towering above your head, and it seems to say, Thus far, but no farther! Scale me if you can. With the aid, though, of a trusty guide, who cuts steps in the very ice for us, and who lends us the strength of his arm, we are able to gain the summit, and drink in with our eyes the grandeur of the scene. Oh that the Spirit of God might come upon us, and, taking us by the hand, help us by His own mighty power to reach the very topmost pinnacle of the apostles prayer, and understand in some measure what it is to be filled with all the fulness of God.

1. There must be an inward strengthening. Spiritual power must be developed to qualify us for attaining to eminence in the knowledge and service of Christ. Not life only, but vitality.

2. There must be an ever-acting faith on your part, so that a whole Christ may be received, and a whole Christ retained within the soul. A glorious realization of the person of the Lord Jesus, and by faith a living Christ dwelling within the breast. Not a portrait merely, but Christ Himself enshrined in the soul.

3. Then, you see, how naturally comes the next petition, That ye may be filled with all the fulness of God. Ah! I am certain of this, that if I am filled with a living Christ, I am not far off being filled with all the fulness of God. If I am strengthened with all might by the Holy Ghost, and have a living Jesus within the soul, only one step higher and the pinnacle of the prayer is reached.

(1) What it is to be filled with God. To have as much of God within us as our nature can contain. No low level of spiritual experience should satisfy us. We must ever be on the rise--ever seeking to reach perfection. He who only aims low cannot possibly have his arrow hit high; whereas he who aims high, though he may not hit the mark at which he aims, will have his arrow fly higher than that of the other marksman. I would have you to be filled, says St. Paul, with the Spirit of God; the Holy Ghost looking through your eyes, the Spirit of God on your lips, influencing, sweetening, savouring every word that you speak; the Holy Ghost in your hands, ennobling all the everyday actions of life; the Spirit of God guiding your feet, so that your every day walk honours Him.

(2) What it is to be filled with all the fulness of God. In Christ all fulness dwells, and it is bestowed on Him in order that He may communicate it to His people. All weakness, I may bring the vacuum of my weakness up to the fulness of His all-power, and then am I strong because I am weak. All foolishness in myself, there is all wisdom in Him to guide and direct. With utter nothingness in myself, there is all-sufficiency in Him. It is no longer a question of what I am, or what I can do, but who Christ is, and what He can do in me. To Him we may go for fulness: but, for fulness of what?

(a) Fulness of joy (Joh_15:11; Joh_16:24; Joh_17:13). No piety in being miserable. It is no token of grace to be depressed or disconsolate. It rather shows there is something wrong somewhere, because, included in the all-fulness that Christ has to supply His saints, there is the fulness of joy.

(b) Fulness of peace (Rom_15:13). Joy is peace singing; peace is joy reposing.

(c) Fulness of hope.

(d) The fruits of righteousness (Php_1:2). Not just a stray fruit here and there upon your boughs, but all your boughs filled with fruit, until through the very weight of their load they bend down and kiss the ground. The more fruitful the branch, the lower it will hang; and the more fruit there is upon a believer, the less conceit and pride there will be about him.

(e) The knowledge of Gods will (Col_1:9).

All these are but a few items of the different things with which the Lord is willing to fill us. Would you lead a calm, restful life? Then you must know the meaning of being filled. To use a very simple illustration--take a water bottle, and if that water bottle be only half full, every time you move the bottle the water in it washes to and fro. Why? How is it that it feels every motion? Because it is not full. But if you fill that water bottle right up until it cannot hold another drop, and then cork it in, you may turn the bottle which way you like, and the water within it will not move. There is no movement, no washing about. Why? Because it is too full to be agitated. The reason why you and I live such poor restless lives is that we are not filled up with the fulness of God. Do you also want to live a life of power? Then remember that the measure of any mans power is in proportion to the measure with which he is filled with God. (A. G. Brown.)

Prayer a self-revelation

The deepest thoughts of the heart of a spiritual man are sure to come out in his prayer. Hear a man of God pray, and you hear the real man speaking. I suppose there are none of us here who have not often had cause to confess with shame that we should not like to be judged by our converse with man. How often in society and amongst friends we are led to talk and chat in a way quite sufficient to mislead those who are with us, and make them think we are very different men from what we really are. But when after such a season we have gone to our own home, and dropped down on our knees before God, and begun to speak to Him, then, perhaps with bitter tears, we have told Him that it was not the true self speaking a few hours back. If you could only overhear the talk which a saintly heart has with its God, then you would know the man himself. And you may also rest assured that that which a man prays for, for his friends, is in his estimation the choicest blessing they can receive. Only know what your dearest friend asks God to give you, and you know what, in his opinion, is your greatest need. Oh, if we could but sometimes hear those who love us best, and those who know us best, pray for us, it would be a revelation to us. We should then see what, in their judgment, was our deficiency--what, in their estimation, our greatest requirement. Now, if there be so deep an interest attaching itself to the prayers of all, surely, without fear of contradiction, we may say that when it is an apostle who bends the knee, and when it is such an apostle as Paul who prays, we may well be all attention to catch every syllable. If the deepest thoughts of the heart come out in prayer, let there be a holy hush as we hear the apostle of the Gentiles pray. What, in his mind, is the chiefest thing to be desired for a saint? What, according to his judgment, is the choicest blessing that a believer can receive? We have only to listen to his prayer, and we shall discover. (A. G. Brown.)

St. Pauls example as to prayer

1. Ministers must pray for their people as well as teach them.

(1) Whatsoever we do, yet peoples untowardness is such, that they have no ability to entertain it fruitfully.

(2) Whatsoever we do, yet it is but planting and watering, and all is nothing, if God bless not.

(3) We must also pray that our own wants may be supplied.

(4) As ministers are the mouth of God to the people, so they are the mouth of the people to God.

(5) Ministers are co-workers with God, and it is chiefly Gods work, and the people are Gods husbandry and Gods building.

2. In prayer we must compose our outward man to due reverance, for the body as well as the soul has been redeemed.

(1) Outward gestures are to express inward affections.

(2) And to stir them up.

3. Kneeling is the most fitting attitude.

4. Yet there are some cautions to which we must pay attention.

(1) We must take heed not to rest in outward gestures and attitudes. The humiliation and prostration of the heart must go along with that of the body.

(2) If, for any reason, we are prevented from kneeling or other expressions of reverence, we must not therefore neglect prayer. (Paul Bayne.)

Kneeling in prayer

There was an old clergyman who was much troubled because his wife would sit in church instead of kneeling. He spoke about it to her, but she gave no heed. No; she was more comfortable sitting, and she thought she could pray just as well in one position as another. You may pray as well, he said, but I doubt youre being heard as well. However, it was no good; he might just as well have spoken to a stone wall. So then he went one day to his wifes old servant, and said to her, Hannah, I will give you a crown if you will go to my wife, and sit down on the sofa at her side, and ask her to give you a holiday tomorrow, because you want to go home to your friends. Hannah was shy. However, the prospect of the crown encouraged her, and she opened the door timidly, went in, and walking up to the sofa, where her mistress was knitting, sat down at her side. The old lady looked up in great astonishment, and asked what in the world she wanted. A holiday tomorrow, maam. Leave the room instantly, you impudent woman, exclaimed the old lady, and if you want to have a request granted, learn to ask it in a proper manner. Then the husband put his head in and said, My dear! is not this preaching to Hannah the lesson I have been preaching to you for years? If you want to have a request granted, learn to ask it in a proper manner. Next Sunday, and ever after, the old lady knelt in church. She saw it would not do to treat Jesus Christ in that way in which she did not like at all to be treated herself.

Kneeling

Philip the Third of Spain would never be addressed but on the knees, for which he gave the excuse, that as he was of low stature everyone would have appeared too high for him. And if men claim to be approached in this way, how shall we draw near to the living God, the Maker of heaven and earth?

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. Paul’s apostolic prayer for the Ephesian Church, Eph_3:14-19.

14. For this cause—Resumption of his purpose of prayer at Eph_3:1, where see our note. The cause still remains the same, pervading alike the paragraphs Eph_2:11-22, and this last paragraph Eph_3:1-13, namely, the happy gathering of the Gentile Ephesians into Christ under Paul’s apostleship.

Bow my knees—As before them solemnly in thought assembled, Paul conceptually kneels to dedicate them as a Church to God. In this prayer he is too earnest to stand or sit, and so, in body as in spirit, he bows before God. The attitude of body is of inferior importance, except as externally impressive both upon others and upon ourselves. God, however, is as truly beneath and behind us as he is above and before us, and whatever attitude of body we assume matters not, provided our reverence is perfect. Paul says not that he prays, but gives the prayer as audible to their listening ears. Of… Christ, is omitted by the best critics as not genuine.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Eph_3:15. The whole family.—R.V. “every family.” The word for “family” is only found in the New Testament in St. Luk_2:4 and Act_3:25; in one translated “lineage,” in the other “kindreds” in A.V.; consistently as “family” by R.V. Chrysostom, and others who followed him, have surely a special claim to be heard. They translate it “races.” Bishop Alexander contends for the A.V. translation, “the whole.” He says, “A special force and signification in the expression make this translation necessary” (cf. Eph_2:19).

Eph_3:16. The riches of His glory.—“The whole glorious perfection of God.” To be strengthened with might.—There may be a verbal connection with the “fainting” of Eph_3:13, but the thought goes far out beyond that. In the inner man.—We are reminded again of the text quoted above (2Co_4:16). A mode of expression derived from the Platonic school, not necessarily presupposing any acquaintance with that system of philosophy.

Eph_3:17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.—The condition of this, declared by Christ Himself, is that a man should keep the word of Christ. Being rooted and grounded.—A double metaphor—of a tree that has struck its roots deep into the crevices of the rock, and of a building with a foundation of bed-rock. “Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God” (1Jn_4:7). Love conditions knowledge of things divine (see Eph_3:18).

Eph_3:18. May be able.—Perfectly able. With all saints.—The highest and most precious knowledge Paul can desire only as a common possession of all Christians. What is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.—“The deeply affected mind with its poetico-imaginative intuition looks upon the metaphysical magnitude as a physical, mathematical one. Every special attempt at interpretation is unpsychological, and only gives scope to that caprice which profanes by dissecting the outpouring of enthusiasm” (Meyer).

Eph_3:19. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.—“An adequate knowledge of the love of Christ transcends human capacity, but the relative knowledge of the same opens up in a higher degree the more the heart is filled with the Spirit of Christ, and thereby is strengthened in loving. This knowledge is not discursive, but based in the consciousness of experience” (Meyer).

Eph_3:20. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly.—After his prayer proper is ended the full heart of the apostle swells out into a solemn doxology The frequent and bold compound expressions of St. Paul (Farrar says twenty of the New Testament twenty-eight with ὑπέρ are St. Paul’s) spring from the endeavours adequately to express his energetic thought. According to the power that worketh in us.—“The measure of a man” or “of an angel” is insufficient here. Things are not achieved by creaturely mensuration where God works (cf. Eph_1:19-23).

Eph_3:21. To Him be the glory.—“The honour due to His name.” By Christ Jesus.—He that “climbeth up some other way” with his offering courts his own destruction. Throughout all ages, world without end.—R.V. “Unto all generations, for ever and ever.” A good specimen of the “exceeding abundantly above all that we … understand” as regarded under the aspect of time. It carries our thoughts along the vista of the future, till time melts into eternity.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Eph_3:14-21

A Sublime and Comprehensive Prayer—

I. For spiritual strengthening (Eph_3:16).—The first necessity of the new convert is strength. The change from the former life is so new and strange. The spiritual faculties are but recently called into exercise; and though they are thrilled with the vigour of youth, they possess the inherent weakness and are exposed to the temptations of youth. Their newly acquired strength is at once their glory and their danger—their glory in giving them the capacity and impulse for the highest kind of work; their danger because they are tempted to rely upon their own conscious power rather than upon the grace of God within them, which is the source of their best strength. If that strength is once undermined or eaten away, it can never be replaced. The strength of youth, physical or spiritual, belongs only to the period of youth; if lost in youth, it can never be regained in maturer life. Whatever strength we may gain in after-years will never be what it might have been if we had never lost the strength of our first love. The apostle here prays that his converts may be invigorated with a manful courage, the moral strength to meet dangers and to battle with difficulties without quailing.

1. This spiritual strengthening is achieved by the indwelling Christ welcomed and retained in the heart by faith.—“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph_3:17). The source of this strength is not in us; we cannot evoke it by any voluntary effort of our own. It is a divine power working in us (Eph_3:20). It is the Christ within us making Himself felt in our otherwise enfeebled powers. We are invested with the strength of Christ by our faith in Christ; and increase of strength comes with increase of faith. The faith that receives Christ into the heart must be constantly exercised to keep Him there, and to derive inspiration and help from Him in attaining spiritual growth and in doing useful work.

2. This spiritual strengthening is cherished by an accession of Christian love.—“That ye, being rooted and grounded in love” (Eph_3:17). The double metaphor gives emphasis to the idea—“rooted,” a tree; “grounded” a building. When Christ is planted and settled in our hearts, love is shed abroad there, and becomes the genial soil in which our graces grow, and the basis of all our thought and action. Love is strength, the most reliable, sustaining, and victorious kind of strength.

II. For a clearer comprehension of the immeasurable love of Christ (Eph_3:18-19).—Here the prayer rises in sublimity and comprehensiveness. The apostle prays that we may know the unknowable—“know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” There is nothing so fascinating as the love of Christ, ever leading us on by fresh revelations, and ever leaving the impression that there are unfathomable depths and inaccessible heights yet to be discovered. “Oh that Christ would,” exclaimed the saintly Rutherford, “arrest and comprise my love and my heart for all. I am a bankrupt who have no more free goods in the world for Christ, save that it is both the whole heritage I have, and all my moveables besides. Lord, give the thirsty manna drink. Oh to be over ears in the well! Oh to be swimming over head and ears in Christ’s love! I would not have Christ’s love entering in me, but I would enter into it, and be swallowed up of that love. But I see not myself here, for I fear I make more of His love than of Himself, whereas He Himself is far beyond and much better than His love. Oh, if I had my sinful arms filled with that lovely one Christ! Blessed be my rich Lord Jesus, who sendeth not away beggars from His house with an empty dish. He filleth the vessel of such as will come and seek. We might beg ourselves rich, if we were wise, if we would but hold out our withered hands to Christ, and learn to seek, ask, and knock.” The highest conceptions of the love of Christ are realised by the soul that prays.

III. For the attainment of the most complete endowment of the divine fulness.—“That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph_3:19). The prayer asks that man may gain the sum-total of God’s gifts, be filled in every capacity of his nature with the whole plenitude (the πλήρωμα) of God. To reach this glorious result, we need, indeed, special spiritual strengthening. New wine bursts old bottles; and a large and sudden inflow of divine grace would be disastrous to the soul unprepared to receive it. What is wanted is strength—strength of the highest and purest kind. Muscular strength—a magnificent healthy physique—is a great gift; but it is one of our lowest endowments, and its abuse sinks us to a worse than brutish sensuality. Intellectual strength is a still higher gift, and if rightly used will lift us into a loftier world of wonders, of beauty, of purity and joy; but if abused will drag us down to the base level of the vapouring, scoffing sceptic, whose attempts to glorify error are instigated by a savage but utterly powerless hatred of truth. Spiritual strength is the highest gift of all. It is the motive-power that gives movement and direction to thought and action. Without it man is the plaything and victim of unrestrained passions. A short time ago I inspected one of the finest ocean-going steamships, a marvellous combination of strength and elegance. Everything seemed as perfect as engineering science could make it. But there was something wanting; it was a fatal defect. The giant shaft and powerful screw, the triple expansion cylinders, the cranks, pistons, and wheels were all there, but the noble vessel was useless, heaving helplessly on the rolling tide. The fires were out, and the active driving-power was lacking. What steam is to that great floating mass of complicated mechanism, giving it life, movement, direction, purpose—that spiritual strength is to our mental and physical organism. To receive the fulness of indwelling Deity the soul must be strengthened with spiritual strength. We cannot pray too earnestly for this.

IV. Uttered with a reverential recognition of the great Giver of all blessing.—

1. Beginning with the submissive awe of a humble suppliant. “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,” etc. (Eph_3:14-15). The apostle is overwhelmed with the contemplation of the rich blessings stored up for man in Christ Jesus, and prostrates himself with lowly homage in the conscious presence of the great Donor of all spiritual good. Nothing humbles us more than a sight of the blessings possible of attainment by the greatest sinner.

2. Ending with an outburst of triumphant praise (Eph_3:20-21).—Praise soars higher than prayer. Man’s desires will never overtake God’s bounty. When the apostle desires that God’s praise may resound in the Church “throughout all ages,” he no longer supposes that the mystery of God may be finished speedily as men count years. The history of mankind stretches before his gaze into its dim futurity. The successive generations gather themselves into that consummate age of the kingdom of God, the grand cycle in which all the ages are contained. With its completion time itself is no more. Its swelling current, laden with the tribute of all the worlds and all their histories, reaches the eternal ocean. The end comes; God is all in all. At this furthest horizon of thought, Christ and His own are seen together rendering to God unceasing glory (Findlay).

Lessons.—

1. Prayer is the cry of conscious need.

2. Increases in importunity as it is strengthened by faith.

3. Finds its sublimest themes in the culture of the spiritual life.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Eph_3:14-15. The Christian Church a Family.

I. The definition here given of the Christian Church.—

1. A society founded upon natural affinities—“a family.” A family is built on affinities which are natural, not artificial; it is not a combination, but a society. In ancient times an association of interest combined men in one guild or corporation for protecting the common persons in that corporation from oppression. In modern times identity of political creed or opinion has bound men together in one league in order to establish those political principles which appeared to them of importance. Similarity of taste has united men together in what is called an association, or a society, in order by this means to attain more completely the ends of that science to which they had devoted themselves. But, as these have been raised artificially, so their end is, inevitably, dissolution. Society passes on, and guilds and corporations die; principles are established, and leagues become dissolved; tastes change, and then the association or society breaks up and comes to nothing. It is upon another principle altogether that that which we call a family, or true society, is formed. It is not built upon similarity of taste nor identity of opinion, but upon affinities of nature. You do not choose who shall be your brother; you cannot exclude your mother or your sister; it does not depend upon choice or arbitrary opinion at all, but is founded upon the eternal nature of things. And precisely in the same way is the Christian Church formed—upon natural affinity, and not upon artificial combination.

2. The Church of Christ is a whole made up of manifold diversities.—We are told here it is “the whole family,” taking into it the great and good of ages past now in heaven, and also the struggling, the humble, and the weak now existing upon earth. Here, again, the analogy holds good between the Church and the family. Never more than in the family is the true entirety of our nature seen. Observe how all the diversities of human condition and character manifest themselves in the family. First of all, there are the two opposite pales of masculine and feminine, which contain within them the entire of our humanity; which together, not separately, make up the whole of man. Then there are the diversities in the degrees and kinds of affection. For, when we speak of family affection, we must remember that it is made up of many diversities. There is nothing more different than the love which the sister bears towards the brother, compared with that which the brother bears towards the sister. The affection which a man bears towards his father is quite distinct from that which he feels towards his mother; it is something quite different towards his sister; totally diverse, again, towards his brother. And then there are diversities of character. First, the mature wisdom and stern integrity of the father, then the exuberant tenderness of the mother. And then one is brave and enthusiastic, another thoughtful, and another tender. One is remarkable for being full of rich humour; another is sad, mournful, even melancholy. Again, besides these, there are diversities of condition in life. First, there is the heir, sustaining the name and honour of the family; then perchance the soldier, in whose career all the anxiety and solicitude of the family is centred; then the man of business, to whom they look up, trusting his advice, expecting his counsel; lastly, perhaps, there is the invalid, from the very cradle trembling between life and death, drawing out all the sympathies and anxieties of each member of the family, and so uniting them all more closely, from their having one common point of sympathy and solicitude. Now, you will observe that these are not accidental, but absolutely essential to the idea of a family; for so far as any one of them is lost, so far the family is incomplete. And precisely in the same way all these diversities of character and condition are necessary to constitute and complete the idea of a Christian Church.

3. The Church of Christ is a society which is for ever shifting its locality and altering its forms.—It is the whole Church, “the whole family in heaven and earth.” So, then, those who were on earth and are now in heaven are members of the same family still. Those who had their home here, now have it there. The Church of Christ is a society ever altering and changing its external forms. “The whole family”—the Church of the patriarchs and of ages before them; and yet the same family. Remember, I pray you, the diversities of form through which, in so many ages and generations, this Church has passed. Consider the difference there was between the patriarchal Church of the time of Abraham and Isaac and its condition under David; or the difference between the Church so existing and its state in the days of the apostles and the marvellous difference between that and the same Church four or five centuries later; or, once again, the difference between that, externally one, and the Church as it exists in the present day, broken into so many fragments. Yet, diversified as these states may be, they are not more so than the various stages of a family.

II. Consider the name by which this Church is named.—“Our Lord Jesus Christ,” the apostle says, of whom “the whole family in heaven and earth is named.”

1. First, the recognition of a common father.—That is the sacred truth proclaimed by the Epiphany. God revealed in Christ—not the Father of the Jew only, but also of the Gentile. The Father of a whole family. Not the partial Father, loving one alone—the elder—but the younger son besides; the outcast prodigal who had spent his living with harlots and sinners, but the child still, and the child of a Father’s love.

2. The recognition of a common humanity.—He from whom the Church is named took upon Him not the nature merely of the noble, of kings, or of the intellectual philosopher, but of the beggar, the slave, the outcast, the infidel, the sinner, and the nature of every one struggling in various ways.

3. The Church of Christ proceeds out of and rests upon the belief in a common Sacrifice.—F. W. Robertson.

The Family in Heaven and Earth.—With the boldness of a true and inspired nature the apostle Paul speaks with incidental ease of one family distributed between heaven and earth. There is, it seems, domesticity that cannot be absorbed by the interval between two spheres of being—a love that cannot be lost amidst the immensity, but finds the surest track across the void—a home affinity that penetrates the skies, and enters as the morning or evening guest. And it is Jesus of Nazareth who has effected this; has entered under the same household name, and formed into the same class, the dwellers above and those beneath. Spirits there, and spirits here, are gathered by Him into one group; and where before was saddest exile, He has made a blest fraternity.

