The Ignition
This morning we’re concluding the first section of Ephesians. We’ll be taking four weeks off from Ephesians in order to spend some time in the oasis of the Psalms. At the beginning of July, we’ll pick back up in Ephesians chapter four.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians can be broken up into two sections. Chapters 1-3 describe the resources of the believer, detailing all that God has done for them and all that they have in Christ. Chapters 4-6 describe how believers should live, how the resources we have in Christ shape our lives. The last passage of chapter three is stuck right in the middle, functioning as a bridge, between the two sections.
If chapters 1-3 is the engine of the Christian and chapters 4-6 is the race that the Christian is supposed to run, then 3:14-21 is the ignition. Before the race can begin we have to turn the engine on. To be who we’re called to be, God must ignite the truth of who we are in Christ in our hearts.
Prayer Is What Builds the House
Paul knows this. He knows that believers will struggle to apply the resources that they have in Christ to their lives unless a divine spark is ignited in them. He knows that Christians will chug along in the race of life with one piston firing unless God ignites their hearts to live full throttle for him. Knowing this leads him to pray.
The principle here is simple: some things won’t happen until other things happen. For example, the Dallas Cowboys won’t be any good until Jerry Jones isn’t the owner any more. Weight won’t be lost until we change eating and exercising habits. Debt won’t be paid off until we begin to live simply and on a budget. Marriages won’t flourish until men lead as servants and women follow with respect. Children won’t grow to know God until they’re taught about God. Lost people won’t be saved until they hear the gospel. Unreached people groups won’t be reached until workers go to reach them.
Paul knows that the church in Ephesus won’t be able to apply the truth of Christ to their everyday lives unless God gives them the ability to do so. He knows that the church won’t mature and grow and become healthy unless God moves in their hearts, so he prays. I love how E. M. Bounds, in his classic book on prayer, describes this. He says, “Paul did not take it for granted after he had done his best that God as a matter of course would bless his efforts to do good, but he sought God. God does not do things in a matter-of-course sort of way. God must be invoked, sought upon, and put into things by prayer.”
Bounds is saying that God doesn’t move and work just because we do this or that. His power and blessing and help come when we seek him through prayer. We often assume that our efforts and our work will create the results we want. But God doesn’t operate that way. Paul knows that, even though he’d done his best to teach the Ephesian church well, he was totally dependent on God to move in their hearts and make them into the people that he wanted them to be. He knew that God must be “put into things by prayer.” As Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” The Lord must build in and through our building if we want to avoid meaningless building.
To this end Paul, prays for four specific things in 3:14-21. He prays for their inner strengthening through God’s Spirit, for them to comprehend the greatness of Christ’s love, for them to experience the fullness of God, and for God’s glory to be revealed through them.
Paul’s Posture in Prayer
Before we look at the content of the prayer, notice Paul’s posture in prayer (vv. 14-15). “For this reason” picks up where he left off in verse 1. He prays in light of the ethnic unity that God has created in the church (2:11-22). Because Gentiles are now part of God’s people, Paul prays that they would enjoy all of their new spiritual privileges.
Paul’s posture in this prayer is one of humility. He “bows his knees to the Father.” Paul bowed because he knew who he was talking to. He had an urgent request for the King, and he knew he’d only be heard if he entered his throne room in the right posture. Bounds says, “Kneeling in prayer was Paul’s favorite attitude, the fitting posture of an earnest, humble (petitioner)…It is the proper attitude of people before God, of a sinner before a Savior, and of a beggar before a benefactor.”
Paul addresses God as “Father.” In the ancient near east, the father was the ruler over the family. All questions and decisions went through him. Children were expected to obey him without question. When Jews talked of God as Father, they were referring to his rule and authority over the world. Paul knew that God was the sovereign ruler of the world. So he came into his presence with humility. He came with humility to the only One who had the power to do the things that needed to be done in the church.