I. Members of the same home cannot dwell together, without either the memory or the expectation of some mutual and mortal farewell.—All we who dwell in this visible scene can think of kindred souls that have vanished from us into the invisible. These, in the first place, does Jesus keep dwelling near our hearts; making still one family of those in heaven and those on earth. This He would do, if by no other means, by the prospect He has opened, of actual restoration. And since the grave can bury no affection now, but only the mortal and familiar shape of their object, death has changed its whole aspect and relation to us; and we may regard it, not with passionate hate, but with quiet reverence. It is a divine message from above, not an invasion from the abyss beneath; not the fiendish hand of darkness thrust up to clutch our gladness enviously away, but a rainbow gleam that descends through Jesus, without which we should not know the various beauties that are woven into the pure light of life. Once let the Christian promise be taken to the heart, and as we walk through the solemn forest of our existence, every leaf of love that falls, while it proclaims the winter near, lets in another patch of God’s sunshine to paint the glade beneath our feet and give a glory to the grass. Tell me that I shall stand face to face with the sainted dead; and, whenever it may be, shall I not desire to be ready, and to meet them with clear eye and spirit unabashed? Such and so much encouragement would Christianity give to the faithful conversation of all true affections, if it only assured us of some distant and undefinable restoration. But it appears to me to assure us of much more than this; to discountenance the idea of any, even the most temporary, extinction of life in the grave; and to sanction our faith in the absolute immortality of the mind. Rightly understood, it teaches not only that the departed will live, but that they do live, and indeed have never died, but simply vanished and passed away.

II. But it is not merely the members of the same literal home that Christ unites in one, whether in earth or heaven. He makes the good of every age into a glorious family of the children of God; and inspires them with a fellow-feeling, whatever the department of service which they fill. Keeping us ever in the mental presence of the divinest wisdom and in veneration of a perfect goodness, it accustoms us to the aspect of every grace that can adorn and consecrate our nature; trains our perceptions instantly to recognise its influence or to feel its want. It looks with an eye of full and clear affection over the wide circle of human excellence. Such hope tends to give us a prompt and large congeniality with them; to cherish the healthful affections which are domestic in every place and obsolete in no time; to prepare us for entering any new scene, and joining any new society where goodness, truth, and beauty dwell.—Martineau.

The Christian Brotherhood of Man.—The brotherhood of man has been the dream of old philosophers, and its attainment the endeavour of modern reformers. Man can only reach his highest life when he forms part of a society bound together by common sympathies and common aims, for by a great law of our nature it is true that he who lives utterly apart from his fellows must lose all true nobleness in selfish degradation. There is no real progress for the individual but through social sympathy. There is no strong and enduring aspiration but in the fellowship of aspiring souls. That conviction which men have so strongly felt and so vainly endeavoured to realise is perpetually asserted in the Book of God.

I. The brotherhood of man in Christ.—

1. The Christian brotherhood is a unity of spirit under a diversity of form. Thus with the Church of the first century. At first it was one band of brotherhood; but as it grew and individual thought expanded and experience deepened there arose infinite diversities. The more men think and the more they grow, the more will they differ.

2. There are spiritual ties in action which in Christ bind man to man.—Paul’s words imply a threefold unity.

1. The fellowship of devotion to a common Father.

2. The fellowship with Christ our common Brother.

3. That fellowship is unbroken by the change of worlds.

II. Results of realising this fact of brotherhood.—

1. Earnestness of life.

2. Power and grandeur of hope.—Some complain that their ideas of heaven are vague and ineffective. Only realise the brotherhood of man, and then the hope of the future will become a power in life.—E. L. Hull.

The One Family.—

1. Believers on earth and saints and angels in heaven spring from the same common parent.

2. Are governed by the same general laws.

3. Share in the same pleasures and enjoyments.

4. Have the same general temper, the same distinguishing complexion.

5. Have one common interest.

6. Look to, rely upon, and are guided by the same Head.

7. Are all objects of God’s love.

8. At the last day will meet in God’s presence, be openly acknowledged as His children, and admitted to dwell in His house for ever.

Lessons.—

1. If we estimate the dignity of men from the families with which they are connected, how honourable is the believer!

2. We see our obligations to mutual condescension, peaceableness, and love.

3. Let those who are not of this family be solicitous to obtain a place in it.—Lathrop.

Eph_3:16-19. Paul’s Prayer for the Ephesians.

I. For spiritual strength.—It was not bodily strength, civil power, or worldly distinction; it was the grace of fortitude and patience.

II. For an indwelling Christ.—As we become united to Christ by faith, so by faith He dwells in our hearts.

III. For establishment in love.—True love is rooted in the heart. It is a spiritual affection towards Christ. Its fruits are love to men, imitation of Christ’s example, obedience to His commands, zeal for His honour, and diligence in His service.

IV. For increase of knowledge in the love of Christ.—The love of Christ passeth all known examples of love. This love passeth our comprehension in respect of its breadth or extent, its length, its depth, as the benefits it has procured exceed all human estimate. Though the love of Christ passeth knowledge, there is a sense in which it is known to the saints. They have an experimental knowledge, an influential knowledge, an assimilating knowledge of the love of Christ.

V. For the fulness of God.—That they may have such a supply of divine influence as would cause them to abound in knowledge, faith, love, and all virtues and good works.—Lathrop.

Eph_3:19. The Love of Christ.

I. The love of Christ passeth knowledge.—

1. He Himself furnishes an illustrative instance when He says, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die”—a merely just and righteous man would be admired; but he would not so take hold of the heart of another to produce a willingness to die for him;—“yet peradventure,” in some rare case, “for a good man,” a man of benevolence, adorned with the softer virtues and abounding in the distribution of his favours—for such a one “some would even dare to die”; some one, overcoming even the love of life in the fulness of his gratitude, might venture to give his own life to preserve that of such a one. But we were neither just nor good; we were sinners, and “God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Passes it not, then, all knowledge, all reasonable conception and probability, that this fallen nature should be so sympathised with that these flagrant rebellions should excite, not an inexorable anger, but pity and love? And such love that our Saviour—looking not so much on man as offending, but as His creature, and as His creature still capable of restoration—should melt in compassion and die to effect his redemption; this is indeed love “that passeth knowledge.”

2. The manner in which this love is manifested carries the principle beyond all conception and expression.—It was love to the death. It was death for sinners, death in their stead; death, that the penal claims of law, and that law the unchangeable, unrelaxable law of God, might be fully satisfied. The redemption price was fixed by a spotless justice, and the love of Christ to the sinner was to be tested by the vastness of the claims to be made upon Him. But the wages of sin is death; and His love shrank not from the full and awful satisfaction required. It was death in our stead. Then it must be attended with anxious forebodings. Of what mysteries have I suggested the recollection to you? Can you comprehend them? That feeling with which He spoke of the baptism of blood? That last mysterious agony? That complaint of being forsaken of God? You feel you cannot. They transcend all your thought; and the love which made Him stoop to them is therefore love “which passeth knowledge.”

3. The love of Christ passeth knowledge if we consider it as illustrated by that care for us which signalises His administration.

4. The subject is further illustrated by the nature of the blessings which result to men from the love of Christ.—We usually estimate the strength of love by the blessings it conveys or, at any rate, would convey. And if the benefits be beyond all estimate, neither can we measure the love.

5. The love of Christ passeth knowledge because it is the love of an infinite nature. Love rises with the other qualities and perfections of the being in whom it is found. Among animals the social attachments are slight, and the instinctive affection dies away when its purposes are answered. In man love arises with his intellect. In him it is often only limited by his nature, and when rightly directed shall be eternal. Many that love on earth shall doubtless love for ever. Were Christ merely a man His love could not pass knowledge. What man has felt man can conceive. Love can be measured by the nature which exercises it. But this love passeth all knowledge but that of the divine nature, because itself is divine. Christ is God, and he who would fully know His love must be able to span immensity and to grasp the Infinite Himself.

II. But while it is true that the love of Christ passeth all knowledge, it is equally true that it is to be known by us.—To know the love of Christ is:

1. To recognise it in its various forms and expressions in our constant meditations. And where shall we turn and not be met by this, to us, most important subject? How delightful an occupation, to track all the streams of mercy up to their source. We are surrounded by the proof of the love of Christ. Let us see to it that the blinding veil be not on our heart, that our eyes be not holden that we should not know Him. We are called to know the love of Christ. Let us accustom ourselves to reflect upon it, to see it in its various forms and results; and then shall our meditation of Him be sweet.

2. To know the love of Christ is to perceive it in its adaptation to our own personal condition.

3. To know the love of Christ is to experience it in its practical results. He offers you pardon, and the offer is a proof and manifestation of His love; but properly to know it pardon itself must be accepted and embraced. This is to know His love. Seek it, and you must find it. Rest without it, and you are but “as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.”

4. To know the love of Christ we must put forth those efforts through which that love is appointed to express itself in our daily experience.

Lessons.—

1. The rejection of love, especially of redeeming love, involves the deepest guilt.

2. Remember that the grace is common to you all.—R. Watson.

The Unknown and Known Love of Christ.

I. There are some respects in which the love of Christ passeth our knowledge.—

1. In its objects; so unworthy and degraded.

2. In its sufferings; love to the death.

3. In its care.

4. In its blessings.

5. In its degree. It is the love of an infinite nature.

II. There are some respects in which the love of Christ may be known.—

1. Our views of it may be clearer and more consistent.

2. Our views of it may be more confidential and appropriating.

3. Our views of it may be more impressive and more influential.—G. Brooks.

The Transcendent Love of Christ.

I. This representation must be confirmed.—

1. This love is divine.

2. Consider the objects it embraced.

3. The means by which it manifested itself.

4. The blessings it secured.

II. The perception the Christian may acquire of this love, notwithstanding its divine infinitude.—

1. It is the great interpreting principle which he applies to all the tremendous facts of redemption.

2. The sacred element and incentive of all piety—the theme of contemplation, the ground of confidence, the motive of obedience.

3. The impulse and model of all benevolence and zeal.

III. Conclusions from a review of the subject.—

1. It is only natural to expect a transcendent character in Christianity.

2. No better test exists of what is genuine Christianity than the level of the views which it exhibits concerning the person and work of Christ and the tone of the affections which it encourages towards Him.

3. There is much of implicit as well as declarative evidence in support of the Saviour’s supreme divinity.

4. How necessary is it that we should live habitually under the influence of this transcendent love.—R. W. Hamilton.

Eph_3:20-21. A Devout Doxology.

I. The acknowledgment the apostle makes of God’s all-sufficiency.—

1. God often does for men those favours which they never thought of asking for themselves.

2. God answers prayers in ways we think not of.

3. The mercies God is pleased to grant often produce consequences far beyond what we asked or thought.

4. The worth of the blessings we ask and God bestows infinitely exceeds all our thought.

II. The ascription of glory the apostle makes to this all-sufficient God.—

1. God is glorified by the increase of His Church. 2. God is glorified in the Church when a devout regard is paid to the ordinances He has instituted.

3. By the observance of good order in the Church, and by the decent attendance of the members on their respective duties.

4. That God may be glorified there must be peace and unity in the Church.—Lathrop.

God’s Infinite Liberality.

I. The object of this doxology.—The God of all grace. Whatever we think we ask. No limit to our asking but our thinking. God gives beyond our thinking. Here, take all this! Ah, poor thing, that transcends thine asking and even thy thinking, but take it. If it transcend all communicated power of mind, I say, “I thank Thee, my God, for it. I know it is exceeding good, but I cannot understand it. Keep it among Thy treasures. My blessedness rests not in my intellect, but in Thy favour. Remember Thou hast given it me. It may come I shall be able to understand it better and appreciate it more.” I shall never have asked too much, I shall never have thought too much, till I have asked beyond God’s ability, till I have thought beyond God’s ability. That ability is not a bare abstraction of the omnipotence of God, but it is the omnipotence of God as working in the Church and in the people of God. He is not omnipotent in heaven, and impotent in thee, or partially powerful in thee.

II. The doxology itself (Eph_3:21).—All should glorify God, but all will not. In the Church alone will God get glory. It is as the name of Christ is glorified in us that we are glorified in Him. It is when the glory that God reflects on the creature is by the creature ascribed as due only to God when He is glorified as the Author of it, transcendently and infinitely glorious, it is then that the glory rests. When it is appropriated it is lost, but it is possessed when it is tossed back and fro between God and the creature. When the creature gives it to God, God of His rich grace sends it back in greater measure; but the humble creature, emulous of God’s glory, sends it all back again to Him, and as it reciprocates so it increases. God gives not to end by enriching us—that is an immediate end; but the ultimate end is that He may be glorified. Be ashamed to get little—get all things. Get out of your poverty, not by fancying you are rich, but by coming and getting. The more you get always give glory, and come and ask and receive.—Dr. John Duncan.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. The Apostle’s petition with an exhortation for the church

(Eph_3:14-19)

14For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ [omit 15of our Lord Jesus Christ],33 Of [From] whom the whole [every] family in heaven and [on] earth is named, 16That he would grant34 you, according to the riches35 of his glory, to be strengthened with might by [through] his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by [through] faith; that ye, being rooted 18and grounded in love,36 May be [fully] able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;37 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge [or the knowledge-surpassing-love of Christ], that ye might be filled with [may be filled up to] all the fulness of God.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Eph_3:14. The connection. For this cause, τούτου χάριν.—Thus Paul connects with Eph_3:1, where the construction is interrupted. Still with ὑπερ ὑμῶν (Eph_3:13) ha has already resumed what was expressed in Eph_3:1, and with “which are your glory,” referred to the previous current of thought (Eph_2:22 : “ye are builded together”). Comp. Eph_3:1. [Eadie: “The prayer must be regarded as immediately following that section, and its architectural terms and allusions will thus be more clearly understood.” Meyer however explains: on this account that you faint not, etc.—R.]

The prayer, Eph_3:14-15.

I bow my knees, κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου.—So Php_2:10. It describes τὴν κατανενυγμένην δέησιν (Chrysostom). Bengel: “Si præsens adfuisset Paulus, genua flexisset, exardescente pectore. Act_20:36. Here the reference is to genua mentis (Jerome); the idea of “praying” is so prominent, that the accusative sometimes follows the verb γονυπετεῖν (Mat_17:14; Mar_10:17).

Unto the Father, πρὸς τὸν πατέρα.—The phrase is found thus without any qualification in Eph_2:18; Eph_5:20; Col_1:12. [On πρός, denoting the direction, see Winer, p. 378. The metaphorical sense of the phrase justifies the preposition; were the idea merely that of bending the knee, a dative would probably follow.—On the phrase: of our Lord Jesus Christ, see Textual Note1.—R.]

From whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.38—Ἐξ οὑ̄ πᾶσα πατριὰ—ὀνομάζεται is a paronomasia to πατέρα, which cannot be reproduced, except as Luther (1545) has so beautifully and correctly expressed it: Der der rechte Vater ist über Alles, was da kinder heisst; all editions from 1522–1541 read: was Vater heisst. Evidently “from whom,” ἐξ οὑ̄, refers to “Father,” from Him (ἐξ) originates the name borne (ὀνομάζεται) by him who stands at the head of a group, πατριά, which is thus termed from πατήρ. The etymology must be well considered here. While φυλαί (מַטּוֹת) designates the tribes descending from the sons of Jacob, πατριαί (מִשְׁפָחוֹת) denotes the families in the several tribes, descending from the sons of Jacob’s sons; οἶκοι (בֶּית־חָאָבוֹת) is yet more special in its meaning. Hence the reference here is to larger groups. The word designates a lineage, family, springing from one father and bearing his name. [Eadie: “Every circle of holy and intelligent creatures having the name of πατριά takes that name from God as ΙΙατήρ.” So Alford, Ellicott.—R.] Accordingly something concrete and living is treated of, so that it is not=πατρότης, Fatherhood (Theodoret, John of Damascus, Anselm, Luther, 1522–41; Meyer: He is the original Father, the Father of all fathers; Tholuck, Sermon on the Mount, p. 394; Nitzsch, Prakt. Theol. 1. p. 269).

ΙΙᾶσα without the article (Winer, p. 110) necessarily refers to the multiplicity of the families: every family. Bengel is excellent: omnis, angelorum, hominum ceterorum, ex ipso, ut patre, pendens; as David’s family from David (Luk_2:4) and from Abraham, so the blessing comes, like that of a father upon all the families of the earth (Act_3:25). The phrase: “in heaven and on earth,” ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς, joined closely to πατριά without the article, points to the world of angels and of men, referring to the groups dependent on heads and chiefs. We must then understand here classes of angels (comp. on Eph_1:21), since the angels also are called sons, children of God (Job_38:7; Luk_20:36) and call God their Father, not merely their Creator, and races of people as national families, although “children of disobedience” (Eph_2:2; Eph_5:6) are not wanting. For “all angels, all Christians, aye, all children of men are God’s children, for He has created them all” (Luther) in Christ, the Son of filiation. The word πατριά, which by the addition of πᾶσα and ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς, has received an extension of meaning reaching far beyond bodily descent, must be understood not merely in a natural, but also in an ethical sense, as indeed the idea: “Father” is thus used. Since “fatherhood” has not a concrete meaning, it cannot be translated by this word, but Stier thus attempts to preserve the concrete force, der rechte Vater uber Alles, was nach Vätern heisst.

It is incorrect and ungrammatical to understand by it the whole world family (Meyer, Olshausen and others), or only two groups, angels and men (Calvin), or the saints in heaven and the elect on the earth (Calov.),39 since in that case the article would be found before ἐν οὐρανοῖς and before ἐπὶ γῆς, as in the first case it should stand after πᾶσα. It is incorrect to ignore altogether the idea of groups, families, which Luther’s version throws into the background, and to make of God an “All-father” (Meyer). Luther has given occasion to this mistake, but corrected it through his translation; for he says there that God is Father over all, that is called children, of course maintained, cared for, as we are, in Christ. It respects more the right Father than the right children (Harless). Finally all polemical reference, such as against the particularism of the Jews (Calvin), angel-worship (Michael), must be rejected. The passage is ironical rather. Comp. Doctr. Note 2.

Eph_3:16. The purport of the supplication. Eph_3:16-17.—That he would grant you.—Ἵνα δῷ ὑμῖν marks the purpose and consequently the purport of the supplication, indicating at the same time the confidence of him who prays, that He who is implored will fulfil his request. Comp. Eph_1:17. [The subject and the purpose thus blended as so often when ἵνα follows a verb signifying (even metaphorically) to pray.—R.]

According to the riches of his glory.—Κατὰ τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ defines the δῷ more closely, as a rich and glorious giving. He should give, not merely announce, according to, in the proportion of His riches in glory. See Eph_1:7; Eph_1:17; Col_1:11. “Glory” here embraces the whole glorious perfection of God (Meyer); there is no ground for limiting it to power (Grotius) or grace (Calvin).

To be strengthened with might.—Δυνάμει, “with might,” placed first for emphasis, cannot anticipate either the phrase “by his spirit,” or “in the inner man,” nor can it be an instrumental dative (Meyer), nor does it refer to the will or moral being over against knowledge (Harless), which also belongs to the inner man and is given prominence in Eph_3:18-19. It qualifies the verb “strengthened,” κραταιωθῆναι, which is antithetical to the term ἐγκακεῖν, “faint” (Eph_3:13) thus not merely excluding discouragement and weakness, but marking also the external efficiency, the influence on the world, the overcoming as well as the standing fast, like ἀνδρίζεσθε before κραταιοῦσθε (1Co_16:13) See Eph_6:10; Col_1:11; 1Pe_5:10. Hence the passage does not refer to mere passivity, so that δυνάμει is merely a strengthening of the verb (Rueckert). Luther is incorrect: “That he may give you strength—to become strong.” [The instrumental sense is adopted by Ellicott, Hodge, Alford, Eadie and many others. Braune’s view virtually resolves the dative into an adverb. Ellicott: It defines “the element or influence of which the spirit is the ‘causa medians.’ ” The contrast with ἐγκακεῖν, though plausible, must not be pressed. Eadie. who finds a reference to the figure of the temple in Eph_3:18, sees an architectural allusion here.—R.]

Through his Spirit [διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ].—The means of imparting such strength is indicated thus (αὐτοῦ=θεοῦ, who is implored); God’s Holy Spirit makes us strong within, and thus prepares not only the actual fellowship in the kingdom of God, but also the powerful demonstration of the same; hence Bengel well says: δυνάμεί bene congruit cum mentione spiritus.

In the inner man.—[Εἰς here is not=ἐν, nor=in regard of (Meyer, Winer, De Wette, Hodge: as to), but “to and into,” marking “the direction and destination of the prayer for gift of infused strength” (Ellicott).—R.] ‘Ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος (so also Rom_7:22) is the antithesis of ὁ ἔξω ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος (2Co_4:16), which “perishes,” while “the inward man is renewed day by day.” It is not something physical, but moral, hence too, not=νοῦς, which can have a “vanity” (Eph_4:17), of which “corrupt” can be predicated (1Ti_6:5), which is impossible in the case of the inner man. It is rather=“the hidden man of the heart” (1Pe_3:4) and refers to the concealed, displaced and obscured image of God within us. Accordingly the Apostle says εἰς τὸν ἔσω, to become strong so far as to reach within to this; the preposition thus marking the aim towards which the becoming strong should be constantly and renewedly directed. See Winer, p. 389. Accordingly “the inner man” cannot be used interchangeably with “the new man” (Eph_4:24); the latter is the new creature, in which the former lives again, rises anew out of the death of sin which has come upon it: “the inner man” does not stand in antithesis to the “body,” but includes so much of it as God in the creation has prepared and designed for the life in glory, in the new creation ‘for the resurrection of the body. See Doctr. Note 3. [Comp. Lange, Rom_7:7-25, especially my Excursus, pp. 232–236.40—R.]

Eph_3:17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.—This verse forms an explanatory, further developing, parallel to the infinitive clause of Eph_3:16. We have here a second petition, in continuation of the first, hence Luther is not altogether incorrect in inserting an epexegetical “and.” [See below.] Κατοικῆσαι denotes a permanent indwelling of one taking entire possession, as Col_1:19; Col_2:9; Mat_12:45; Luk_11:26; 2Pe_3:13; Jam_4:5. The expression οἰκεῖν, Rom_7:20 (Eph_3:17 : ἐνοικοῦσα), Rom_8:9; 1Co_3:16, is weaker. Here it stands first for emphasis and refers to κατοικητήριον, Eph_2:21-22. Comp. Joh_14:21-23. Bengel is excellent: in perpetuum. It corresponds to “strengthened with might,” which precedes it; as the former is marked as an effect from without, from above, by “into the inner man,” so the latter is distinguished by “in your hearts,” as an internal condition.

Διὰ τῆς πίστεως [almost=through your faith] denotes in any case a power of the Spirit which has been appropriated by the Christian; accordingly the previous petition was διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος, “through the Spirit,” to whom the initiative belongs, the Spirit of Christ, preparing for Him (Bengel: ubi spiritus Dei, ibi etiam Christus), while πίστις, “faith,” is wrought by the Spirit in the human spirit, is the power of man, awakened, directed, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, to appropriate Christ, to become Christ’s. Hence it is neither idem per idem (Matthies), nor something entirely different (Rueckert), nor yet a consequence from what precedes, independent of δῷ, but dependent on κραταιωθῆναι (Bleek).

[The connection has been much discussed. Meyer (following Calvin: declarat, quale sit interioris hominis robur) takes the clause as Braune does: parallel to the last clause of Eph_3:16, with an explanatory force. De Wette explains the infinitive as one of design, an opinion to which Eadie formerly inclined. Notwithstanding Braune’s objection, the simplest explanation is that of Bleek, adopted previously however by Alford and Ellicott among others. This accepts the clause as one expressive of the result (“so that”) of the inward strengthening. The emphasis resting on the infinitive seems to demand this (Alford). This is a somewhat lax construction, but clearly admissible (Winer, p. 298).—The view which connects “the inner man” with this verse (Syriac, Ambrosiaster, Pelagius): “In order that Christ may inhabit the inner man by the faith which is in your hearts,” is altogether untenable. On καρδία, comp. Eph_1:18; Delitzsch, Bib. Psychologie, II. p. 203 f.: “the seat and centre of the moral life viewed on the side of the affections.” Calvin: “Partem etiam designat ubi legitima est Christus sedes; nempe cor: ut sciamus, non satis esse, si in lingua versatur, aut in cerebro volitet.”]

The end of the supplication; Eph_3:18-19 a.

Eph_3:18. That ye.—Ἵνα, “that,” is placed after the closer definition of the subject, as ἕως, 2Th_2:7, and as ἵνα is put after the object in 2Co_2:4; Gal_2:10; Act_19:4. Similarly 1Co_11:14-15; 1Co_14:7 (ἐάν), 16 (πῶς). [So Rom_11:31, where however Dr. Lange denies the trajection. This view of the construction is accepted by Beza, Camerarius, Grotius, Calixtus, Semler, Storr, Rosenmueller, Flatt, Meier, Meyer, Winer (eds. 6, 7), Buttmann, Schenkel, Hodge. It is however adopted by none of the ancient versions except the Gothic, is rejected by Origen expressly. The other view joins this clause to what precedes, as a consequence of the indwelling of Christ, accepting an irregular nominative. So in the main: Chrysostom, Erasmus, Luther, Estius, Morus, Koppe, Rueckert, Matthies, Harless, Olshausen, B-Crusius, De Wette, Bleek, Eadie, Ellicott, Alford. Our preference is for the former construction. See below.—R.]41

Being rooted and grounded in love.—The perfect participles, ἐῤῥιζωμένοι καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι, denote a state, in which they already are and continue to be, which is the pre-supposition, in order that they may be able to know. This state is effected by what has been prayed for in Eph_3:15-16; hence according to the sense and the context it is impossible to connect these participles with what precedes (Chrysostom, Luther: “and to become rooted and grounded through love,” Rueckert, Harless, Bleek and others), even if it were grammatically admissible to join a nominative to ὑμῶν, as in Eph_4:23 : ὑμᾶς—ἀνεχόμενοι—σ̔πουδάζοντες. Col_2:2; Col_3:16. See Winer, p. 532. This position gives especial weight to the participles, which introduce two figures borrowed from a tree and a building. They mark that a profoundly penetrating life (ἐῤῥιζωμένοι) and a well-grounded, permanent character (τεθεμελιωμένοι) are necessary. [The first may be regarded as used “without any other allusion to its primitive meaning than that of fixedness, firmness at the base or foundation” (Ellicott).—R.]. Comp. 1Co_3:9; Col_2:7.

The double figure strengthens the notion of the relation to love; this latter (ἐν ἀγάπῃ) is made prominent by being placed first. “In” marks “love” as the soil, in which they are rooted, and as the foundation, on which they are grounded. This implies moreover that it is not their own love which is referred to, but one which corresponds with the soil afforded to the tree, the foundation given to the house; and this would undoubtedly be, in accordance with the context, the love of Christ (Bengel), were not all closer definition wanting, even the article. Accordingly this substantive rendered general by the absence of the article corresponds with the verbal idea: in loving, i.e. in that love, which is first God’s in Christ and then that of men who become Christians, who are rooted in Him and grounded on Him through faith. [The reference to the Christian grace of love (Eadie, Alford, Ellicott) is preferable since it does not lay too much stress on the absence of the article, as is done by both Meyer (in amando) and Harless (subjective, because anarthrous), and does not confound two things (God’s love to us and our love in response), either of which might be represented as soil and foundation, scarcely both.—R.] But it is not necessary to supply “in Christ” (Harless) in thought, as if “in love” could be instrumental and the preposition could be repeated with two different references and used in joining two distinct definitions. Nor should it be limited to “love of the brethren” (Calvin, Schenkel, Bleek and others), as is still further evident from what follows.

May be fully able to comprehend [ἴνα εξισχύσητε καταλαβέσθαι.—Καταλαβέσθαι here means more than a mere intellectual apprehension, a perception, as in Act_4:13; Act_25:25; Act_10:34, but pre-eminently an inward experience: it corresponds with γνῶναι, which is conjoined to it with τε; but differs from it however, the first word denoting the inward experience, the latter the spiritual perception [The tense of this verb perhaps implies the singleness of the act, and the voice the exercise of the mental power, a dynamic middle (Krueger), indicating the earnestness or spiritual energy with which the action is performed (Ellicott).—R.] The verb έξισχύσητε, placed in emphatic position, adds the idea of exertion, an energetic pressing through; Bengel: evaleatis.

Something important is treated of, which cannot be comprehended in solitude, for one’s self alone, but only in fellowship: with all saints, σὺν πᾶσι τοῖς ἁγίοις.—Like all science, the science of God’s love, the study of God, is a joint labor.

What is the breadth and length and depth and height, τί τὸ πλάτος καὶ μῆκος καὶ βάθος καὶ ὕψος.—The lively, roused spirit of the Apostle here borrows the figure of a body, a mathematical magnitude [sacra illa Pauli mathematica], as in Job_11:8-9, it is applied to God’s wisdom and perfection; it is instead of and=τί τὸ μέγεθος, what is the greatness. Since the article occurs but once, the unity of the object referred to is strongly indicated. Very naturally the “breadth” comes first, to this the “length” corresponds; then the “depth” is the nearest dimension, and the “height” closes the series: what is the object then whose dimensions Paul notices here? It is not directly designated, and hence must be taken from the context. The added clause connected with this by τε points at once to “the love of Christ.” The dimensions set forth here then become clear: “breadth” refers to the nations lying beside each other on the earth, over all of whom the love of Christ will extend itself; “length,” to the successive ages during which it will reach; “depth,” to the misery and corruption of sin, into which it will descend; “height” to the glory at God’s throne and near His heart to which it would elevate all.

To return to Eph_3:9 and accept “the mystery” as the object (Chrysostom, Calovius, Rueckert, Harless and others) is as unfounded as to find a reference to “the fulness of God” (Eph_3:19), and with Rev_11:1; Rev_21:15-16, to understand the Church of Christ, the temple of God (Bengel, Stier, [Eadie], and others), or merely to supply “of God” or “of Christ” (Matthies, and others); Holzhausen alone suggests “our love!” Arbitrary as many of the explanations of the four dimensions undoubtedly are, the opinion of Meyer, that every special interpretation is unpsychological, only opening the door to subjective speculations, is equally unjustifiable. Abusus non tollit usum. The thought of the Apostle is clear: Loved and loving thou knowest the love of Christ. Certainly it is not: In the love to the brethren thou wilt know God’s love. Comp. 1Jn_4:10; 1Jn_4:16; Joh_15:9-11.

[This simple view of the object whose dimensions are here predicated is held in the main by Calvin, Calixtus, Morus, Storr, Hodge, Meyer, Ellicott. Eadie strangely enough opposes it because τε follows: see his notes for a good resumé of opinions. Ellicott says: “The consequent clause, without being dependent or explanatory, still practically supplies the defining genitive: Paul pauses on the word ὕψος, and then, perhaps feeling it the most appropriate characteristic of Christ’s love, he appends, without finishing the construction, a parallel thought which hints at the same conception (ὑπερβάλλουσαν), and suggests the required genitive.” Alford, less correctly, leaves the object indefinite: “of all that God has revealed or done in or for us,” a view which results from his insisting on the subordinate character of the clause introduced by τε. This little word really settles the question the other way.—An allusion to the temple of Diana (Macknight, Chandler) is exceedingly improbable, and the reference to the Christian Church finds no support in the context, foregoing or subsequent. Augustine gives the fanciful explanation: sacramentum cruces, which Estius elaborates. Comp. that of Severianus (in Alford), and the various homiletical applications given in Hom, Notes.—R.]

Eph_3:19. And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ [γνῶναί τε τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως ἀγἀπην τοῦ Χρ̄ιστοῦ.—Τνῶναί τε adds something closely related, giving prominence to the perception of what has become a matter of internal experience. The object is “the love of Christ,” obviously Christ’s love, not our love to Him. To the former alone is the attribute “knowledge-surpassing” applicable. Bengel: Suavissima hæc quasi correctio est; dixerat: cognoscere, statim negat cognitionem idoneam haberi posse. The participle, which is here placed between the article and substantive, must evidently be taken as an adjective, governing with its comparative meaning the genitive which follows, superiorem cognitione. See Winer, p. 324. It is=ὑπέχουσαν πάντα νοῦν, “which passeth all understanding” (Php_4:7). Comp. Php_3:8-10. It is an oxymoron, like 1Co_1:21; 1Co_1:25; 2Co_8:2; Gal_2:19; 1Ti_5:6, and refers to an (adequate) apprehension of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge (i.e., the particular abstract knowledge, which is possible to man of himself). Harless: “Love fully solves the mystery of love; only love experiences love and knows love. The γνῶσις of the reflecting understanding finds its limit here; the γνῶσις of love understands the love of Christ, which otherwise far transcended γνῶσις.” Luther (1522–41): also to know the love of Christ, which yet exceeds all knowledge; in 1545 the incorrect rendering first appeared, which goes too far in the attempt to popularize the Scriptural language: and to know that to love Christ is better than all knowing. This is contrary both to the language and the context. Yet it cannot be said, that the love of Christ is the object of a knowledge, which never attains its full end (Rueckert). Against this is the previous expression: “that ye may be able,” as well as the remainder of the verse. [Nor can we accept the view of Harless and Olshausen: “that ye may know that the love of Christ is knowledge-surpassing,” since the participle, which is properly taken as an adjective, is thus twisted into an infinitive, and since the Apostle’s prayer is thus unnecessarily shorn of its fulness.—R.]

The final end of the supplication; Eph_3:19 b.

That ye may be filled up.—This phrase connects itself with “that ye may be able … to know,” and designates the highest, last favor which the Apostle implores for the Church. With what are they to be filled?

To all the fulness of God [εις πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ.]—Ἐἰς designates that toward and unto which the becoming filled proceeds, and πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα, meta est (Bengel), to which the Church should attain, when it is filled. It is therefore in her, not without her. Hence the Apostle is treating of a fulness in them which God grants, and which is unincumbered, unabridged. They must themselves, through the experience and knowledge of the love of Christ, be prepared, expanded, strengthened and fitted to receive πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα, “all the fulness,” which God will impart, has determined and ordained to impart. What God imparts is indeed in Him, from His own character and glory He imparts. Luther: “That is according to the Hebrew mode of speech as much as to say, that we are filled in every way, by which He makes full—that He alone completely rules and works in us.”

It is a bolder expression than 2Pe_1:4 : “partakers of the Divine nature.” Comp. Eph_4:13; Col_2:9-10. Chrysostom: πληροῦσθαι πάσης ἀρετῆς, ἦς πλήρης ἐστὶν ὁ θεός. Theodoret: ἵνα τελείως αὐτὸν ἔνοικον δέξησθε. It is not to be limited to the presence of grace (Harless), or to charisms (Meyer), nor to be pantheistically extended or applied to the universe, filling itself in God, i.e., reaching the highest expression of its perfection, and reflecting itself in the Church, so that in it there is no more defect to be discovered (Schenkel). A fulness of God, which complements His Godhead, as though God’s Being were first perfected through the Church, is as little the subject treated of as a pantheistic deification of men. See Eph_1:23. The Apostle undoubtedly refers to the persons and personal culture of the individual members of the Church. See Doctr. Note. 4.

[Meyer and De Wette take πλήρωμα in the sense of πλῆθος, and the genitive as that of origin. But the Greek Fathers, and Olshausen, Alford, Ellicott, Hodge, among late commentators, prefer to take πλήρωμα in the strict sense of id quo res impletur, and the genitive as a possessive, implying: “that ye may be so filled as God is filled,” the reference being not to charismatic gifts, but to the spiritual perfections of God. The only objection is, that such a fulness could not be realized here in a state of imperfection, but εἰς shows that a standard is here set up, and none but a perfect one would be thus held before them. The other view is too tame for the climactic position and force of the clause. Alford: “All the fulness of the Godhead abides in Christ, Col_2:9. Christ then abiding in your hearts, ye, being raised up to the comprehension of God’s mercy in Him and of His love, will be filled, even as God is full—each in your degree, but all to your utmost capacity, with Divine wisdom, might and love.”—R.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The fervency of the worship (κάμπτω τἀ γόνατά μου) does not lose itself in the joyous sense of the love of God (πρὸς τὸν πατέρα), but becomes more deep and clear in love to the neighbor, in unselfish supplication, which in the scale of prayer rises above the lowest grade, which is a cry of need, a cry for help, above the grade of a pupil, the petition for supply of needed good and protection from threatening evil, and approaches in its best feature the master-prayer of thanksgiving, which is so often forgotten, and of praise, that so often is not understood.

2. The Father who is here supplicated is not the All-father of the 18th century or of the rationalists, nor the Father of the heathen. For He is not that weak father, who on account of His goodness consents to withdraw all the demands of His righteousness; nor is He merely the Creator, as if He were, like Jupiter, a father of the trees and animals, of the flowers of earth and the stars of heaven, as well as of angels and men, and as if the idea of “Father” included only that of the Creator, who calls into being. The father is more than the begetter, he is also the provider, the teacher, the guardian in preserving sacred love. Where such paternal care exists, it comes from God, it points to Him, the original Father. Even the most scanty traces of such fatherhood, i.e., of such companies with a father at their hand, point to Him, who has ordained and still sustains such relations. The children may be lost and not permit Him to work within them; still traces of Him, kindnesses from Him are so little wanting, that even among the heathen “an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God,” points to them. The Church sings and speaks of a λόγος σπερματικός, and sees a great family in different groups, in different circumstances, conditions and attitudes, but at the head, over all and for all the One Father in Christ.

3. The inner man (ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος) is the remnant of the man created in the image of God, which is found in all men, even though extremely disfigured or shrivelled up into insignificance. On this account is Redemption possible, man is capable as well as in need of redemption. Hence the inner man is to be thus distinguished from the new man (ὄ καινὸς ἄνθρωπος): the former is the remnant of the original man as created by God in His own image, the latter is the beginning of the regenerated man, new born in Christ; that is still present in all men, this not yet existing in all, though it might and should be; that is found without the Church also, this begins only within it; the former is the starting-point for the latter, the latter is the result of the reviving of the former obtained in Christ; that is the first creation, conceived in retrospect, this the “new creature,” conceived as rising; the former is accordingly of nature, which God in holy love has created, preserved and guided, the latter of grace, in which He has had mercy upon the former. But universal as the need of redemption and the capacity for redemption are, man is, on account of this need and in spite of this capability, not in a condition to win the gracious right of sonship, or obligated thereto (Schenkel), but on account of this need notwithstanding this capability only in a state to receive the gift of renewed sonship. See Exeg. Notes, Eph_3:16.

4. In the economy of salvation,—in which our passage, being addressed to believers, presupposes justification and antecedent repentance, and regards only the growing renewal, the strengthening of the inner man, his growth in the grace and truth of Christ—the Father constantly, at every stage, takes the initiative, and the recovering man takes no step forward without power received from God. Hence the supplication, that He would “grant” and that too “through His Spirit” to the inner man: thus the renewal within begins from above. Then the awakened, renewed power of the inner man appears in faith, in dependence draws Christ into himself, into his heart, as a guest into his house, for continued intercourse with Him, carefully directing himself by Him in all respects. The inner man, when once, he has actually, with saving effect, become the object (εἰς) of the working of the Holy Ghost, becomes the subject of transforming activity in faith, which like a screw binds Christ to the soul. Though we may not, with the mystics, accept a union essentialis et corporalis, still we should not, with the rationalists, deny the conjunctio substantiæ hominis fidelis cum substantia sanctæ trinitatis and affirm only a dynamic or operative presence of Christ.

5. The work of salvation is a difficult one, and demands the power of God and man. Of God: hence Paul prays (Eph_3:16): “that he would grant you according to the riches of His glory.” Of man: hence Eph_3:18 : “that ye may be fully able.”

6. Knowledge and Love are not to be separated. There is not merely an “illumination” before conversion and repentance, but also after justification through faith. In the enjoyment of the love of Christ, which we experience, our lovers strengthened, forgetting itself and yet with a profound remembrance of itself it knows what it has experienced, denying itself it is thus strengthened to a clear knowledge of the love of Christ. Human things one must know, in order to love but Divine things one must love, in order to know (Pascal). Love, hastening before, ever gains new material and light for knowledge. “The more I love, the more I find that I ought to love Thee.”

7. The connection of faith and love is also presupposed here, and in such a way that the former is the mother’s lap for the latter; the faith in that love of God in Christ, which we experience and enjoy, must impel to love, to love in return again and again.

8. Christ’s Love surpasses all knowledge and understanding, that only toilsomely attains to seeing. Hofmann: “There is really but one love in the world, because but one actual entering in of person into person. The eternally personal God, who is Love, who has entered into humanity as the personal Christ, who in the Holy Ghost personally flows into the personal life of men, so that we have Him and are His, He loves and is loved. Only where this archetypal fountain of love exists, can man exercise toward his fellow man a copied love.” Only so far as it is felt, can it be known in our weakness.

9. The completion of fellowship with God points into eternity, from the militant to the triumphant church; there the children become heritors, are taken on His throne and heart. Here many radial lines already proceed from the circumference, grace, peace and joy, truth and freedom, sonship and the sense of sonship, life-power and life-fulness, yet they come together in the center only above. Let us only hold fast to the unity of the family of God in heaven and on earth, the oneness of the Father through Christ in the Holy Ghost.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Had not the Apostle said so, no one would have discovered from his tone, that he was in bonds and chains, looking death in the face. To him affliction is a clear winter night, in which the stars of promise only shine the brighter. Has he tears in his eyes, they become a telescope to carry his sight into the far distant heavens, to open heaven to him and permit him to gaze into the depth of its wonders. It does not occur to him, to pray for release; he asks only for the perfecting and ennobling of the church.—In outward woe he thinks, feels and prays about inward weal alone; in evil, that concerns himself, about the good of the church alone.—God, the true Father, is not nearer to heaven with its angels and saints than to earth with its sons of men; were we but nearer to Him!—He is the Rich One, who can and will give; we are the poor ones, who should receive and—will not!—It were better if thou didst not care so much how to adorn the outer man through the spirit of the world and of fashion; God can through His Spirit re-animate and strengthen the inner man.—Above all see how it stands within thee, so that what God has created after His image in thee be not stunted and starved out. Thine outer man may laugh and sing and dance, while the inner man laments and sighs and goes to destruction.

Christ wishes to dwell with thee, not as a mere passing guest; so order thy work and recreation and mode of life after His example, that it may please Him to dwell there and not to hasten away. He is willing to belong to thee; it is not enough then that thou hearest Him, hearkenest to Him, thou must also belong to Him as His possession, must submit thyself and all thou hast to His disposal.—Bind thyself in faith to Him and hold communion with those who believe in Him, that thou mayest grow in the knowledge of His love. Root thyself ever deeper in that love, ground thyself ever more firmly upon it.—Do like Ernest the Pious, who in 1636 had a medal struck in commemoration of his marriage with Elizabeth Sophia of Altenburg, with this inscription on the one side: Christum lieben ist das beste wissen (Living Christ is the best knowledge), and on the other: Gott, lehr erkennen mich und Dich (God, teach me to know myself and Thee)!—Holy love alone lets us understand and use the Scriptures ever better and better! If we look at God’s word and world without love; we see them only remotely.—Three-fold aim of Christian supplication: 1. Strengthening of the inner man; 2. Knowledge of the love of Christ; 3. Fulness of Divine glory.

Starke:—In praying the outward posture is indeed of little importance; it is left to Christian liberty to take this or that position with the body; yet no kind of posture seems better fitted for fervent, earnest prayer, than kneeling.—Thou hast indeed a merciful, gracious and loving Father: Thinkest thou, He can ever forsake thee? That is an idle thought. As little as He can take Love out of His heart so little can He forget thee. See, what is the best thing a teacher can ask for his flock; but also what thou too, O soul, must seek after, to be strengthened through the Spirit of God in the inner man.—It is not enough to have come into a state of grace through conversion, there must be added a strengthening and fortifying, which however is not the work of man, since Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Though our sins were so broad, so long, so deep, so high, as heaven and earth, yet is the grace and mercy of God deeper, broader, higher and longer, so that it cannot be measured.—The mystery of the love of God is incomprehensible: in future perfection we will understand it. Because we still await that time, let us meanwhile imitate such love in its depth, by helping those who are in the deepest misery and least deserving; in its breadth, by showing to all men without distinction, for God’s sake, kindness and affection, in its length, by never ceasing or becoming weary; in its height, by looking up to God, devoting to Him all our efforts, and having His glory as our purpose.—In Christianity more depends upon taking in faith, than upon giving and doing in love. For the more we take of the fulness of God, the more we can give.

A. Mueller:—He who lets Christ dwell in his heart, only that, he may have from Him a household blessing or a joyful consolation, sells Him his heart; but he who surrenders himself to Christ out of pure love, at the same time thinking himself unworthy of the least look of His grace, gives Him his heart.