The only reason he, or we, can approach God as “Father” is because Christ makes an intimate relationship with God possible through the Holy Spirit (2:18). We can only talk to God as Father if Christ is our Advocate. About this, John Calvin says, “Jesus Christ is our guide and advocate who makes intercession for us, so that we speak only, as it were, by his mouth…(through) Jesus Christ…we have this spiritual kinship, by which God acknowledges us as his adopted children. And when we once have that, we must no longer doubt whether God will receive our prayers or not.”
Paul’s posture of humility is also seen in how he describes God in verse 15. Every person and every angelic being is “named” by God. This isn’t referring to literal naming, but to God’s role as Creator (cf. 3:9). Because God is the Creator of every living thing he has naming rights over them. In other words, because he created all things, he exercises authority over all things.
Paul says this in order to stress God’s power and authority in heaven and on earth to a church that was fearing hostile powers, whether human or demonic, and to remind them that God is strong enough to answer the bold prayer he’s about to pray. Paul’s posture is one of humility and confidence.
Inner Strengthening
Verses 16-19 contain the main requests of the prayer, with verses 20-21 being a closing doxology or word of praise to God. The first request is for inner strengthening through the Spirit (vv. 16-17a). He asks God to strengthen them by his Spirit in their “inner person.” The Bible teaches that people are body and spirit, or embodied souls. God created us as physical and spiritual beings. There’s something intangible to us, something we can’t put under a microscope.
This is what Paul calls the “inner person.” Paul was concerned with the “outer person.” He healed people everywhere he went. He led the churches to take up an offering to help the church in Jerusalem during a famine. But he was always more concerned with the spiritual. He learned this from Jesus, who said, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matt. 16:26) What we are spiritually is more important than what we have physically. Jesus also said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28). Our soul is more valuable than our body. The “inner person” is more important that the “outer person.”
Paul is concerned for the “inner person” because he knows that this is where all true change takes place. Modern psychology has been unable to cure emotional and mental problems because they misdiagnose the problem. They say that the root problem is emotional, psychological, or biological. These things need to be addressed. But the great problem we all have is in our “inner person.” Our emotions and minds can be functioning right and we still be self-centered and self-absorbed. Why? Because our inner person is eat up with the cancer of sin. Until the Great Physician removes the cancer of our sin and gives us new hearts through the gospel, we’ll never be truly healthy. The “inner person” is where healing and change starts.
How does God do this inner strengthening? “Through his Spirit.” Only God’s Spirit can strengthen our spirits. God made us and so only he has the power to do the surgery that needs to be done on our spirits. How does he do this? He does it as we feed on his word. God wrote the Bible by his Spirit through men so that his Spirit could change men and women through the Bible. We must eat spiritual food if we want to be strong spiritually.
Why does God do this work in us through his Spirit? Because of his generosity, “according to the riches of his glory.” Paul isn’t praying for God to give riches to believers. He’s praying that we’d be strengthened according to God’s riches. God has shared his riches of grace with us (1:7), but most Christians have no idea how rich they are. Look back in chapter one to see what God has given the believer. Verse 3, “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Verse 4, “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” Verse 7, “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” Verse 9, “making known to us the mystery of his will.” Verse 11, “In him we have obtained an inheritance.” Verse 13, we were “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” He prays in verse 18 that God would open our spiritual eyes to see “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.”
We tend to appreciate material riches more than spiritual riches because they’re more immediate and obvious and attractive. Spiritual riches are out of sight and out of mind to the natural man and to the immature Christian. But Paul says that God has lavished spiritual riches on us from his storehouse of glory.
There’s difference between a wealthy person giving according to rather than out of his riches. For a millionaire to give a couple hundred bucks is to simply give out of his wealth. For them to give $50,000 would be to give according to their wealth. The greater a person’s wealth is, the greater their gift must be in order to qualify as giving according to their wealth. For God to give “according to the riches of his glory” is staggering because the riches of his glory are infinite. Paul prays that God would give spiritual strength to believers through his Spirit according to his infinite wealth. That means that the size of the gift is going to be great.