Rieger:—God oftentimes indeed begins in a very small way in His works of grace, because He will effect nothing according to absolute power, but so as to lead men to faith and obedience.—Christ dwelling in the heart, and His Spirit lay claim also to the members of the body, putting them into the service of righteousness, to bring forth fruit unto God in holiness.—Being rooted and grounded in love we obtain the ability to comprehend, not merely to know, but also with other powers of soul so to appropriate something as to be filled therewith. Faith widens the heart, so that more and more can be grasped. But with these enlarged views, which are imparted to us, we should not sunder ourselves from other saints, nor attach to anything such an immoderate value, as to sever the bond which unites us with other saints, but apply all to the edification of the body of Christ.

Heubner:—It is a truly proud misery of Kant’s, his denying kneeling as a slavish Orientalism. He can scarcely have felt the impulse of a praying heart. Lichtenberg judges very differently, when he says: “When the body falls upon its knees, the spirit lifts itself to God.”—We have too little bending of the knee; the Catholics perhaps too much, so that a Catholic may occasionally be recognized by the looks of his clothes at the knees. Spener wished that kneeling devotion was more common among us.—What a comfort for fatherless children and widows, what hope for affectionate fathers, to know that their dear children hare in heaven a better Father than themselves. Still the human relation can best teach the true “Father-theology.”—A church can be good outwardly and apparently and yet be without inward life. This inward life comes from the Spirit of God. Christianity should be learned not by heart, but in the heart.42—Christ will dwell, not in stone churches, but in living hearts; the heart should live and move in Him, His Spirit should animate our spirit in constant intercourse with Him.—When Christ dwells in the heart, every one has his Christ in his neighbor.—Breadth: the Church of Christ should stretch itself over the whole circle of the earth, over all lands. The length refers to time; she continues throughout all centuries. The depth points to her foundation; she has it in the unfathomable abyss of Divine mercy, and her height reaches into heaven, it is unassailable, for the church on earth and in the spirit world is one. This is the greatness and the origin of the spiritual temple.—Love to Christ, a simple heart full of faith and love to Him, is better than all science. This love has an unconditioned value, is in itself the highest: not so with knowledge; it can give a kind of enlightenment, without at all affecting the heart. The heart excels the understanding. Science should not be over-estimated, and made an idol. Science can never conquer the enemies of the Kingdom of God, she should be a handmaid. The true science is only where the cross is. Only the theologus crucis is the theologus lucis.

Passavant:—With a narrow heart we cannot pray with confidence. Hence everything demands that we should receive Divine riches, which enlightens our mind, expands our heart and makes God great in us.—How worthy of admiration, how highly exalted above man is this inner man of the heart! Faith is his reason and his light; love his heart and his life; the Holy Ghost his soul and strength; Jesus Christ his ego and his nature; God his Father and at the same time his heritage, his glory, his riches, his eternal dwelling-place; God makes him, His work in His own good time, and this through a power whose working corresponds with the riches and the glory of His grace.—Did Christ dwell in us, what would we become to our friends, to our enemies, to the world, to the heavens!—Only the Spirit of God in us can disclose to us what God is; only faith, through the Holy Ghost, can apprehend Christ and His life in us; only pure, holy love in us can comprehend what is transcendent and blissful, the wonders of the love of God in Jesus Christ.—There is a breadth and length and depth and height; for this no worlds are too broad, no paths too long, no space too wide, no abyss, no hell too deep, no heaven too high, that it may not reach thither, and penetrate there with might and almightiness, with light and life, with comfort and salvation and peace from eternal compassion—“fulness of God” the destination and end of man, the aim and end of all the decrees of God, of all the mysteries of Christ. Canst thou not satisfy man? Must he still fill himself with a thousand trifles besides, that his happiness may be complete?

Stier:—The higher his petition seeks to ascend above all understanding to Him, who is able to do above all, the deeper he bows himself.—The indwelling of Christ: Its beginning—through faith; means—Christ’s love, which becomes ours; aim—according to the widest extension of the plan (knowledge) and inmost depths of the foundation (Christ’s love).

Gerlach:—The love of Christ to us precedes all our love and knowledge.

Nitzsch:—The essential petition, which we, each for all and all for each, should bear in our hearts, during the varieties and vicissitudes of our life-path. 1. Its purport: a) To become strong in the inner man; b) To have vital fellowship with the Redeemer; c) To know His love. 2. The effect.

Wolters (Dedication sermon at Godesberg): The proper prayer for a young congregation: 1) that its members become strong in the inner man: 2) that Christ lives in their hearts; 3) that they understand His love in its greatness and blessedness.

Genzken (Preparatory Lecture43 on Eph_3:13-21): St. Paul our example in prayer. 1) He bows his knees, so we under the burden of our guilt; 2) He addresses himself to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; so there is no other name for us; 3) He asks power for the inner man to strengthen in faith, in love, and for every good work; so we.

Löhe:—St. Paul’s request to the Ephesians, his prayer to God, his song of praise to Him, all in relation to the great mystery of building the church on earth.

Westermeier:—The best prayer: 1) to whom it is addressed; 2) the gifts it desires; 3) the basis on which it rests.

Kluge:—Seek the kingdom of God, not in external things, but in the inner man—1) in judging of the contest of the gospel against the world; 2) of the blessing of the gospel in yourselves.

Rabus:—A glance into the closet of the Apostle: 1) How we should approach God in prayer; 2) how supplicate Him; 3) how praise Him.

Rautenberg:—What Paul does in his tribulations, that his disciples may not become weary in the walk of faith: 1) He is far from them—yet sends them his mighty word; 2) He suffers the contempt of the world—but endures it for their glory; 3) He cannot give them his hand, but he bows his knee for them.

Dr. Meier (Baptismal discourse on Eph_3:18): On the breadth, length, depth, height of the love of God.

Pröhle:—Paul’s pious wish for the Church at Ephesus: 1. That they might not become weary in their Christian course (Eph_3:13). 2. That God would give them power to become strong in the inner man (Eph_3:14-16). 3. That Christ may dwell in their hearts (Eph_3:17). 4. That they may be able to comprehend with all saints the breadth=the universality, embracing all, the length=the endlessness from eternity to eternity, the depth and height=the immeasurable and incomprehensible greatness of the love of Christ.

[Hodge:—The most beautiful object might be in the apartment of a blind man, and he not be sensible of its presence; or if by any means made aware of its nearness, he could have no delight in its beauty. Christ dwells in us by faith, because it is by faith we perceive His presence, His excellence and His glory, and because it is by faith we appropriate and reciprocate the manifestations of His love. Faith is to this spiritual communion what esteem and affection are to the fellowship of domestic life.—The love of Christ is infinite; not only because it inheres in an infinite subject, but because the condescension and sufferings to which it led, and the blessings which it secures for its objects, are beyond our comprehension.—R.]

[Eadie:

Eph_3:15. They lose the cold and official name of subjects in the familiar and endearing appellation of sons, and they are united to one another not dimly and unconsciously, as different products of the same Divine workman-ship, but they merge into one family—“all they are brethren.”

Eph_3:17. When Ignatius was asked, on his trial, by the Emperor, what was the meaning of his name—Theophorus—he promptly replied, “He who has Christ in his breast.”—Love is the fundamental grace.

Eph_3:19. As the attachment of a man, it may be gauged; but as the love of a God, who can by searching find it out? Uncaused itself, it originated salvation; unresponded to amidst the “contradiction of sinners,” it neither pined nor collapsed. It led from Divine immortality to human agonies and dissolution, for the victim was bound to the cross, not by the nails of the military executioner, but by the “cords of love.” It loved repulsive unloveliness, and, unnourished by reciprocated attachment, its ardor was unquenched, nay, is unquenchable, for it is changeless as the bosom in which it dwells. Thus it may be known, while yet it “passeth knowledge;” thus it may be experimentally known, while still in its origin and glory it surpasses comprehension, and presents new and newer phases to the loving and inquiring spirit. For one may drink of the spring and be refreshed, and his eye may take in at one view its extent and circuit, while he may be able neither to fathom the depth nor mete out the volume of the ocean whence it has its origin.—R.]

Footnotes:

[33]Eph_3:14.—[The phrase: τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, which follows πατήρ in Eph_1:3; Col_1:3; 2Co_1:3; Rom_15:6, should be rejected here. The weight of diplomatic authority is against it (omitted in א1 A. B. C. 17, 67; found in א3 D. F. K. L. and all other cursives). A number of fathers reject it (Jerome expressly speaks of the omission), while the best versions retain it. It is scarcely credible, as De Wette urges, that it was omitted because coming between παρέρα and πατριά, since it really disturbs the rhythmical connection; while on the other hand no addition would be more likely than this from the common formula. If internal grounds have any weight, it must be rejected. So Lachmann, Tischendorf, Rückert, Harless, Meyer, Olshausen, Alford, Ellicott; Eadie inclines to this view. Reiche and De Wette retain it, as does Hodge, who says: “the majority of recent editions and commentators retain them,” a statement surprisingly unwarranted.—R.]

[34]Eph_3:16.—[The Rec. reads δῴη with D. K. L., and most fathers, but δῷ (א. A. B. C. F.) is to be preferred. Comp. Eph_1:17.—R.]

[35]Eph_3:16.—[Here also as in Eph_1:7; Eph_2:7; Eph_3:8, the Rec. gives the masculine form (D.3 K. L., cursives), but א. A. B. C. D.1 F. support the neuter.—R.]

[36]Eph_3:17.—[Another view of the construction requires the following translation: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, ye having been rooted and grounded in love, in order that,” etc. See Exegetical Notes.—R.]

[37]Eph_3:18.—[The order of the Rec. (βάθος καὶ ὕψος) is sustained by א. A. K. L., most cursives; adopted by Tischendorf, Ellicott, Meyer and Braune, as lectio difficilior. B. C. D. E. F. G., most versions, give the reverse order, which as more natural and prevalent (Rom_8:39) is open to suspicion. It is accepted by Lachmann, Alford and others.—R.]

[38][Ellicott renders: “From whom every race in heaven and on earth is thus named,” while the German text of Braune runs thus in a literal translation: “whose name every family in heaven and on earth bears.”—R.]

[39][So Bodius and Hodge, both insisting upon the exclusive reference to the redeemed. The argument of the latter rests altogether on the incorrect reading he accepts. Admitting that the omission of the article favors the rendering: “every family,” he adds that it may still be omitted where the sense is “the whole family,” provided the context is so clear as to prevent mistake. But it is not so clear, else the great body of commentators would not have mistaken it; hence the condition is not met. Besides the context does not teach, except critical judgments are to give way to exegetical preferences, “that those who are here contemplated as children, are those who are by Jesus Christ brought into this relation to God.” “Consequently” it ought not to be affirmed that “the word πατριά cannot include any but the subjects of redemption.”—Undoubtedly there is an underlying thought of redemption; “it is not in virtue of God’s creative power that the Apostle here prays to Him, but in virtue of His adoptive love in Christ” (Alford). The thought of an “All-Father” is remote enough, but any unnecessary limitation of πᾶσα πατριά is at the same time a limitation of the wider results of Redemptive Love so frequently hinted at by Paul and not very remote here (Eph_3:10). Alford: “The Apostle seems, regarding God as the Father of us His adopted children, to go forth into the fact, that He, in this His relation to us, is in reality the great original and proto-type of the paternal relation, wherever found.” And in an ethical sense this relation may be readily conceived of as existing in heaven among other than those redeemed from earth—R.]

[40][Dr. Hodge, very sweepingly, intimates that all those interpretations which distinguish this “inner man” from the renewed man, belong to “the theory of Semi-Pelagianism, embodied and developed in the theology of the Church of Rome.” But this is based on a mere assumption, viz., that this view of “the inner man” as the seat of spiritual influences implies the actual sinlessness and unfallen status of “that inner man,” an implication distinctly denied by many of the supporters of this theory, among whom are expositors, who cannot be classed among the advocates of Semi-Pelagianism. I append the statement of Ellicott, which agrees with my own view, referred to above: “The expression ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος (Rom_7:22) is nearly identical with, but somewhat more inclusive than ὁ κρυπτὸς τῆς καρδίας ἄνθρωπος (1Pe_3:4), and stands in antithesis to ὁ ἔξω ἄνθρωπος (2Co_4:16); the former being practically equivalent to the νοῦς or higher nature of man (Rom_7:23), the latter to the σάρξ or μέλη: see Beck, Seelenlehre, III. 21, 3, p. 68. It is within this ἔσω ἄνθρωπος that the powers of regeneration are exercised (Harless, Christl. Ethik, § 22a), and it is from their operation in this province that the whole man (‘secunda interna spectatus,’ Bengel) becomes a νέος ἄνθρωπος (as opposed to a former state), or a καινὸς ἄνθρωπος (as opposed to a former corrupt state), and is either ὁ κατὰ Θεὸν κτισθείς (Eph_4:24), or ὁ ἀνακαινούμενος εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν κατʼ εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτόν (Col_3:10), according to the point of view under which regeneration is regarded. The distinction between this and the partially synonymous terms πνεῦμα and νοῦς may perhaps be thus roughly stated: πνεῦμα is simply the highest of the three parts of which man is composed; νοῦς the πνεῦμα regarded more in its moral and intellectual aspects, ‘quatenus intelligit, cogitat, et vult;’ ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος the πνεῦμα or rather the whole immaterial portion, considered in its theological aspects, and as the seat of the inworking powers of grace.” To which may be added that owing to the fact that πνεῦμα has also a second meaning (the human spirit as inwrought upon by the Divine Spirit), Paul does not use it in Rom_7:7-25, but rather νοῦς and ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος. This view of the phrase is adopted by Eadie and Alford, and may be regarded as the prevalent one in Germany, perhaps now among English commentators.—R.]

[41][Eadie thus states his view: The change of syntax indicates a change of connection, and the use of the irregular nominative makes the transition easy to the form adopted with ἵνα. The clause thus changed becomes a species of independent proposition, giving a marked prominence to the sense, and connected at once with the preceding context as its result, and with the following context as its starting idea. So Ellicott, who in his translation puts a dash before and after the clause. The course of thought then is: “Christ dwelling in their hearts—they are supposed, as the effect of this inhabitation, to have been now rooted and grounded in love; and as the design of this confirmation in love—they are then and there qualified to comprehend,” etc. This construction is certainly admissible, although Harless is fanciful in accounting for it by the reference to both the dative and genitive which precede. Meyer presents the forcible objection that the present participles would occur were this the connection. When to this it is replied, “that the clause does express the state which must ensue upon the indwelling of Christ before what is expressed in the next clause can in any way be realized, and that therefore the perf. part. is correctly used” (Ellicott), I find in this but a confession of that subordinate relation of the clause to the next one, which is implied in the other view. If the ideas are so nearly similar, a trajection seems a better explanation, than to complicate the relation of the clauses further (we have already a leading clause in Eph_3:14, a clause of purport in Eph_3:16, containing a finite verb followed by an infinitive, on which infinitive a clause of result depends, Eph_3:17. The view under discussion would make an irregular sub-subordinate clause of result to be followed (Eph_3:18) by a clause of design, which the other view would append directly to the purport of the prayer). On the other hand this metathesis is open to objection. Such a trajection implies an emphasis on the words thrown in advance, and it is asserted that there is no necesssity for such emphasis here, but this is no real objection, since the words can be emphatic (notwithstanding Alford’s denial). Again, it is said that the premised words in all such cases form the objective factor of the sentence and are not connected with the subject as here (Ellicott). Ellicott’s remark is true as regards the other cases where ἵνα is trajected, but in 2Th_2:7, ἕως is put after the subject, which it not strictly parallel, is certainly analogous.—R.]

[42][ The German has a similar paronomasia: Man soll das Christenthum nicht auswendig, sondern inwendig lernen.—R.]

[43][Beichtrede is literally a discourse at confession but among Protestants means the service preparatory to the communion, during the previous week. The etymology confirms the view, that our preparatory lecture is borrowed from the Romanist usage of confessing before the communion, though in reality a proper mode of obeying the injunction: Let a man examine himself.—R.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Section 3. (Eph 3:14-21.)

Christ abiding in the heart by faith, we are filled into all the fulness of God.

This closes in a prayer which has been often compared with the prayer in the first chapter, a comparison which is much in the way of contrast also. He is in earnest for that for which he prays. The expression "I bow my knees" evidently intimates that. The whole body, as it were, witnesses to that earnest desire which is filling his soul and which he addresses now, not to "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ," not to God in that character, but to "the Father of our Lord." The prayer has to do, not as before, with the knowledge which he would have the saints have of the extent of their blessing. That has been gone through, and now he desires that they should be filled with the affections suited to those to whom God has drawn near after this manner; but still he contemplates what we have just seen, this purpose of God fulfilled in the saints as having to do with "every family in heaven and on earth." Of Him, he says, of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, every such family is named. It should not be "all the family" as in the common version, which destroys the very distinctions which the apostle means to emphasize here, distinctions which only make the unity of blessing which he has before him here, the more distinct and beautiful. Angels and men, to speak of no more, are different families, at first sight, far enough apart. The angels "who excel in strength" are manifestly of a higher order naturally than man is man who has been united to the dust of the earth, that pride may be hidden from him; yet when we realize what divine grace has done, this human family appears in a very different character. Christ has come into relationship with these in a way that He has not to the angels. "He layeth not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham He layeth hold" (Heb 2:16). Thus men have a part in Christ that no angels can lay claim to. The work done for them, though their sins necessitated it, has been done for no other. It is a Man who is on the Father’s throne, and not an angel. Divine grace, in the very fact of taking up the lowest of God’s spiritual creatures, has manifested itself only the more, and this, too, necessitates the highest place of blessing for them. But are the angels passed over then in this? Have the other families of God been forgotten? It is clear that what the apostle has already said shows that this is not and could not be the case. The Arms that encompass man by the very fact of his being furthest off and lost, are wrapped around all the rest also. This Fatherly relationship which God has, of necessity, to His creatures, is now characterized by this relationship, -One who has come down amongst these creatures and who has in Himself wedded, as we may say, creation to God. Have the angels gained nothing by this? They did not say so when, Christ being born upon earth, they opened heaven to proclaim their praise. God’s good pleasure was in men but how much did that reveal of God to them also -of the Father, who was also their Father?

The apostle prays now, therefore, that God may give them "according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man." His glory is being manifested indeed in all its fullness. He desires that this should be realized by us in the heart, but for what purpose? Not that signs and miracles may display what God is working, but "that Christ may dwell" in the heart through faith. This Christ, in whom all God’s purposes united and with whom we have been brought into such wonderful and tender relationship, well may He dwell through faith in our hearts, not be a Visitor, known, as it were, fitfully and imperfectly, but dwelling there so that we might be "rooted and grounded in love," that the love which has been manifested in Him might be that out of which we should draw continually and in which also we should be established, a perfect love, dismissing all fear and refusing all distance. "Rooted and grounded," -thus we are alone fitted to apprehend "with all saints," "the breadth and length and depth and height," He does not say of what. It is not of love, certainly, that he is speaking, for he immediately goes on to say that this is measureless, this surpasses knowledge. "Breadth and length and depth and height" naturally speak of God’s ways, of what He is doing. The breadth of His work includes all His creatures. The length of it is from eternity to eternity. The depth of it could only be rightly known by that depth to which Christ has descended for us; and the height by that place which He has given us with Himself; but if we apprehend these things aright, they are, in fact measurements, in a sense, of that which cannot be measured, so that he immediately adds: "To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge" like those measurements which we take of the heavens from angles obtained on earth. They convey to us, -how much! but yet leave us to realize that we are incompetent in any full way to estimate what this love is; but even now the consequence of it will be, we shall be "filled up in all. the fulness of God." This is what is in Christ. "In Him," as Colossians tells us, "dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and it is added: "We are filled up in Him." This divine fulness then, though we cannot hold it, holds us. We are, as has often been said, like a vessel dipped in the ocean which cannot, of course, hold the ocean, but in which the ocean is, as well as round about it. Divine fulness, to be filled with that which is, nevertheless, infinite, how natural to think that here the apostle has in some way exhausted. the sober estimate of things! It is as if anticipating that thought, that he says immediately, "To Him that is able to do far exceedingly above all that we ask or think, to Him be glory." How wonderful the connection there! Think of what he has just been speaking of. It is not, however, that he means that God is able to do more than fill us with all the fulness of God, but that as to all that we might think about it, He is able to exceed any measure we can make. We may ask, but He can transcend all that we can ask for. We may think, but He will be beyond us still, and beyond us in a power which works in us too as the apostle says here, a power which is, of course, the power of the Holy Spirit. He has thus taken hold upon us for this very thing, and to make the Church the vessel of His praise, not simply for the present time, but in a way which nothing will exceed, forever: "To Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, unto all the generations of the age of ages." How he seems to contemplate there the whole history as it were of the future, filled with wonderful and new displays continually, to new spectators also of God’s goodness and power, and to all these and in the midst of all these, the vessel of His glory will still be the Church. in Christ Jesus. Think of it, that this is what God has brought us into! Is it possible, one would ask, to add more to a revelation such as this?

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 14

PRAYER AND PRAISE. THE COMPREHENSION OF CHRIST

Eph_3:14-18

IN Eph_3:14 the prayer is resumed which the apostle was about to offer at the beginning of the chapter, when the current of his thoughts carried him away. The supplication is offered "for this cause" (Eph_3:1, Eph_3:14)-it arises out of the teachings of the preceding pages. Thinking of all that God has wrought in the Christ, and has accomplished by means of His gospel in multitudes of Gentiles as well as Jews, reconciling them to Himself in one body and forming them together into a temple for His Spirit, the apostle bows his knees before God on their behalf. So much he had in mind when at the end of the second chapter he was in act to pray for the Asian Christians that they might be enabled to enter into this far-reaching purpose. Other aspects of the great design of God arose upon the writers mind before his prayer could find expression. He has told us of his own part in disclosing it to the world, and of the interest it excites amongst the dwellers in heavenly places, -thoughts full of comfort for the Gentile believers troubled by his imprisonment and continued sufferings. These further reflections add new meaning to the "For this cause" repeated from Eph_3:1.

The prayer which he offers here is no less remarkable and unique in his epistles than the act of praise in chapter 1. Addressing himself to God as the Father of angels and of men, the apostle asks that He will endow the readers in a manner corresponding to the wealth of His glory-in other words, that the gifts he bestows may be worthy of the universal Father, worthy of the august character in which God has now revealed Himself to mankind. According to this measure, St. Paul beseeches for the Church, in the first instance, two gifts, which after all are one, -viz., the inward strength of the Holy Spirit (Eph_3:16), and the permanent indwelling of Christ (Eph_3:17). These gifts he asks on his readers behalf. with a view to their gaining two further blesssings, which are also one, -viz., the power to understand the Divine plan (Eph_3:18) as it has been expounded in this letter, and so to know the love of Christ (Eph_3:19). Still, beyond these there rises in the distance a further end for man and the Church: the reception of the entire fulness of God. Human desire and thought thus reach their limit: they grasp at the infinite.

In this chapter we will strive to follow the apostles prayer to the end of the eighteenth verse, where it arrives at its chief aim and touches the main thought of the epistle, expressing the desire that all believers may have power to realise the full scope of the salvation of Christ in which they participate.

Let us pause for a moment to join in St. Pauls invocation: "I bow my knees to the Father, of whom [not the whole family, but] every family in heaven and upon earth is named." The point of St. Pauls original phrase is somewhat lost in translation. The Greek word for family (patria) is based on that for father (pater). A distinguished father anciently gave his name to his descendants; and this paternal name became the bond of family or tribal union, and the title which ennobled the race. So we have "the sons of Israel," the "sons of Aaron" or "of Korah"; and in Greek history the Atridae, the Alcmae-onidae, who form a family of many kindred households -a clan, or gens, designated by their ancestral head. Thus Joseph {in Luk_2:4} is described as "being of the house and family [patrio] of David"; and Jesus is "the Son of David." Now Scripture speaks also of sons of God; and these of two chief orders. There are those "in heaven," who form a race distinct from ourselves in origin-divided, it may be, amongst themselves into various orders and dwelling in their several homes in the heavenly places.

Of these are the sons of God whom the book of Job pictures appearing in the Divine court and forming a "family in heaven." When Christ promises {Luk_20:36} that His disciples in their immortal state will be "equal to the angels," because they are "sons of God," it is implied that the angels are already and by birthright sons of God. Hence in Heb_12:22-23 the angels are described as "the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven." We, the sons of Adam, with our many tribes and kindreds, through Jesus Christ our Elder Brother constitute a new family of God. God becomes our Name-father, and permits us also to call ourselves His sons through faith. Thus the Church of believers in the Son of God constitutes the "family on earth named" from the same Father who gave His name to the holy angels, our wise and strong and brilliant elder brothers. They and we are alike Gods offspring. Heaven and earth are kindred spheres.

This passage gives to Gods Fatherhood the same extension that Eph_1:21 has given to Christs Lordship. Every order of creaturely intelligence acknowledges God for the Author of its being, and bows to Christ as its sovereign Lord. In Gods name of Father the entire wealth of love that streams forth from Him through endless ages and unmeasured worlds is hidden; and in the name of sons of God there is contained the blessedness of all creatures that can bear His image.

I. What, therefore, shall the universal Father be asked to give to His needy children upon earth? They have newly learnt His name; they are barely recovered from the malady of their sin, fearful of trial, weak to meet temptation. Strength is their first necessity: "I bow my knees to the Father of heaven and earth, praying that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened by the entering of the Spirit into your inward man." The apostle asked them in Eph_3:13, in view of the greatness of his own calling, to be of good courage on his account; now he entreats God so to reveal to them His glory and to pour into their hearts His Spirit, that no weakness and fear may remain in them. The strengthening of which he speaks is the opposite of the faintness of heart, the failure of courage deprecated in Eph_3:13. Using the same word, the apostle bids the Corinthians "Quit themselves like men, be strong". {1Co_16:13} He desires for the Asian believers a manful heart, the strength that meets battle and danger without quailing. The source of this strength is not in ourselves. We are to be "strengthened with [or by] power, "- by "the power" of God "working in us" (Eph_3:20), the very same "power exceeding great," that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. {Eph_1:19} This superhuman might of God operating in men is always referred to the Holy Spirit: "by power made strong," he says, "through the Spirit." Nothing is more familiar in Scripture than the conception of the indwelling Spirit of God as the source of moral strength. The special power that belongs to the gospel Christ ascribes altogether to this cause. "Ye shall receive power," He said to His disciples, "after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you." Hence is derived the vigour of a strong faith, the valour of the good soldier of Christ Jesus, the courage of the martyrs, the cheerful and indomitable patience of multitudes of obscure sufferers for righteousness sake. There is a great truth expressed when we describe a brave and. enterprising man as a man of spirit. All high and commanding qualities of soul come from this invisible source. They are inspirations. In the human will, with its vis vivida, its elasticity and buoyancy, its steadfastness and resolved purpose, is the highest type of force and the image of the almighty Will. When that will is animated and filled with "the Spirit," the man so possessed is the embodiment of an inconceivable power. Firm principle, hope and constancy, self-mastery, superiority to pleasure and pain, -all the elements of a noble courage are proper to the man of the Spirit. Such power is not neutralised by our infirmities; it asserts itself under their limiting conditions and makes them its contributories. "My grace is sufficient for thee," said Christ to His disabled servant; "for power is perfected in weakness." In privation and loneliness, in old age and bodily decay, the strength of God in the human spirit shines with its purest lustre. Never did St. Paul rise to such a height of moral ascendency as at the time when he was "smitten down" and all but destroyed by persecution and affliction. "That the excellency of the power," he says, "may be of God and not from ourselves". {2Co_4:7-11}

The apostle points to "the inner man" as the seat of this invigoration, thinking perhaps of its secrecy. While the world buffets and dismays the Christian, new vigour and joy are infused into his soul. The surface waters and summer brooks of comfort fail; but there opens in the heart a spring fed by the river of life proceeding from the throne of God. Beneath the toil worn frame, the mean attire, and friendless condition of the prisoner Paul - a mark for the worlds scorn- there lives a strength of thought and will mightier than the empire of the Caesars, a power of the Spirit that is to dominate the centuries to come. Of this omnipotent power dwelling in the Church of God, the apostle prays that every one of his readers may partake.

II. Parallel to the first petition, and in substance identical with it, is the second: "that the Christ may make His dwelling through faith in your hearts." Such, it seems to us, is the relation of Eph_3:16-17. Christs residence in the heart is to be viewed neither as the result, nor the antecedent of the strength given by the Spirit to the inward man: the two are simultaneous: they are the same things seen in a varying light.

We observe in this prayer the same vein of Trinitarian thought which marks the doxology of chapter 1., and other leading passages in this epistle. The Father, the Spirit, and the Christ are unitedly the object of the apostles devout supplication.

As in the previous clause, the verb of Eph_3:17 bears emphasis and conveys the point of St. Pauls entreaty; he asks that "the Christ may take up His abode, -may settle in your hearts." The word signifies to set up ones house or make ones home in a place, by way of contrast with a temporary and uncertain sojourn. {comp. Eph_2:19} The same verb in Col_2:9 asserts that in Christ "dwells all the fulness of the Godhead"; and in Col_1:19 it declares, used in the same tense as here, how it was Gods "pleasure that all the fulness should make its dwelling in Him" now raised from the dead, who had emptied and humbled Himself to fulfil the purpose of the Fathers love. So it is desired that Christ should take His seat within us. He is never again to stand at the door and knock, nor to have a doubtful and disputed footing in the house. Let the Master come in, and claim His own. Let Him become the hearts fixed tenant and full occupier. Let Him, if He will thus condescend, make Himself at home within us and there rest in His love. For He promised: "If any man love me, my Father will love him; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

And "the Christ," not Christ alone. Why does the apostle say this? There is a reason for the definite article, as we have found elsewhere. The apostle is asking for his Asian brethren something beyond that possession of Christ which belongs to every true Christian, -more even than the permanence and certainty of this indwelling indicated by the verb. "The Christ" is Christ in the significance of His name. It is Christ not only possessed, but understood, -Christ realised in the import of His work, in the light of His relationship to the Father and the Spirit, and to men. It is the Christ of the Church and the ages-known and accepted for all this-that St. Paul would fain have dwelling in the heart of each of his Gentile disciples. He is endeavouring to raise them to an adequate comprehension of the greatness of the Redeemers person and offices; he longs to have their minds possessed by his own views of Christ Jesus the Lord.

The heart, in the language of the Bible, never denotes the emotional nature by itself. The antithesis of "heart and head," the divorce of feeling and understanding in our modern speech is foreign to Scripture. The heart is our interior, conscious self-thought, feeling, will in their personal unity. It needs the whole Christ to fill and rule the whole heart, -a Christ who is the Lord of the intellect, the Light of the reason, no less than the Master of the feelings and desires. The difference in significance between "Christ" or "Christ Jesus" and "the Christ" in such a sentence as this, is not unlike the difference between "Queen Victoria" and "the Queen." The latter phrase brings Her Majesty before us in the grandeur and splendour of her Queen-ship. We think of her vast dominion, of her line of royal and famous ancestry, of her beneficent and memorable reign. So, to know the Christ is to apprehend Him in the height of His Godhead, in the breadth of His humanity, in the plenitude of His nature and His powers. And this is the object to which the teaching and the prayers of St. Paul for the Churches at the present time are directed. Understanding in this larger sense the indwelling of the Christ for which he prays, we see how naturally his supplication expands into the "height and depth" of the ensuing verse.

But however large the mental conception of Christ that St. Paul desires to impart to us, it is to be grasped "through faith." All real understanding and appropriation of Christ, the simplest and the most advanced come in by this channel, through the faith of the heart in which knowledge, will, and feeling blend in that one act of trustful apprehension of the truth concerning Jesus Christ by which the soul commits itself to Him.

How much is contained in this petition of the apostle that we need to ask for ourselves. Christ Jesus dwells now as then in the hearts of all who love Him. But how little do we know our heavenly Guest! how poor a Christ is ours, compared to the Christ of Pauls experience! how slight and. empty a word is His name to multitudes of those who bear it! If men have once attained a sense of His salvation, and are satisfied of their interest in His atonement and their right to hope for eternal life through Him, their minds are at rest. They have accepted Christ and received what He has to give them; they turn their attention to other things. They do not love Christ enough to study Him. They have other mental interests, -scientific, literary, political, or industrial; but the knowledge of Christ has no intellectual attraction for them. With St. Pauls passionate ardour, the ceaseless craving of his mind to "know Him, " these complacent believers have no sympathy whatever. This, they think, belongs only to a few, to men of metaphysical bias or of religious genius like the great apostle. Theology is regarded as a subject for specialists. The laity, with a lamentable and disastrous neglect, leave the study of Christian doctrine to the ministry. The Christ cannot take His due place in His peoples heart, He will not reveal to them the wealth of His glory, while they know so little and care to know so little of Him. Now many can be found, outside the ranks of the ordained, that make a sacrifice of other favourite pursuits to meditate on Christ? what prosperous merchant, what active man of affairs is there who will spare an hour each day from his other gains "for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord"?-"If at the present time the religious life of the Church is languid, and if in its enterprises there is little of audacity and vehemence, a partial explanation is to be found in that decline of intellectual interest in the contents of the Christian Faith which has characterised the last hundred or hundred and fifty years of our history."

It is a knowledge that when pursued grows upon the mind without limit. St. Paul, who knew so much, for that reason felt that all he had attained was but in the bud and beginning. "The Christ" is a subject infinite as nature, large and wide as history. With our enlarged apprehension of Him, the heart enlarges in capacity and moral power. Not unfrequently, the study of Christ in Scripture and experience gives to unlettered men, to men whose mind before their conversion was dull and uninformed, an intellectual quality, a power of discernment and apprehension that trained scholars might envy. By such thoughtful, constant fellowship with Him the vigour of spirit and courage in affliction are sustained, that the apostle first asked from God on behalf of his anxious Gentile friends:

III. The prayers now offered might suffice, if St. Paul were concerned only for the individual needs of those to whom he writes and their personal advancement in the new life. But it is otherwise. The Church fills his mind. Its lofty claims at every turn he has pressed on our attention. This is Gods holy temple and the habitation of His Spirit; it is the body in which Christ dwells, the bride that He has chosen. The Church is the object that draws the eyes of heaven; through it the angelic powers are learning undreamed-of lessons of Gods wisdom. Round this centre the apostles intercession must needs revolve. When he asks for his readers added strength of heart and a richer fellowship with Christ, it is in order that they may be the better able to enter into the Churchs life and to apprehend Gods great designs for mankind.

This object so much absorbs the writers thoughts and has been so constantly in view from the outset, that it does not occur to him, in Eph_3:18, to say precisely what that is whose "breadth and length and height and depth" the readers are to measure. The vast building stands before us and needs not to be named; we have only not to look away from it, not to forget what we have been reading all this time. It is Gods plan for the world in Christ; it is the purpose of the ages realised in the building of His Church. This conception was so impressive to the original readers and has held their attention so closely since the apostle unfolded it in the course of the second chapter, that they would have no difficulty in supplying the ellipsis which has given so much trouble to the commentators since.

If we are asked to interpret the four several magnitudes that are assigned to this building of God, we may say with Hofmann: "It stretches wide over all the world of the nations, east and west. In its length, it reaches through all time unto the end of things. In depth, it penetrates to the region where the faithful sleep in death. {comp. Eph_4:9} And it rises to heavens height where Christ lives." In the like strain Bernardine a Piconio, most genial and spiritual of Romanist interpreters: "Wide as the furthest limits of the inhabited world, long as the ages of eternity through which Gods love to His people will endure, deep as the abyss of misery and ruin from which He has raised us, high as the throne of Christ in the heavens where He has placed us." Such is the commonwealth to which we belong, such the dimensions of this city of God built on the foundation of the apostles, "that lieth four-square."

Do we not need to be strong- to "gain full strength," as the apostle prays, in order to grasp in its substance and import this immense revelation and to handle it with practical effect? Narrowness is feebleness. The greatness of the Church, as God designed it, matches the greatness of the Christ Himself. It needs a firm spiritual faith, a far-seeing intelligence, and a charity broad as the love of Christ to comprehend this mystery. From many believing eyes it is still hidden. Alas for our cold hearts, our weak and partial judgments! alas for the materialism that infects our Church theories, and that limits Gods free grace and the sovereign action of His Spirit to visible channels and ministrations "wrought by hand." Those who call themselves Churchmen and Catholics contradict the titles they boast when they bar out their loyal Christian brethren from the covenant rights of faith, when they deny churchly standing to communities with a love to Christ as warm and fruitful in good works, a gospel as pure and saving, a discipline at least as faithful as their own. Who are we that we dare to forbid those who are doing mighty works in the name of Christ, because they follow not with us? When we are fain to pull down every building of God that does not square with our own ecclesiastical plans, we do not apprehend "what is the breadth"! We draw close about us the walls of Christs wide house, as if to confine Him in our single chamber. We call our particular communion "the Church," and the rest "the sects"; and disfranchise, so far as our word and judgment go, a multitude of Christs freemen and Gods elect, our fellow-citizens in the new Jerusalem-saints, some of them, whose feet we well might deem ourselves unworthy to wash. A Church theory that leads to such results as these, that condemns Nonconformists to be strangers in the House of God, is self-condemned. It will perish of its own chillness and formalism. Happily, many of those who hold the doctrine of exclusive Roman or Anglican, or Baptist or Presbyterian legitimacy, are in feeling and practice more catholic than in their creed.

"With all the saints" the Asian Christians are called to enter into St. Pauls wider view of Gods work in the world. For this is a collective idea, to be shared by many minds and that should sway all Christian hearts at once. It is the collective aim of Christianity that St. Paul wants his readers to understand, its mission to save humanity and to reconstruct the world for a temple of God. This is a calling for all the saints; but only for saints, -for men devoted to God and renewed by His Spirit. It was "revealed to His holy apostles and prophets" (Eph_3:5); and it needs men of the same quality for its bearers and interpreters.

But the first condition for this largeness of sympathy and aim is that stated at the beginning of the verse, thrown forward there with an emphasis that almost does violence to grammar: "in love being fast rooted and grounded." Where Christ dwells abidingly in the heart, love enters with Him and becomes the ground of our nature, the basis on which our thought and action rest, the soil in which our purposes grow. Love is. the mark of the true Broad Churchman in all Churches, the man to whom Christ is all things and in all, and who, wherever he sees a Christlike man, loves him and counts him a brother.

When such love to Christ fills all our hearts and penetrates to their depths, we shall have strength to shake off our prejudices, strength to master our intellectual difficulties and limitations. We shall have the courage to adopt Christs simple rule of fellowship: "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother."

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

3:14-21 Paul closes this section (1:3–3:21) with a second prayer for his readers. The first (1:15-23) was for their spiritual understanding, the second (3:14-21) is for their spiritual growth and empowerment.

3:14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray: Paul resumes what he started to say at the beginning of the chapter (see 3:1).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Eph 3:14. Κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου, I bend my knees) If Paul had been present, he would have bent his knees with a breast kindling into a glow of devotion. Act 20:36.—πατέρα) Its conjugate is πατριά.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_3:14-15.[182] Τούτου χάριν] on this account, in order that ye may not become disheartened, Eph_3:13. Against the view that there is here a resumption of Eph_3:1, see on that verse.

κάμπτω κ.τ.λ.] τὴν κατανενυγμένην δέησιν ἐδήλωσεν, Chrysostom. See on Php_2:10. A signo rem denotat, Calvin; so that we have not, with Calovius and others, to think of an actual falling on his knees during the writing. Comp. Jerome, who makes reference to the genua mentis.

πρός] direction of the activity: before the Father.

ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριὰ κ.τ.λ.] Instead of saying: before the Father of all angels and men (a designation of God which naturally suggested itself to him as an echo of the great thoughts, Eph_3:10 and Eph_3:6), Paul expresses himself more graphically by an ingenious paronomasia, which cannot be reproduced in German (πατέρα … πατριά): from whom every family in heaven and upon earth bears the name, namely, the name πατριά, because God is πατήρ of all these πατριαί. Less simple and exact, because not rendering justice to the purposely chosen expression employed by Paul only here, is the view of de Wette: every race, i.e. every class of beings which have arisen (?), bears the name of God as its Creator and Father, just as human races bear the name from their ancestor, e.g. the race of David from David.

ἐξ οὗ] forth from whom; origin of the name, which is derived from God as πατήρ. On ὀνομάζεσθαι ἐκ, comp. Hom. Il. x. 68: πατρόθεν ἐκ γενεῆς ὀνομάζων ἄνδρα ἕκαστον. Xen. Mem. iv. 5. 12: ἔφη δὲ καὶ τὸ διαλέγεσθαι ὀνομασθῆναι ἐκ τοῦ συνιόντας κοινῇ βουλεύεσθαι. Soph. Oed. R. 1036.

πᾶσα πατριά] πατριά, with classical writers ordinarily πάτρα, is equivalent to gens, a body belonging to a common stock, whether it be meant in the narrower sense of a family,[183] or in the wider, national sense of a tribe (Act_3:25; 1Ch_16:28; Psa_22:27; Herod. i. 200). In the latter sense here; for every gens in the heavens can only apply to the various classes of angels (which are called πατριαί, not as though there were propagation among them, Mat_22:30, but because they have God as their Creator and Lord for a Father); as a suitable analogue, however, to the classes of angels, appear on earth not the particular families, but the nationalities. Rightly Chrysostom and his successors explain the word by γενεαί or γένη. The Vulgate has paternitas, a sense indicated also by Jerome, Theodoret, and others. Theodoret says: ὃς ἀληθῶς ὑπάρχει πατὴρ, ὃς οὐ παρʼ ἄλλου τοῦτο λοβὼν ἔχει, ἀλλʼ αὐτὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις μεταδέδωκε τοῦτο. This view (comp. Goth.: all fadreinis) is expressed by Luther (approved in the main by Harless): Who is the true Father over all that are called children, etc. But πατριά never means fathership or fatherliness (πατρότης), and what could be the meaning of that. fathership in heaven?[184] ΠᾶΣΑ, every, shows that Paul did not think only of two πατριαί, the totality of the angels and the totality of men (Calvin, Grotius, Wetstein, Koppe, and others), or of the blessed in heaven and the elect on earth (Calovius, Wolf), but of a plurality, as well of angelic as of human πατριαί; and to this extent his conception is, as regards the numerical form, though not as regards the idea of πατριά, different from that of the Rabbins, according to which the angels (with the Cabbalists, the Sephiroth) are designated as familia superior (see Wetstein, p. 247 f.; Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. p. 1753; Schoettgen, Horae, p. 1237 f.). Some have even explained πᾶσα πατριά as the whole family, in which case likewise either the angels and men (Michaelis, Zachariae, Morus, Meier, Olshausen, and earlier expositors), or the blessed in heaven and Christians on earth (Beza), have been thought of: but this is on the ground of linguistic usage erroneous. Comp. on Eph_2:21.

ὀνομάζεται] bears the name, namely, the name πατριά; see above. The text does not yield anything else;[185] and if many (Beza, Piscator, Grotius, Wolf, Bengel, Michaelis, Zachariae, Morus, Koppe, and others, including Flatt and Olshausen) have understood the name children of God, this is purely imported. Others have taken nomen pro re (Zanchius, Menochius, Estius, et al.), so that ὀνομάζεσθαι would denote existere. So, too, Rückert, according to whom Paul designs to express the thought that God is called the Father, inasmuch as all that lives in heaven and upon earth has from Him existence and name (i.e. dignity and peculiarity of nature). Contrary to linguistic usage; εἶναι ὀνομάζεται must at least have been used in that case instead of ὀνομάζεται (comp. Isaeus, de Menecl. her. 41: τὸν πατέρα, οὗ εἶναι ὠνομάσθην, Plat. Pol. iv. p. 428 E: ὀνομάζονταί τινες εἶναι). Incorrectly also Holzhausen: ὀνομάζειν means to call into existence. Reiche takes ἐξ οὗ ὀνομάζεται (of whom it bears the name) as the expression of the highest dominion and of the befitting reverence due, and refers πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐρ. to the pairings of the Aeons. The former without linguistic evidence: the latter a hysteroproteron.

[182] On ver. 15, see Reiche, Comm. Crit. p. 156 ff.

[183] To this head belongs also the Jewish-genealogical distinction from φυλή, according to which πατριά denotes a branch of one of the twelve tribes (φυλῶν). See on Luk_2:4. Similarly in the sense of a family-association often with Pindar. On the relation of the word to the kindred φρατρία, see Boeckh, ad Pind. Nem. V. L. iv. 47; Dissen, p. 387; Hermann, Staatsalterth. § 5. 4, 10.

[184] Jerome finds it in the archangels, and Theodoret says: οὐρανίους πατέρας τοὺς πνευματικοὺς καλεῖ, and cites 1Co_4:15.

[185] For the very reason that Paul does not put any defining addition to ὀνομάζεται (in opposition to Reiches objection). Nor is it to be objected, with Reiche, that the human πατριά bears the name not from God, but from the human ancestor. This historical relation remains entirely unaffected by the higher thought, that they are called πατριά from the universal, heavenly Father.

REMARK 1.

In ἐξ οὗ … ὀνομάζεται God is certainly characterized as universal Father, as Father of all angel-classes in heaven and all peoples upon earth. Comp. Luthers gloss: All angels, all Christians, yea, all men, are Gods children, for He created them all. But it is not at all meant by the apostle in the bare sense of creation, nor in the rationalistic conception of the all-fatherhood, when he says that every πατριά derives this name ἐκ Θεοῦ, as from its father; but in the higher spiritual sense of the divine Fatherhood and the sonship of God. He thinks, in connection with the ἐξ οὗ, of a higher πατρόθεν than that of the mere creation. For πατριαί, so termed from God as their πατήρ, are not merely all the communities of angels, since these were indeed υἱοὶ Θεοῦ from the beginning, and have not fallen from this υἱότης; but also all nationalities among men, inasmuch as not only the Jews, but also all Gentile nations, have obtained part in the Christian υἱοθεσία, and the latter are συγκληρονόμα καὶ σύσσωμα καὶ συμμέτοχα τῆς ἐπαγγελίας ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ (Eph_3:6). If this has not yet become completely realized, it has at any rate already been so partially, while Paul writes; and in Gods counsel it stands ideally as an accomplished fact. On that account Paul says with reason also of every nationality upon earth, that it bears the name πατριά, because God is its Father. Without cause, therefore, Harless has taken offence at the notion of the All-fatherhood, which is here withal clearly though ideally expressed, and given to the passage a limitation to which the all-embracing mode of expression is entirely opposed: whose name every child [i.e. every true child] in heaven and upon earth bears. Consequently, as though Paul had written something like: ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα ἀληθινὴ πατριὰ κ.τ.λ. With a like imported limitation Erasmus, Paraphr.: omnis cognatio spiritualis, qua conglutinantur sive angeli in coelis, sive fideles in terris.

REMARK 2.

With the non-genuineness of τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ι. Χ. (see the critical remarks) falls also the possibility of referring ἐξ οὗ to Christ (Beza, although with hesitation, Calvin, Zanchius, Hammond, Cramer, Reiche, and others). But if those words were genuine (de Wette, among others, defends them), ἐξ οὗ would still apply to God, because ἐξ οὗ κ.τ.λ. characterizes the fatherly relation, and ἵνα δῷ κ.τ.λ. applies to the Father.

Lastly, polemic references, whether in opposition to the particularism of the Jews (Chrysostom, Calvin, Zanchius, and others), or even in opposition to scholam Simonis, qui plura principia velut plures Deos introducebat (Estius), or in opposition to the worship of angels (Michaelis), or in opposition to the Gnostic doctrine of Syzygies (Reiche), are to be utterly dismissed, because arbitrary in themselves and inappropriate to the character and contents of the prayer before us.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph 3:14-19 . A paragraph containing an earnest prayer for the inward strengthening of the readers, the presence of Christ in them, their enlargement in the knowledge of the love of Christ, and the realisation in them of the Divine perfections.

Eph 3:14 . τούτου χάριν : for this cause . The sentence begun at Eph 3:1 and interrupted at Eph 3:2 is now taken up again. The τούτου χάριν , therefore, refers to the great statement of privilege in the latter part of the previous chapter. The ideas which came to expression in the digression in Eph 3:2-13 , are also no doubt in view in some measure. The thought of the new relations into which the Ephesians had been brought by grace toward God and toward the Jews the reconciliation of the Cross, peace effected where once there was only enmity, the place given them in the household of God gave Paul cause for prayer in their behalf. κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου : I bow my knees . A simple, natural figure for prayer; earnest prayer (Calv.) not as if Paul actually knelt as he wrote (Calov.). The standing posture in prayer and the kneeling are both mentioned in the NT ( e.g. , Mar 11:25 ; Luk 18:11 ; Luk 18:13 , for the former, and Luk 22:41 ; Act 7:60 ; Act 20:36 ; Act 21:5 , for the latter). For kneeling in the OT see 1Ki 8:54 ; Dan 6:10 ; cf. also 1Ki 19:18 . πρὸς τὸν πατέρα : to the Father . The πρὸς takes the place of the simple dat. which usually follows the phrase κάμπτω γόνυ (Rom 11:4 ; Rom 14:11 ), the idea here being that of prayer , and of God as the Hearer to whom it was directed . The TR, following [318] 3 [319] [320] [321] [322] , Lat., Syr., Goth., etc., adds τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ . This is an addition which might very readily find a place in the text, the designation being a familiar one, occurring already indeed in this Epistle (Eph 1:3 ). It does not appear, however, in [323] [324] [325] [326] , 17, Copt., Eth., etc., and it is omitted by the best critics (LTTrWHRV).

[318] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[319] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[320] Codex Augiensis (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.

[321] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[322] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

[323] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[324] Autograph of the original scribe of א .

[325] Autograph of the original scribe of א .

[326] Codex Ephraemi (sæc. v.), the Paris palimpsest, edited by Tischendorf in 1843.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_3:14-21

Analysis

The prayer of the apostle is addressed to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is also in him our Father. He offers but one petition, viz. that his readers might be strengthened by the Holy Ghost in the inner man; or that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith. The consequence of this would be, that they would be confirmed in love, and thus enabled in some measure to comprehend the infinite love of Christ, which would enlarge their capacity unto the fullness of God; that is, ultimately render them, in their measure, as full of holiness and blessedness, as God is in his.

Commentary

Eph_3:14

This verse resumes the connection interrupted in Eph_3:1.

1. The prayer which the apostle there commenced, he here begins anew. For this cause, τούτου χάριν, repeated from Eph_3:1, and therefore the connection is the same here as there, i.e. because you Ephesians are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ. I bow my knees. The posture of prayer, for prayer itself. Unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.‹10›

2. The peculiar Christian designation of God, as expressing the covenant relation in which he stands to believers. It is because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our incarnate God and Savior, that he is our Father, and accessible to us in prayer. We can approach him acceptably in no other character than as the God who sent the Lord Jesus to be our propitiation and mediator. It is therefore by faith in him as reconciled, that we address him as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He teacheth by his own example, that the efficacy of the doctrine dependeth upon the grace of God, and therefore we ought to join prayers with the preaching and hearing of the word: which are needful not only to them which are younglings in religion, but even to the oldest also, that they growing up more and more by faith in Christ, being confirmed with all spiritual gifts, may be grounded and rooted in the knowledge of that immeasurable love, wherewith God the Father hath loved us in Christ, seeing that the whole family, whereof part is already received into heaven, and part is yet here on earth, dependeth upon that adoption of the heavenly Father, in his only Son.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

We now come to the second part of this chapter, which contains Paul's devout and affectionate prayer to God for his beloved Ephesians. - For this cause. This may be referred either to the immediately foregoing verse, That you faint not, etc., or, rather, the apostle is here resuming what he began at the first verse, from which he digressed in those which are interposed. Observe,

I. To whom he prays - to God, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of which see Eph 1:3.

II. His outward posture in prayer, which was humble and reverent: I bow my knees. Note, When we draw nigh to God, we should reverence him in our hearts, and express our reverence in the most suitable and becoming behaviour and gesture. Here, having mentioned Christ, he cannot pass without an honourable encomium of his love, Eph 3:15. The universal church has a dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ: Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. The Jews were wont to boast of Abraham as their father, but now Jews and Gentiles are both denominated from Christ (so some); while others understand it of the saints in heaven, who wear the crown of glory, and of saints on earth who are going on in the work of grace here. Both the one and the other make but one family, one household; and from him they are named CHRISTIANS, as they really are such, acknowledging their dependence upon, and their relation to, Christ.

III. What the apostle asks of God for these his friends - spiritual blessings, which are the best blessings, and the most earnestly to be sought and prayed for by every one of us, both for ourselves and for our friends. 1. Spiritual strength for the work and duty to which they were called, and in which they were employed: That he would grant you, according to the riches of his grace, to be strengthened, etc. The inner man is the heart or soul. To be strengthened with might is to be mightily strengthened, much more than they were at present; to be endued with a high degree of grace, and spiritual abilities for discharging duty, resisting temptations, enduring persecutions, etc. And the apostle prays that this may be according to the riches of his glory, or according to his glorious riches - answerable to that great abundance of grace, mercy, and power, which resides in God, and is his glory: and this by his Spirit, who is the immediate worker of grace in the souls of God's people. Observe from these things, That strength from the Spirit of God in the inner man is the best and most desirable strength, strength in the soul, the strength of faith and other graces, strength to serve God and to do our duty, and to persevere in our Christian course with vigour and with cheerfulness. And let us further observe that as the work of grace is first begun so it is continued and carried on, by the blessed Spirit of God. 2. The indwelling of Christ in their hearts, Eph 3:17. Christ is said to dwell in his people, as he is always present with them by his gracious influences and operations. Observe, It is a desirable thing to have Christ dwell in our hearts; and if the law of Christ be written there, and the love of Christ be shed abroad there, then Christ dwells there. Christ is an inhabitant in the soul of every good Christian. Where his spirit dwells, there he swells; and he dwells in the heart by faith, by means of the continual exercise of faith upon him. Faith opens the door of the soul, to receive Christ; faith admits him, and submits to him. By faith we are united to Christ, and have an interest in him. 3. The fixing of pious and devout affections in the soul: That you being rooted and grounded in love, stedfastly fixed in your love to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to all the saints, the beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many have some love to God and to his servants, but it is a flash, like the crackling of throns under a pot, it makes a great noise, but is gone presently. We should earnestly desire that good affections may be fixed in us, that we may be rooted and grounded in love. Some understand it of their being settled and established in the sense of God's love to them, which would inspire them with greater ardours of holy love to him, and to one another. And how very desirable is it to have a settled fixed sense of the love of God and Christ to our souls, so as to be able to say with the apostle at all times, He has loved me! Now the best way to attain this is to be careful that we maintain a constant love to God in our souls; this will be the evidence of the love of God to us. We love him, because he first loved us. In order to this he prays, 4. For their experimental acquaintance with the love of Jesus Christ. The more intimate acquaintance we have with Christ's love to us, the more our love will be drawn out to him, and to those who are his, for his sake: That you may be able to comprehend with all saints, etc. (Eph 3:18, Eph 3:19); that is, more clearly to understand, and firmly to believe, the wonderful love of Christ to his, which the saints do understand and believe in some measure, and shall understand more hereafter. Christians should not aim to comprehend above all saints; but be content that God deals with them as he uses to do with those who love and fear his name: we should desire to comprehend with all saints, to have so much knowledge as the saints are allowed to have in this world. We should be ambitious of coming up with the first three; but not of going beyond what is the measure of the stature of other saints. It is observable how magnificently the apostle speaks of the love of Christ. The dimensions of redeeming love are admirable: The breadth, and length, and depth, and height. By enumerating these dimensions, the apostle designs to signify the exceeding greatness of the love of Christ, the unsearchable riches of his love, which is higher than heaven, deeper than hell, longer than the earth, and broader than the sea, Job 11:8, Job 11:9. Some describe the particulars thus: By the breadth of it we may understand the extent of it to all ages, nations, and ranks of men; by the length of it, its continuance from everlasting to everlasting; by the depth of it, its stooping to the lowest condition, with a design to relieve and save those who have sunk into the depths of sin and misery; by its height, its entitling and raising us up to the heavenly happiness and glory. We should desire to comprehend this love: it is the character of all the saints that they do so; for they all have a complacency and a confidence in the love of Christ: And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, Eph 3:19. If it passeth knowledge, how can we know it? We must pray and endeavour to know something, and should still covet and strive to know more and more of it, though, after the best endeavours, none can fully comprehend it: in its full extent it surpasses knowledge. Though the love of Christ may be better perceived and known by Christians than it generally is, yet it cannot be fully understood on this side heaven. 5. He prays that they may be filled with all the fulness of God. It is a high expression: we should not dare to use it if we did not find it in the scriptures. It is like those other expressions, of being partakers of a divine nature, and of being perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. We are not to understand it of his fulness as God in himself, but of his fulness as a God in covenant with us, as a God to his people: such a fulness as God is ready to bestow, who is willing to fill them all to the utmost of their capacity, and that with all those gifts and graces which he sees they need. Those who receive grace for grace from Christ's fulness may be said to be filled with the fulness of God, according to their capacity, all which is in order to their arriving at the highest degree of the knowledge and enjoyment of God, and an entire conformity to him.

The apostle closes the chapter with a doxology, Eph 3:20, Eph 3:21. It is proper to conclude our prayers with praises. Our blessed Saviour has taught us to do so. Take notice how he describes God, and how he ascribes glory to him. He describes him as a God that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. There is an inexhaustible fulness of grace and mercy in God, which the prayers of all the saints can never draw dry. Whatever we may ask, or think to ask, still God is still able to do more, abundantly more, exceedingly abundantly more. Open thy mouth ever so wide, still he hath wherewithal to fill it. Note, In our applications to God we should encourage our faith by a consideration of his all-sufficiency and almighty power. According to the power which worketh in us. As if he had said, We have already had a proof of this power of God, in what he hath wrought in us and done for us, having quickened us by his grace, and converted us to himself. The power that still worketh for the saints is according to that power that hath wrought in them. Wherever God gives of his fulness he gives to experience his power. Having thus described God, he ascribes glory to him. When we come to ask for grace from God, we ought to give glory to God. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus. In ascribing glory to God, we ascribe all excellences and perfections to him, glory being the effulgency and result of them all. Observe, The seat of God's praises is in the church. That little rent of praise which God receives from this world is from the church, a sacred society constituted for the glory of God, every particular member of which, both Jew and Gentile, concurs in this work of praising God. The Mediator of these praises is Jesus Christ. All God's gifts come from his to us through the hand of Christ; and all our praises pass from us to him through the same hand. And God should and will be praised thus throughout all ages, world without end; for he will ever have a church to praise him, and he will ever have his tribute of praise from his church. Amen. So be it; and so it will certainly be.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For this cause--Resuming the thread of Eph 3:1, "For this cause." Because ye have such a standing in God's Church [ALFORD].

bow my knees--the proper attitude in humble prayer. Posture affects the mind, and is not therefore unimportant. See Paul's practice (Act 20:36); and that of the Lord Himself on earth (Luk 22:41).

unto the Father--The oldest manuscripts omit "of our Lord Jesus Christ." But Vulgate and some very old authorities retain them: Eph 3:15, "From whom," in either case, refers to "the Father" (Patera), as "family" (patria, akin in sound and etymology) plainly refers to Him. Still the foundation of all sonship is in Jesus Christ.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. For this cause I bow my knees] That you may not faint, but persevere, I frequently pray to God, who is our God and the Father of our Lord Jesus. Some very ancient and excellent MSS. and versions omit the words του Κυριου ἡμων Ιησου Χριστου, of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in them the passage reads: I bow my knees unto the Father. The apostle prays to God the Father, that they may not faint; and he bows his knees in this praying. What can any man think of himself, who, in his addresses to God, can either sit on his seat or stand in the presence of the Maker and Judge of all men? Would they sit while addressing any person of ordinary respectability? If they did so they would be reckoned very rude indeed. Would they sit in the presence of the king of their own land? They would not be permitted so to do. Is God then to be treated with less respect than a fellow mortal? Paul kneeled in praying, Ac 20:36; Ac 21:5. Stephen kneeled when he was stoned, Ac 7:60. And Peter kneeled when he raised Tabitha, Ac 9:40.

Many parts of this prayer bear a strict resemblance to that offered up by Solomon, 2Ch 6:1, c., when dedicating the temple: He kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands towards heaven 2Ch 6:13. The apostle was now dedicating the Christian Church, that then was and that ever should be, to God; and praying for those blessings which should ever rest on and distinguish it; and he kneels down after the example of Solomon, and invokes him to whom the first temple was dedicated, and who had made it a type of the Gospel Church.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. For this cause. His prayers for them are mentioned, not only to testify his regard for them, but likewise to excite them to pray in the same manner; for the seed of the word is scattered in vain, unless the Lord render it fruitful by his blessing. Let pastors learn from Paul’s example, not only to admonish and exhort their people, but to entreat the Lord to bless their labors, that they may not be unfruitful. Nothing will be gained by their industry and toil, — all their study and application will be to no purpose, except so far as the Lord bestows his blessing. This ought not to be regarded by them as an encouragement to sloth. It is their duty, on the contrary, to labor earnestly in sowing and watering, provided they, at the same time, ask and expect the increase from the Lord.

We are thus enabled to refute the slanders of the Pelagians and Papists, who argue, that, if the grace of the Holy Spirit performs the whole work of enlightening our minds, and forming our hearts to obedience, all instruction will be superfluous. The only effect of the enlightening and renewing influences of the Holy Spirit is, to give to instruction its proper weight and efficacy, that we may not be blind to the light of heaven, or deaf to the strains of truth. While the Lord alone acts upon us, he acts by his own instruments. It is therefore the duty of pastors diligently to teach, — of the people, earnestly to receive instruction, — and of both, not to weary themselves in unprofitable exertions, but to look up for Divine aid.

I bow my knees. The bodily attitude is here put for the religious exercise itself. Not that prayer, in all cases, requires the bending of the knees, but because this expression of reverence is commonly employed, especially where it is not an incidental petition, but a continued prayer.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(14) Unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.—The words “of our Lord Jesus Christ” appear, by both external and internal evidence, to be an interpolation—probably from a gloss indicating (in the true spirit of the Epistle) that the universal Fatherhood here spoken of is derived from the fatherly relation to Him in whom “all things are gathered up.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14–19. The main theme resumed: prayer for the Indwelling of Christ

14. For this cause] The same phrase as that of Eph_3:1. See note there. Here the broken connexion is resumed. The “permanent habitation of God” (Eph_2:22) is still in the Apostle’s mind, but in another aspect. The thought of the eternal totality, the Church glorified, gives place in a measure to that of the present individuality, the saint’s experience now and here of the consciously welcomed “permanent habitation of Christ in the heart,” with all its spiritual concomitants. The two aspects are complements of each other. Each “living Stone” (1Pe_2:5) is, as it were, a miniature of the living Temple. In each of them, as if it were an integral microcosm, yet with a view not to itself only but to the final harmony of the whole, Christ works, manifests Himself, and dwells. So, as by the primary and most vital condition, is approached that “far-off divine Event, to which the whole creation moves,”[35] (and the New Creation most directly of all,) and with which the close of ch. 2 has dealt. Meanwhile this prospect, and the present community of the saints, is not absent from this passage, in which we have the great “Family” (Eph_3:15), and “all the saints” (Eph_3:18); in which plurals are used throughout; and in which the closing sentences (Eph_3:20-21) point by the vastness of their language to a more than individual sphere of realization.

[35] In Memoriam, at the end.

I bow my knees] The attitude of prayer, Luk_22:41; Act_7:60; Act_9:40; Act_20:36; Act_21:5. See too Rom_14:11; Php_2:10. The words, doubtless, do not impose a special bodily posture as a necessity in spiritual worship; physical conditions may make kneeling impossible, or undesirable, on occasion. But they do impose the spiritual attitude of which the bodily is type and expression; profound and submissive reverence, perfectly harmonious with the “boldness” and “confidence” of Eph_3:12. And so far as body and spirit work in concord, this recommends the corresponding bodily attitude where there is no distinct reason against it.

the Father] The words, “of our Lord Jesus Christ,” are to be omitted. They appear in very ancient documents, including the Syriac and Latin versions. But the great Latin Father and critic, St Jerome (cent. 4–5), in his comment on this verse, expressly says that the “Latin copies” are in error; and the evidence of both Greek MSS. and patristic quotations preponderates for the omission.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. This may refer either to God, the Father of Christ; who is the Father of the whole family in heaven and in earth; not only the Father of Christ, but the Father of spirits, of angelic spirits, as well as of the souls of men; and the Father of all the saints by adopting grace, whether above or below; they are all the household of God: or else to Jesus Christ, who is the everlasting Father, the Son over his own house, and the firstborn among many brethren: and this family consists either of elect angels and elect men, who are both under one head, Christ, and are in one family, only with this difference, the one are servants, the other sons; or else only of elect men, of saints in heaven and in earth, who all make up but one family; and that part of it, which is on earth, consists of persons of various sizes and growth, as fathers, young men, and children, though they are all the children of God, and partake of the same privileges: and this family is named of Christ; they are called Christians from him, and he is the master and governor of them; they have their laws, directions, and instructions from him; and he is the great provider for them, and the support of them; they have their food and clothing from him, as well as are called by his name. Frequent mention is made in the Jewish writings (o) of the family of the holy angels, and of the family above, and the family below, to which here may be some reference.

(o) Targ. in Cant. i. 15. T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 17. 1. Zohar in Exod. fol. 105. 4. Raziel, fol. 42. 1. & 45. 2. Caphtor, fol. 58. 2. Shaare Orn, fol. 14. 3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Ver. 14. For this cause] sc. That ye faint not, but gather strength.

I bow my knees] A most seemly and suitable gesture, usual among all nations but Turks, who kneel not, nor uncover the head at prayer, as holding those postures unmanly. And yet they pray five times every day (saith Mr Terry), what occasion soever they have either by profit or pleasure to divert them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For this cause - Some suppose that this is a resumption of what he had commenced saying in Eph 3:1, but which had been interrupted by a long parenthesis. So Bloomfield explains it. But it seems to me more probable that he refers to what immediately precedes. “Wherefore, that the great work may be carried on, and that the purposes of these my sufferings may be answered in your benefit and glory, I bow my knees to God, and pray to him.”

I bow my knees - I pray. The usual, and the proper posture of prayer is to kneel; Compare 2Ch 6:13; Dan 6:10; Luk 22:21; Act 7:60; Act 9:40; Act 20:26; Act 21:5. It is a posture which indicates reverence, and should, therefore, be assumed when we come before God. It has been an unhappy thing that the custom of kneeling in public worship has ever been departed from in the Christian churches.

Unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - To whom, undoubtedly, prayer should ordinarily be addressed. But this does not make it improper to address the Lord Jesus in prayer; see the notes; 7:59-60 on Act 1:24.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For this cause I pray and bow my knees to the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity (or fatherhood[5]) in heaven an dearth is named. The Greek word oftentimes signifies a family, and therefore may signify, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named; and thus the sense will be, that God is not only the Father of his eternal Son, but (as not only the Latin text, but even the Greek may signify) of all angelical spirits in heaven, and of all men, especially Christians, made his adoptive sons in baptism. But here may be signified not only a family, but those in particular who are honoured with the name and dignity of fathers; so that the name which they have of fathers, or patriarchs, is derived from God the Father of all, and communicated to them in an inferior degree. This exposition is found in St. Jerome, in Theodoret, Theophylactus, St. John Damascene, &c. (Witham) --- All paternity, or the whole family; Greek: patria. God is the Father both of angels and men: whosoever besides is named father, is so named with subordination to him. (Challoner)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Omnis paternitas, Greek: patria. See St. Jerome on this verse: Deus....paternitatis nomen ex seipso largitus est omnibus....præstat cæteris ut patres esse dicantur. Theodoret, tom. 3. p. 305. Ed. Par. an. 1642. Alii patres, sive corporales, sive spirituales, desuper traxerunt appellationem: Greek: oi de alloi pateres....anothen ten prosegorian []ilkusan. See St. John Damascene, lib. 1. Ortho. fid. chap. ix. Ed. Bas. p. 32. Greek: touto de istion, &c. See Theophylactus, &c.

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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

For this cause; this may be referred either to the former verse: {Eph 3:13} For this cause, viz. that ye faint not, & c.; or rather to the 1st verse, {Eph 3:1} the apostle here resuming what he had been beginning there.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 14-21. PRAYER FOR THEIR SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT.

For this cause. The digression being ended, the apostle takes up the thread broken at ver.

1. We must seek the "cause" in Ephesians

2. Seeing that the Gentiles have now equal privileges with the Jews; seeing that by faith in Christ Gentile Christians have been brought as near to God, and have as good a right to the good things of the covenant; I take the steps now to be specified for enabling them actually to possess these good things. On the one hand, the apostle saw the believing Ephesians still comparatively poor and needy; on the other hand, he saw all spiritual stores provided for them: the question was how to get the one into contact with the other. For this cause, he says, I bow my knees unto the Father. An emphatic way of denoting prayer; but not incidental, occasional prayer, inspired by some passing feeling; the attitude "bow my knees" denotes deliberate prayer (comp., (Dan_6:10) making a business of it, approaching God with reverence and holy fear, with all the solemnities suitable to the occasion of making a specific and important request. In the A.V it is "unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." The R.V, some of the oldest manuscripts, and most recent commentators omit the latter words, which are supposed to have been taken from Eph_1:3. On internal grounds, the omission of the wends seems to yield the best sense, ra Eph_2:18 our having access to "the Father" is spoken of, and when the apostle proceeded to show how he availed himself of that privilege, he is not likely to have used more than that expression. Further, there is such a close connection between pate) and patria in ver. 15, that they are not likely to have been far separated as the apostle used them.

Vers. 14-21.

Prayer for spiritual enrichment. qualities already noted as belonging to Paul"s prayer.

(1) introduction;

(2) petitions;

(3) doxology.

This prayer remarkable for Three parts in this prayer

I INTRODUCTION.

1. The attitude: "I bow my knees;" humility, earnestness.

2. The designation of God: "the Father;" the character in which Christ taught us to approach God in prayer, and which gives us most encouragement.

3. The name of the family is derived from God, constituting an additional plea. That which bears God"s Name must be an object of special interest to him.

II THE PETITIONS. Three centers of petition, according as the grace

(1) of the Spirit,

(2) of the Son, or

(3) of the Father is specially invoked.

1. Ver. 16: connected with the Spirit.

(1) The petition: to "be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man the region where we are weakest, and where the might of the Spirit is most needed.

(2) The measure or standard of the gift: "according to the riches of his glory;" as, for example, that riches as exhibited in the starry firmament, or in any other scene that exhibits the boundless profusion of God.

2. Vers. 17-19: connected with the Son.

(1) Indwelling. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;" denoting permanent residence and interest, to be secured by a faith ever looking to him and resting on him.

(2) Stability and force. "That being rooted and grounded in love;" having the stability and force of Christian character which comes from love; i.e. the love of Christ received and enjoyed, and a loving spirit toward him and his people exercised.

(3) Comprehension, with all saints, of the manifold dimensions of Christ"s capacity to bless (see Exposition).

(4) Knowledge of "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge;" for the inward, experimental knowledge of that love is the strongest of all spiritual dynamics.

3. Ver. 19: connected with the Father. "Filled with all the fullness of God." The renewed heart has a capacity to receive the things of God to be plunged, as it were, into his fullness and filled there from. This can never be fully reached; as our capacities increase there is more to be enjoyed.

III THE DOXOLOGY.

1. The Being praised. "Him that is able," etc. View of Divine infinity, for much has been asked and more thought about; yet, like space and time, God"s ability to bless extends infinitely beyond. The blessing is in the direction of what has been already conferred: "According to the power that worketh in us.

2. The ascription offered.

(1) The offering: "glory the praise, credit, glory of the whole work of grace, with all its blessings and its final consummation.

(2) The sphere: "in the Church something different from the glory of creation and providence; the glory connected with the history of the Church the glory of redemption.

(3) The medium: "in Christ Jesus," in vital union to whom the Church has got all her blessings.

(4) The duration: "world without end;" for the story of redemption will never become obsolete, and the songs of redemption will be forever fresh and living. "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of our God!" "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy dwelling-places, O Israel! Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee!

Vers. 14-21.

The Christian brotherhood Paul"s second prayer.

From the noble idea of the elevation of the heathen to equal privileges with the Jews, the apostle proceeds to a second prayer for the Ephesian converts, in which he rises to still greater elevation of thought. Prostrating himself before the Father of all, he contemplates a family unity embracing both heaven and earth, and he prays that his friends at Ephesus may experience such inward illumination and strength as to be fitting members of the mighty family. The leading thought is, then, Christian brotherhood, which embraces angels as well as men. The following thoughts are suggested by the prayer:

I CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD IS TO BE REALIZED IN DEVOTION BEFORE A COMMON FATHER. (Ver. 14.) The words "of our Lord Jesus Christ" are not in the most ancient manuscripts, and are rightly omitted in the Revised Version. This clears the ground for the understanding of the family name. The word for "family" (patria) is etymologically connected with pathr, so that it is God the Father who supplies the patronymic to "every family in heaven and on earth." All gather round the feet of a common Father, and realize in their devotion the true brotherhood. We do not sufficiently think of how much is accomplished when we get men everywhere on their knees with the Lord"s Prayer upon their lips. As we say from the heart, "Our Father, which art in heaven," our hearts have become really one. However much we may squabble before we proceed to prayer, if our prayer to the infinite Father be true, we have entered by it into real brotherhood. Contention cannot stand "the light of the countenance" of the great "Peace-maker.

II CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD IS SECURED THROUGH THE INDWELLING OF A COMMON SAVIOR. (Vers. 16, 17.) For the Holy Spirit, entering into the hearts of God"s children, enables them to entertain the elder Brother as a Guest. Christ dwells within each of us. He comes to sup with us and to enable us to sup with him (Joh_14:21; Rev_3:20) Christ within us becomes the unifying element. He is the Guest of each and of all. As a Divine Being, he can pervade all the hearts and ensure the brotherhood. The brotherhood is brought about and sustained by an indwelling Christ. Taking possession of our natures, Jesus moulds them to his own gracious purposes and secures the essential brotherhood all round.

III CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD IS INTENSIFIED THROUGH THE GRADUAL COMPREHENSION OF CHRIST"S WONDROUS LOVE. (Vers. 18, 19.) Jesus by his indwelling becomes the object as well as instigator of our love. We get rooted and grounded in love." The selfish, loveless life has ceased, and the loving and devoted life has begun. This is essential to the comprehension of another"s love. As Robertson says, "You must love in order to understand love One act of charity will teach us more of the love of God than a thousand sermons." Only loving hearts, then, can appreciate the wondrous love of Christ. It passeth the knowledge of natural and unloving men. Love is a revelation only unto love. But now, supposing that the love of Christ has begun within us, then his wondrous love becomes a subject of endless contemplation. Its breadth and length, its depth and height, present a problem for our holy comprehension, which can never be exhausted. "The believer," says A. Monod, "who has been represented just now as rooted and grounded in the love of the Lord, is here represented as enveloped on all sides by this love, which extends itself in all directions around him beyond the limits of vision. Suspended in the very bosom of the infinite love, like the earth in the bosom of space, be looks before him, behind him, above him, below him, to seize the just measure of this love which has saved him, but all ends in demonstrating the impossibility of measuring it. The breadth? On his right and on his left, immensity. The length? Before him and behind him, immensity. The depth? Under his feet, immensity. The height? Over his head, still immensity." Here, then, in the infinite love of Christ there is material for eternal study, and the brotherhood realizes that it has begun an everlasting progress towards the fullness of God." As we comprehend Christ"s love, we find ourselves proportionally "partakers of the Divine nature" and filled with the Divine fullness. This is the infinitely distant goal; this is the straight line to which our hyperbolic orbit is continually making approach, though destined never actually to reach it. And as we approach the perfection and fullness of God, we become the more united in Christian brotherhood.

IV CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD REMAINS UNBROKEN BY THE CHANGE OF WORLDS. (Ver. 15.) The family of love, who are gathering regularly round the feet of the heavenly Father, cannot be broken up by death or change of worlds. Heaven with its saints add angels, earth with its suffering and saintly souls, these constitute but one family circle, and are pervaded by the one Christ and the one Christian spirit. It is this thought which robs death of its sting and makes it appear but a sublime emigration. The majority are in the Father"s house above; it is the minority that are left on earth; and our sainted dead have simply passed over to the majority and are awaiting us amid more perfect associations. "Death, in short," says Martineau, "under the Christian aspect, is but God"s method of colonization; the transition from this mother-country of our race to the hirer and newer world of our emigration. What though no other passage thither is permitted to all the living, and by neither eye nor ear we can discover any trace of that unknown receptacle of vivid and more glorious life? So might the dwellers in any other sphere make complaint respecting our poor world. Intensely as it burns with life, dizzy as our thought becomes with the din of its eager passions and the cries of its many woes, yet from the nearest station that God"s universe affords nay, at a few miles beyond its own confines, all its strong force, its crowded cities, the breathless hurry and ferment of its nations, the whole apparition and chorus of humanity, is still and motionless as death; gathered all and lost within the circumference of a dark or illumined disc. And silent as those midnight heavens appear, well may there be, among their points of light, some one that thrills with the glow of our lost and immortal generations; busy with the fleet movements and happy energies of existence more vivid than our own; where, as we approach, we might catch the awful voices of the mighty dead, and the sweeter tones, lately heard in the last pain and sorrow, of our own departed ones.

V THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERHOOD IS SUSTAINED BY THE ASSURANCE OF GOD"S SURPASSING POWER. (Vers. 20, 21.) In the doxology the apostle adds one other thought to round and complete his glorious theme. He wishes to ascribe glory unto God; but what attribute shall form the substance of the doxology? The attribute of power. Not, however, the physical power which obtains in the universe of sense, but the spiritual power which obtains in the "world of mind." And so he looks upward and pronounces the mighty God as "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." In the world of sense he does not work up to his full strength, nor is there any reason why he should. The physical universe speaks of his "eternal," but not necessarily of his infinite" power. (Rom_1:20) It is in the domain of the spirit that he performs his chefs-de"ouvre. And such a thought is surely fitted to sustain the aspirations of the Christian brotherhood! R.M.E.

Vers. 14-19.

A prayer on behalf of the Ephesian Christians.

I THE SUPPLIANT. "For this cause I bow my knees." He has explained who he, Paul, was, in the remarkable parenthesis which concludes with the thirteenth verse. In resuming his sentence, so long interrupted, he naturally falls back on the first words, "For this cause." Thus taken up, it has only the meaning which it had before, the thought in the parenthesis being carried forward into the word, "I" He describes himself as a suppliant from the natural posture in prayer. The only reason there can be for a standing posture in prayer has a narrow reference. There is justification in standing in prayer at a bedside or before a congregation, if kneeling interferes with edification (which is the higher consideration). Solomon was able to combine the kneeling posture with edification in his prayer of the dedication; for, placed on a brazen pulpit, "he kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven." Kneeling is the posture of humility, and we have reason to humble ourselves before God as creatures before our Creator, as sinners before our Judge. It is the posture of earnest entreaty. "And his fellow-servant fell down at his feet and besought him." So should we, as though pleading for our life, bend the knee before God.

II HOW GOD IS ADDRESSED. "Unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named." In the Greek there is a transition as from Father to fatherhood, only the transition in thought is not to the abstract idea of fatherhood, but to the concrete representation of it in a family. God has instituted the relationship of father and son among men. And though the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage, it would seem from the language here that there is a certain grouping of them in families too. How far this may descend we have not the moans of knowing. But into a family there enters the idea of a head with a certain subordination to the head. There also enters the idea of a special affection existing between the members of the same family. Now, the whole of this conception has its origination in Godhead. It is from God that every family in heaven and on earth is named. We find Father and Son existing from eternity. "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was When he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." And angels and men have been constituted after this pattern, in order that they may be familiarized with the truth of God"s fatherhood, and in order that they may know in what close relationship he would have them stand to him. And where the family is thus "named" after God, how becoming to worship him as the God of families, and specially as the God of our family!

III THE MEASURE ACCORDING TO WHICH BLESSING IS ASKED. "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory." There is a certain expectation of favors and donations from people according to their rank and wealth. There is a style of giving which is known as princely. The apostle supposes that the glory of God, which infinitely transcends all human glory, which is infinitely rich in the meeting of all perfections, that all this glory means infinite power to bless, to which his creatures may look. His conception of God is sublime, that he grants according to the riches of his glory. He grants, not like a being of limited powers, but like himself. He is glorified in bestowing large blessings upon his people. He who came forth from God and knew the glory of God, said, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing.

Thou art coming to a King; Large petitions with thee bring; For his grace and power are such, None can ever ask too much.

IV THE PRAYER IN FIVE PETITIONS. These petitions follow each other in natural order, and we are carried forward from the point where our need begins to the point where it is all filled up. It is a suitable prayer for Christians, to be used often, even as the Lord"s Prayer. First petition That ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man." The destination of the strength is the inward man. As it were, it goes past the outward man, and reaches to the inward man. The outward man "decays;" the inward man needs to be "renewed day by day." The apostle touches where our need begins, viz. in an inertness in the inward man. We are not disposed to exert ourselves spiritually. The outward has too much influence in our life, and works to our inward weakening. We need strength to counteract our inertness, and to deliver us from too outward a life. Now, there is all strength in God. This is part of the riches of his glory. And his Spirit is the mediating agent between his strength and our weakness. And what we have to ask God to do for us is, that, through his Spirit, he would infuse strength into our weak inner nature. Second petition "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." The supplies of strength which we get from God through the Spirit find their way into our faith to its greater activity. This faith is an exorcise of the mind specially directed toward Christ for us Christ in what he was and still is as our Surety. The result is the indwelling of Christ in our hearts. We dwell within (as is suggested by "inward man"); but within us (far in as we are) dwells Christ. He dwells in our hearts (the inward man viewed from the side of the affections), where he receives our love and adoration. As dwelling within, we are present in every outward motion; and so Christ, as dwelling within us, is at the very center of our being, and becomes so interlaced with it as to be present in all our life, to think in our thoughts, to speak in our words, to act in our actions. "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." And we ask from God new supplies of strength that, with new faith, we may have new experience of Christ"s indwelling in our hearts, and presence in our life. Third petition ye, being rooted and grounded in love." If love is "creation"s final law," it is also its first principle. If it is the end for which all things exist, it is also the principle from which all things have sprung. Love may be defined as the desire to bestow. It was in the desire to bestow that we were created, with all our capacity for enjoyment. If, then, our being is thus to be traced back to love, it is clearly necessary that we should be rooted and grounded in love. And this, we are taught here, is only possible by our believing in Christ. For love is in Christ, as Christ in us. As believing, then, is rooting and grounding ourselves in Christ, so it must mean rooting and grounding in love getting down into the eternal substratum of all being. And we ask for supplies of the Divine strength that, through a vigorous faith, this rooting and grounding in love may go forward in our life. Fourth petition be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, arid to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge." The rooting and grounding in love is our qualification for apprehending its greatest manifestation. Cold hearts can do nothing here. The apostle"s own heart is in such a glow that the love of Christ rises before him as though it were a body in space having dimensions of breadth, and length, and height, and depth. We are not to suppose that he was so mathematical as to associate different ideas with these dimensions. The use that they serve is to fix and detain the mind over the magnitude of the love of Christ. The magnitude of the love of Christ appears in two things.

1. It is bestowed on the undeserving. How was it possible for Christ to love us? It was not that there was any goodness in us with which he could have sympathy. For we were the opposite of what he was. As described in this Epistle, we walked according to the course of this world; we lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind. It was

2. not that he underrated what we were; for he saw our depravity in all its breadth, and length, and height, and depth. It can only be stated as a great inexplicable fact that, in the full view of what we were, he was irresistibly drawn toward us in saving love.

3. It is bestowed in the sacrifice of himself. In order to gratify his love in our salvation, he bad not only to lay aside his Divine glory, but to come down into our nature, and, in that nature, to suffer shame and death. It is no ordinary love that is needed to impel one to sacrifice his life for another. "Skin for skin," said the arch-deceiver, yea, all that a man hath will he give for His life." "Love," said the Spouse to her Beloved, "love is strong as death, many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; though a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned." And Christ falsified the base insinuation of his adversary, and verified the loving declaration of his Spouse. His love was proved stronger than death, though that death was ten thousand deaths in one, in having in it the curse of the broken Law. This is the love of our Beloved; and say not then any more, "What is thy Beloved more than any other beloved?

For fainter than the pale star"s ray Before the noontide blaze of day Is all of love that man can know, All that in angel breast can glow, Compar"d, O blessed Lord, with thine, Eternal, infinite, Divine.

We are to seek to apprehend with all the saints the magnitude of this love. For this is saintship, according to the apostle, to have the mind opened to some sense of its magnitude, and we must not make it narrower than that. We are to seek to "apprehend," along with others, the dimensions of this love; but we are also to seek to know it by ourselves, that is to say, to have it in our own experience. We can have a certain "apprehension" of its infinitude; but our experimental knowledge of it is necessarily finite. The reality, being infinite, always passeth our knowledge. But we are to ask of God, that, being rooted and grounded in love, we may know more of this wonderful love of Christ. Fifth petition That ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God." The apostle here indicates the goal toward which we are to be blessed. We have now some of the fullness of God. Through the agency of the Spirit, we have poured into us out of the Divine fullness, strength, light, purity, love, peace, joy; and these in us are the same in kind that they are in God. We look forward to the time when we shall be filled out of this fountain even up to our capacity. Meantime we would have more of the knowledge of Christ"s love, which unseals the fountain of the Divine fullness. R.F.

Vers. 14-19.

Intercessory prayer.

this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." In the whole passage we have Christian philanthropy and prayer. The apostle, who was a philanthropist of the highest type, here prays, not for himself, but for others; and prays, not for mere secondary and non- essential blessings, but for blessings paramount and vital. Let us attend to this intercessory prayer of his. A true minister is a true philanthropist, and will, like Christ, not only vicariously suffer for others, as we have seen, but will ever make intercessions for others. Intercessory prayer is the rarest and highest type of prayer. In answer to objections that are raised against it, four facts are ever to be kept in view.

1. It is an instinct of social love. Self-love urges a man to pray for himself, social love prompts the soul to address Heaven on behalf of others. What more natural than for a loving mother to pray for a suffering child, a loving pastor for his people, a loving citizen for his country? What is natural is Divine.

2. It is a soul discipline. Nothing exerts a higher influence upon the soul than the realization of the Divine presence in prayer; this quickens and hallows it. In intercessory prayer, however, there is this, and some- thing more; there is the taking of the soul out of the circle of itself, and expanding it with earnest, loving sympathies for others. Intercession lifts the spirit into fellow- ship with that God who careth for all.

3. It is a manifest Christian duty. We are not only commanded in Scripture to pray for others, but we have the highest examples Moses, Abraham, Paul, Christ.

4. It has been crowned with wonderful success. The Bible abounds with examples. "Peter ... was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod .... And he came to the house of Mary ... where many were gathered together praying." This is only a specimen,

For what are men better than sheep or goats, That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer, Both for themselves and those who call them friend?

Observe in this intercession

I THE GOD INVOKED. Who is he?

1. He is a Father. "I bow my knees unto the Father." In the New Testament the fatherhood of God is revealed. Christ speaks of him as the Father, and in his ideal prayer he is addressed as "Our Father." In this character Paul here addresses him. We see good reason for this.

(1) It makes the Object of prayer intelligible to the mind. Infinite Creator, universal Sovereign, absolute Proprietor, and Disposer; what finite mind can understand these characters? But a Father all know; paternity engaged the first attention, excited the first feelings, started the first thoughts. A child understands what a father is.

(2) It makes the Object of prayer attractive to the mind. Creator, Sovereign, Judge; are these attractive? By no means. They overawe, confound, repel. But fatherhood is attractive. The child joyously leaps into the arms of its father. Instead of cringing fear, there is filial love and boundless confidence.

(3) It makes the object of prayer transformative to the mind. Who has such a transformative power as the parent? Fatherhood moulds all characters, fashions history. Children naturally imitate the father they love. Are not these good reasons why we should look to God as a Father, and address him as such?

1. He is the Father of all holy intelligences. "Of whom the whole family." Or every family, every race in heaven or on earth. The expression must be limited to the intelligent creation, for he could not with propriety be called the Father of the irrational; we must go further, and say that the expression must be limited to the holy races of his intelligent creation, for he would not be the Father of the rebellious and the profane. A family relationship exists between all the holy intelligences, and God is the Father of all Father of all unfallen angels and redeemed men. And although "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" may be out of its place in this passage, still it expresses a fact everywhere else revealed, that God is the Father of man"s Redeemer, as well as of all other holy ones in the universe. What a family is God"s! loving, immense, ever-multiplying, harmonious, and ever-blest.

2. He is the Father possessing boundless bountihood. Paul speaks of the riches of his glory." What is the glory of God? Not his power, not his wisdom, not his wealth, not his dominion, but his goodness. When Moses prayed, "I beseech thee show me thy glory," what was the answer? "I will cause all my goodness to pass before thee," as if he had said, "My goodness is my glory." And this goodness of his is inexhaustible. "The riches." It is higher than all heavens; it is deeper than all hells. Its majestic billows roll under all Gehennas.

II THE GOOD INVOKED. What blessings did he seek?

1. Divine strength of soul. "To be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.

(1) Every man has an "inner man the moral ego of his being. It is this inner man that interests humanity in God, duty, immortality.

(2) This inner man wants moral strength. It is enfeebled, it is crushed by sin. It is the slave of the appetite; it is "carnally sold unto sin." It wants strength to rise to its true lordship over the body, and to its rightful relation to God and his universe. How morally weak is the "inner man the very stamina of humanity!

(3) This moral strength must come from God. He who quickeneth all things must quicken this inner man, now dead in trespasses and sin. It can find help in no other way; its cry is, "O wretched man that I am! who can deliver from this bondage and death?

1. The indwelling of Christ. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." There is no mystery about the indwelling of Christ. The heart that loves him supremely holds him as its constant Guest. As the author lives in the loving student, as the parent lives in the loving child, so in the same way, but in a higher degree, Christ lives in his loving disciples. His thoughts are their thoughts, his Spirit is their inspiration, his character is the very sun that quickens, lightens, and beautifies their being.

1. Stability of love. "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love." There is a love for Christ which is not rooted nor grounded; it is a passing sentiment, which, like a bubble, is thrown up on the stream of circumstances. The love of genuine Christianity is a rooted love. Rooted, not in something that can change and decay, but in the immutable excellence of God. Oh, to have all the fibers of the inner man struck into the Divine character, and rooted in God! Then, and not till then, will the soul be as the tree "planted by the rivers of water," etc. A religion whose love is not rooted is without

1. life,

2. growth,

3. fruit,

4. permanence.

1. The comprehending of love. "That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to, know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." Christ"s love is

2. intellectually immeasurable; Who by searching can find it out?" And yet, though it passeth the knowledge of the intellect, there is a sense in which it can and must be known known as a matter of consciousness, known as an all-controlling power. The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge," etc.

3. The reaching of Divine perfection. That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God that ye might be filled up with the fullness of God. The idea is that you may be perfect even as God is perfect." This is the standard set before us; we are to be holy, even as God is holy. Infinitely high as this is, nothing lower will meet the cravings of our moral nature or the full unfoldment of our endlessly advancing being. Heaven has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of God. (Rom_8:29) Such was Paul"s intercessory prayer. Let us seek that Divine philanthropy which made him such a mediator between God and man. The priesthood of this philanthropy is what we want. Avaunt to all others! They are impious impostors, profane intruders. The priesthood of Christian philanthropy is the only Divine priesthood in the universe. D.T.

The universal fatherhood of God.

I THE NATURE OF THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD.

1. God is the Source of our being. He has not only created us as he has created the rocks. We are not manufactured, but begotten by God. He has breathed his life into us.

2. God has formed us in his own image. There is a similarity of nature in child and parent. All spirits belong to the same family and have a common likeness to God.

3. God is closely related to us. Throughout life the father is most nearly connected with his children by nature and consequent claims and duties. God is our Father now; he has not merely called us into being in the past. He always and necessarily bears the fatherly relation to us.

II THE EXTENT OF THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD. From God "every family in heaven and earth is named;" then God is the Father of every family. His fatherhood is universal.

1. It reaches to all spiritual beings. Of what orders, how many, and how various they are, are wholly beyond our speculation. But none are so remote, so peculiar, so lofty, or so low as not to come within God"s fatherly relationship.

2. It is individually concerned with each separate order of beings. "Every family." The families are distinguished and so are their homes. God regards his children with personal interest.

3. It is not destroyed by evil conduct. There are fallen beings, orders, and families that are degraded in sin. But these make no exception to the universal fatherhood. In spite of the shameful corruption of some of the families, God is still Father of all. David did not cease to be the father of the rebel Absalom. The prodigal son could arise and go unto his father. The worst sinner, when he comes to himself, may say, "My Father." This necessarily results from the very nature of fatherhood. The three facts of origination of life, community of nature, and close relationship can never be annihilated. For a father to ignore them is for him to become an unnatural parent.

III THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD.

1. In God.

(1) He will manifest a fatherly interest in every family. In choosing the Jew he cannot forget the Gentile. In blessing the Christian he cannot overlook the heathen. Christians, like the Jews, have foolishly thought to appropriate God to themselves. But less enlightened races have not been neglected by God. He has not left himself without witness in pagan lands. All religions, in so far as they contain any truth, are inspired and rest on Divine revelations. God visits all his children. The seeking after God in the dark of remote inquirers is a vague response to the voice of God heard by them in their consciences.

(2) God has rights over all men, and no one has a right to disown his Father. God will judge all and justly chastise the disobedient children who refused to admit his claims.

(3) God desires to bless all his children and will always welcome back the penitents.

2. In us.

(1) We should remember that, as spiritual beings, we are related. If men are akin to the inhabitants of other worlds, much more are they very closely related to one another. Hence our duties of brotherhood to foreign nations and to savage races.

(2) We should have boldness and confidence in our approach to God. St. Paul names the universal fatherhood of God in the preface of a prayer. W.F.A.

Vers. 14-19.

The great mystery of the love of Christ.

The special object of St. Paul"s prayer for the Ephesians is that their knowledge may be enlarged, and the one direction in which he desires for them the increase of knowledge is in regard to the love of Christ. That is the most wonderful and the most vital theme of Christian meditation; it can only be rightly contemplated under spiritual aid; but the true understanding of it will be fruitful in rich blessings.

I THE GREAT MYSTERY OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST. Everything in Christ is wonderful, but nothing more so than his love. The multitude were astonished at his miraculous powers. Keen antagonists were confounded before his superlative wisdom; but his friends and disciples were above all and growingly touched by the gentleness, the goodness, the sympathy, the self-sacrifice, and the love which filled his life. This "passeth knowledge" in many respects.

1. Character.

(1) Disinterestedness amounting to the extreme of self-denial. Christ never sought his own pleasure. He lived wholly for others. Measure his self-sacrifice by the depth of the descent from the glory of the only begotten Son to the agony and shame of the cross.

(2) Intensity. The toil, suffering, and fruitful energy of Christ"s love reveal this.

(3) Endurance. It is sustained by an infinite patience, like God"s long-suffering goodness, like "the mercy of the Lord" which "endureth forever." Christ stands long at the door and knocks.

2. Comprehensiveness.

(1) Extending to the whole world. The objects of our affection are necessarily limited in number. Who can understand a love that embraces Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, and every man, woman, and child in the world?

(2) Including the most uninviting subjects. We love those whom we admire or those to whom we are drawn by some attraction, sympathy, or relationship. Christ loves the base, despicable, and corrupt men, remote and obscure folk dim multitude" and those who seem even less lovable the great mass of dreary, uninteresting people.

3. Objects. These are the highest and purest. A low love indulges, pampers, and spoils in weakly trying to please its objects. Christ"s love often gives pain, demands sac, trice, perplexes and troubles us. It seeks the redemption, the purification, and the highest glory of men.

II THE WAY TO KNOW THE LOVE OF CHRIST. It "passeth knowledge." Nevertheless, though we cannot comprehend, we may apprehend it, as one who cannot see the mountain"s cloud-capped towers may explore its base, as one who can never define an illimitable ocean may grow familiar with its home waters and neighboring bays. Now, such knowledge as we may have of the supreme mystery of the love of Christ is not to be got by merely reading the New Testament history, nor by any amount of theological discussion. It is spiritual, sympathetic, inward, and attained through Divine grace. St. Paul prays for the means of acquiring it. They are three, in successive gradations one leading on to the other.

1. Spiritual strength. This is to have life, vigor, and energy in the inner nature. For so long as the spiritual faculties are dead, or slumbering, or only move languidly, they cannot rise to grasp great, Divine things. An inspiration of God"s Spirit, to be measured only "by the riches of his glory," will supply this strength.

2. The indwelling Christ. The first act of the awakened, energized spiritual nature is to receive Christ through faith. While he is only outside us we can neither know hint nor love him.

3. Our love to Christ. When we by faith receive Christ into our hearts we learn to love him. Then only can we understand his love. It is true that "we love him because he first loved us;" still, the vague, wondering sense of Christ"s love that wins our hearts to him is a poor perception compared with what we shall experience when we look at him with the enlightened eyes of love. Only love can understand love.

III THE SPIRITUAL BLESSEDNESS THAT FLOWS FROM KNOWING THE LOVE OF CHRIST. This is to "be filled unto all the fullness of God." Men have sought union with God by ascetic devotion, by mystic contemplation, by sacramental grace; for all spiritually awakened souls have felt a void which only God can fill. The secret which priest and pietist have searched after in vain is here revealed. By understanding the love of Christ we are brought into sympathetic connection with him in whom dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and through his mediation we receive the graces and glories of the Divine nature. W.F.A. (Joh_17:21)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The apostle’s petition for the Church, which includes an exhortation:

v. 14. for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

v. 15. of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

v. 16. that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man;

v. 17. that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

v. 18. may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

v. 19. and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

The apostle now resumes the thread of his discourse, which he interrupted after v. 1 to speak of the ministry of his apostleship: For this reason I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, after whom every family in heaven and earth is named. Because the Ephesian Christians have, by the labor of Paul, been added to the Church of Christ, because he is their teacher, their apostle, therefore he feels it his duty to bend his knees in prayer for these souls entrusted to his care. Luther expresses Paul’s thoughts as follows: "I must lie here a prisoner and cannot be with yon nor help you in any other way, only that I can bend my knees, that is, with all humility and seriousness pray to God that He might give you, and work in you, what neither I nor any other person can do, even if I had my liberty and were with you always. " The God to whom Paul addresses his urgent intercession is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore the true Father of every believer. Particularly, however, is He the Father after whom every generation, or family, of God’s children, all people who through Christ Jesus have been reborn to a new spiritual life, is named. All the assemblies of the children of God, whether here on earth or in heaven, in the midst of the holy angels, bear their name from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; they all stand in the same, in the equal relation of children to Him; they all form one great family, every member of which may ask and expect only the highest and richest of blessings from the Parent above.

In this sense Paul introduces the subject of his prayer: That He would grant you according to the wealth of His glory to be strengthened in might through His Spirit into the inner man. God has a wealth, a great amount, of excellence, majesty, and perfection; from His fullness we can always receive, and grace for grace, Joh 1:16. Paul boldly asks the measure of the gift of God’s perfection which will bring into full play this inexhaustible wealth. For only thus can the Christians grow mightily in strength, in spiritual power, only thus, namely, through the working of His Spirit, can the new inner man, the regenerated self of the Christians, make progress in faith and in holiness. God’s strengthening grace must be poured into the inner man day after day, the gift of His power must be directed toward this object without ceasing, otherwise the new spiritual life will soon become extinguished.

This idea is developed still further: That Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts. Not only the gifts and virtues of Christ, but the exalted Christ personally lives in the hearts of His believers, Gal 2:20. There is the most intimate, the most happy communion between Christ and the Christians, begun in conversion, but in need of daily growth and strengthening, for it is through faith that Christ dwells in the heart, and the loss of faith in the forgiveness of sins means the loss of Christ Himself. If Christ does not live in us, grow in us, day after day, His power will soon diminish and His picture fade away. But with Christ in the heart, there is steady progress: That you, firmly rooted and grounded in love, be fully able to comprehend with all the saints what the breadth and the length and the depth and the height is. Love is the proof and test of faith. If Christ lives in the heart by faith, then love toward God and love toward one’s neighbor will follow as a matter of course. And with the growth of faith in the form of firm confidence, love will also take a firmer hold on the Christian; it will be set as solidly as a root takes hold of the ground from which it derives strength and life. Thus the condition is obtained which enables the believer fully to understand, to get a mental grasp of, what is the breadth and length and height and depth. ALL the saints should have this understanding, all the believers should grow in Christian knowledge. And in the connection in which the apostle here writes, he undoubtedly has in mind the Church with its immense dimensions. This building extends over the entire world from North to South, from East to West, through all periods of time until the last day; it includes the believers that are now sleeping in their graves, and reaches to the heavens, where its exalted Ruler sits at the right hand of God. The Church embraces the fullness of the elect, not only of Israel, but also of the Gentile world—a poor, small crew in the sight of men, but a mighty assembly before the omniscient eye of God.

And finally, Paul prays for the Christians that they might be strengthened: To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. It is an incomprehensible, indescribable, immeasurable love by which Christ has founded the Church, by which He builds and extends it, a love which overcomes the hardest hearts, which influences even the greatest criminals, and always with the aim of building up the Church. This love is beyond the capacity of the human mind and intelligence, but the enlightened Christian will be able to get at least some idea of its extent and power, of its miraculous power in gaining lost sinners for Christ and the Church. And with the growth in this knowledge the hope and prayer of the apostle will finally be fulfilled, namely, that the Christians will be filled unto all the fullness of God, that this goal may be reached in them. It is a fullness of grace possessed and bestowed by God, the full measure of His gracious gifts to which the apostle has reference. Upon this measureless source the believers draw, increasing daily in virtues and blessings, as vessels of God’s mercy; themselves the possessors of boundless love and expending freely therefrom to the praise and honor of God. Though this ideal fail of full realization in this life, it is worth striving for with untiring energy.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Our apostle having exhorted the Ephesians in the foregoing verse, not to faint at his tribulation for the gospel, here he puts up a most affectionate prayer to God for them on the same account: For this cause, and in order to this end, I bow my knees, & c. Now in this affectionate and most excellent prayer of the apostle, we have several particulars worthy of our notice and remark.

As, 1. The humble gesture which the apostle used in his prayers, I bow my knees; thereby expressing the reverent frame of his heart in prayer.

Learn hence, That the gestures which we use in prayer should be such as may best express our reverence of God, and denote our profound humility before him.

Observe, 2. The person prayed to, God, under the appellation of a Father, and, in particular, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be God, that believers and Christ have one and the same father; he by nature, we by grace; he by eternal generation, we by gracious adoption.

By virtue of this relation we may expect to be heard in prayer as Christ was, and to be helped in our distresses, as Christ was, and in God’s good time to be possessed of the inheritance of children, as Christ is.

Observe, 3. The title given to the church: it is styled God’s family, his household: all the saints on earth, whether Jews or Gentiles, and all the glorified angels and saints in heaven, do make but one family. There is but one catholic or universal church, comprehending all its members both in heaven and earth: and all within the church are of one kindred and line, descended of one common Father; and his Family is named, that is, united under Christ, he being the head of all.

Observe, 4. The mercy prayed for, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man Eph 3:16.

Where note, 1. The mercy itself: spiritual strength, strength in the inner man, to enable them them to bear afflictions, to endure persecutions, to resist temptations, to grapple with all their spiritual enemies in the progress of their Christian course.

Note, 2. The fountain from whence all spiritual strength flows; and that is, from the Holy Spirit; Strengthened with might by his spirit. It is the Holy spirit of God that constantly renews the believers strength, by upholding and actuating their graces, which otherwise would fade and wither, would languish and die.

So many and so mighty are our spiritual enemies, that we have to wrestle with and strive against, that except we be under propt and strengthened by the almighty power of the Holy Spirit in the inner man, we cannot keep our ground, and much less get ground of our enemy, but shall become an easy prey to every temptation.

Note, 3. The moving, impelling, or impulsive cause, from whence the foregoing mercy is expected to proceed and flow, namely, from the rich and glorious mercy of God: God grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened.

In all our approaches to God for any blessings, especially for spiritual blessings, it is our duty to direct the eye of our faith to that inexhaustible fountain of rich mercy and almighty power, in God, whereby he is both able and willing to bestow upon us whatever is agreeable to his holy will: God grant you according to the richness of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14, 15. For this cause I. See verse 1. He now resumes the thought of that verse. Bow my knees. In the attitude of prayer. Unto the Father. The Fountain of all mercies. The words, “Of our Lord Jesus Christ,” are not found in the best manuscripts and are omitted in the Revision.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

For this reason

You may need to make explicit what the reason is. AT: "Because God has done all this for you" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

I bend my knees to the Father

Bowed knees are a picture of the whole person in an attitude of prayer. AT: "I bow down in prayer to the Father" or "I humbly pray to the Father" (See: Synecdoche)

from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named

The act of naming here probably also represents the act of creating. AT: "who created and named every family in heaven and on earth" (See: Active or Passive)

he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power

"God, because he is so great and powerful, would allow you to become strong with his power"

would grant

"would give"

translationWords

God the Father

heaven

glory

power

Holy Spirit

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

14. Τούτου χάριν. Resuming Eph 3:1. Such being the prospect open before you.

κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου. The attitude of adoration (Rom 11:4; Rom 14:11; Php 2:10; cf. Isa 45:23), but also of prayer (Luk 22:41; Act 7:60; Act 9:40; Act 20:36; Act 21:5).

πρὸς τὸν πατέρα. Cf. on Eph 2:18. Note the absolute use (see 5:l). The Fatherhood of God is the ground of Prayer (Mat 6:8; Mat 7:11; Rom 8:15, &c.).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14-19.] His prayer for them, setting forth the aim and end of the ministerial office as respected the Church, viz. its becoming strong in the power of the Spirit.

14.] On this account (resumes the τούτου χάριν of ver. 1 (see note there):—viz. ‘because ye are so built in, have such a standing in God’s Church’) I bend my knees (scil. in prayer: see reff.; and cf. 3 Kings 19:18) towards (directing my prayer to Him: see Winer, § 49, h) the Father (on the words here interpolated, see var. readd.), from whom (as the source of the name: so Hom. II. κ. 68, πατρόθεν ἐκ γενεῆς ὀνομάζων ἄνδρα ἕκαστον:—Soph., Œd. Tyr. 1036, ὥστʼ ὠνομάσθης ἐκ τύχης ταύτης, ὃς εἶ:—Xen. Mem. iv. 5. 8, ἔφη δὲ καὶ τὸ διαλέγεσθαι ὀνομασθῆναι ἐκ τοῦ συνιόντας κοινῇ βουλεύεσθαι διαλέγοντας:—Cic. de Amicitia, 8, ‘amor, ex quo amicitia nominata’) every family (not ‘the whole family’ (πᾶσα ἡ πα. ἡ, or, less strictly, πᾶσα πατρ ἡ), as E. V. The sense, see below) in the heavens and on earth is named (it is difficult to convey in another language any trace of the deep connexion of πατήρ and πατριά here expressed. Had the sentence been ‘the Creator, after whom every creature in heaven and earth is named,’ all would be plain to the English reader. But we must not thus render; for it is not in virtue of God’s creative power that the Apostle here prays to Him, but in virtue of His adoptive love in Christ. It is best therefore to keep the simple sense of the words, and leave it to exegesis to convey the idea, πατριά is the family, or in a wider sense the gens, named so from its all having one πατήρ. Some (Est., Grot., Wetst., al.) have supposed St. Paul to allude to the rabbinical expression, ‘the family of earth and the family of heaven:’ but as Harl. observes, in this case he would have said π. ἡ πατρ., ἡ ἐν οὐρ. κ. ἡ ἐπὶ γ. Others (Vulg., Jer., Thdrt.,—ὂς ἀληθῶς ὑπάρχει πατήρ, ὃς οὐ παρʼ ἄλλου τοῦτο λαβὼν ἔχει, ἀλλʼ αὐτὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις μεταδέδωκε τοῦτο,—Corn.-a-lap.) have attempted to give πατριά the sense of paternitas, which it can certainly never have. But it is not so easy to say, to what the reference is, or why the idea is here introduced. The former of these will be found very fully discussed in Stier, pp. 487-99: and the latter more shortly treated. The Apostle seems, regarding God as the Father of us His adopted children in Christ, to go forth into the fact, that He, in this His relation to us, is in reality the great original and prototype of the paternal relation, wherever found. And this he does, by observing that every πατριά, compaternity, body of persons, having a common father, is thus named (in Greek), from that father,—and so every earthly (and heavenly) family reflects in its name (and constitution) the being and sourceship of the great Father Himself. But then, what are πατριαί in heaven? Some have treated the idea of paternity there as absurd: but is it not necessarily involved in any explanation of this passage? He Himself is the Father of spirits, Heb 12:9, the Father of lights, Jas 1:17:—may there not be fathers in the heavenly Israel, as in the earthly? May not the holy Angels be bound up in spiritual πατριαί, though they marry not nor are given in marriage? Observe, we must not miss the sense of ὀνομάζεται, nor render, nor understand it, as meaning ‘is constituted.’ This is the fact, but not brought out here),

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. τούτου χάριν κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου. Resumes ver. 1, “On this account,” referring to the train of thought in the latter part of ch. 2. Although the construction was broken off in ver. 2, the thought has continued to turn on the same ideas. “I bend my knees,” this expresses the earnestness of the prayer, τὴν κατανενυγμένην δέησιν ἐδήλωσεν, Chrys. “A signo rein denotat,” Calvin. Some, as Calv., have with strange literality supposed that the apostle actually knelt while writing; (against πρός, see below). The usual posture in praying was standing: “when ye stand praying,” Mar 11:25; “stood and prayed,” Luk 18:11; “the publican standing afar off,” ib. 13. But kneeling is mentioned, 1Ki 8:54 (Solomon); Dan 6:10; and, in the N.T., Luk 22:41; Act 7:60, Act 20:36, Act 21:5. Eusebius mentions it as the custom proper to the Christians: τὸ οἰκεῖον τοῖς χριστιανοῖς τῶν εὐχῶν ἔθος (H.E. v. 5). Justin Martyr and Basil represent kneeling as a symbol of our fall by sin. See on Luk 22:41.

πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα. κάμπτειν γόνυ in the literal sense takes the dative (Rom 11:4, Rom 11:14:11; both places, however, being quotations). Here as the words were equivalent to προσεύχομαι, πρός is used as indicating the direction of the prayer.

After Πατέρα the Rec. Text has τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, with אe D G K L, Syr., Vulg., Chrys., al.

The words are wanting in א* A B C P 17 67**, Boh., Aeth., Jerome (expressly), and many others. The insertion of the words is easily accounted for; there would be no reason for their omission. Although Jerome expressly states, “quod sequitur … non ut in Latinis Codicibus additum est, ad patrem domini nostri Jesu Christi, sed simpliciter ad patrem legendum ut dei patris nomen non domino nostro Jesu Christo sed omnibus creaturis rationabilibus coaptetur” (vii. 599), yet a little before he had himself written, “ad patrem domini nostri Jesu Christi.” Whether the reading there is due to him or to a copyist, it serves as an illustration of the fact that the evidence of readings furnished by quotations in the Fathers as distinguished from express statements must be used with caution.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For this cause. Resuming the interrupted clause in ver. 1, and having still in mind the closing thought of ch. 2. Seeing ye are so built together in Christ, for this cause, etc.

Father. Omit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.