“That Christ May Dwell in Your Hearts”
The first part of verse 17 says that this inner strengthening is comparable to Jesus living in our hearts. He’s not praying for Christ to save them, but that they’d live with a deeper and fuller trust in Christ. The word “dwell” means “to inhabit a house.” In context, its connotation isn’t simply being inside a house, but of being at home, settled down as a family member. Paul is saying that Christ may live in us, but he won’t be at home in our hearts until our inner person is strengthened by his Spirit. Until the Spirit controls our lives, Jesus won’t be comfortable in the house of our lives.
One author describes the Christian life as a house that Jesus goes through room by room. He says, “In the library, which is the mind, Jesus finds trash and all sorts of worthless things, which he proceeds to throw out and replace with his word. In the dining room of appetite he finds many sinful desires listed on a worldly menu. In the place of such things as prestige, materialism, and lust he puts humility, meekness, love, and all the other virtues for which believers are to hunger and thirst. He goes through the living room of fellowship, where he finds many worldly companions and activities, through the workshop, where only toys are being made, into the closet, where hidden sins are kept, and so on through the entire house. Only when he had cleaned every room, closet, and corner of sin and foolishness could he settle down and be at home.”
Christ enters the house of our lives the moment he saves us, but he won’t be comfortable until the rooms of our house are cleansed of sin. He is gracious and patient and continues to love his children even when they insist on not cleaning up the house. But he won’t be fully at home until we allow him to live in our hearts through a continual trust in his lordship over every aspect of our lives. God wants to live with us, but our intimacy with him depends on our obedience to him. Jesus said in John 14:23, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
“Rooted and Grounded in Love”
The second thing that Paul prays for is that they would understand the greatness of Jesus’ love (vv. 17b-19a). The result of Christ dwelling in the house of our hearts is love, “being rooted and grounded in love.” Peter refers to this in 1 Peter 1:22, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” Because Christ dwells with us, because he’s “purified our souls,” we’re able to love him and one another. Love is the supreme desire for his children, love for him and love for one another. Paul’s prayer teaches us that this love is produced by God’s work in our spirit by his Spirit.
When the Spirit is leading us and Christ is Lord in our hearts, we’ll find ourselves wanting to serve others, wanting to bless others, wanting to sacrifice for others, wanting to love others. A Christian who is habitually unloving is habitually walking in their power rather than the Spirit’s and habitually denying Jesus’ lordship. When Jesus has his rightful place in our hearts, we don’t have to be told to love – just as we don’t have to be told to breathe. As pastor John MacArthur says, “Loving is as natural to the spiritual person as breathing is to the natural person.” A Christian has to choose not to love, just as someone chooses to hold their breath. It’s an act of our will. God has changed our hearts and given us his Spirit, so if we aren’t loving our spouse or neighbor or enemies or brothers and sisters in Christ, it’s because we’re actively choosing to not do what Christ has called us to do. We sometimes think that we don’t love because of personality differences or differences of opinion on some issue. But the absence of love has nothing to do with what’s happening to us and everything to do with what’s happening in us. This is why Paul prays for the “inner person.”
Love here isn’t warm feelings and sentimentality. The love here is agape love, self-giving love. We must love others how God has loved us, by giving up ourselves for the good of others. Jesus doesn’t say, “Greater love has no one than this, that he has warm feelings for his friends.” He says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13). We demonstrate love by giving ourselves for the good of others. This could mean mowing a church members yard, visiting a widow, writing a card, having someone over for dinner, picking up people for church who need rides, helping those struggling financially, or taking the time to get to know someone who you don’t know very well. Love is essentially self-giving, not warm feelings. You aren’t “rooted in love” if you aren’t habitually giving yourself for the good of others.
The Greatness of Christ’s Love
The flow of Paul’s prayer in verses 17-19 is a bit confusing. But notice the progression. He says at the end of verse 17 that, because they’re “rooted and grounded in love,” they can, with God’s help, comprehend the greatness of Jesus’ love (vv. 18-19b). When we’re rooted in love, we’ll have the power to comprehend love. Someone once asked the famous Jazz musician Louis Armstrong to explain jazz. Armstrong said, “Man, if I’ve got to explain it, you ain’t got it.” His point was that jazz couldn’t be understood until it was experienced. In the same way, God’s love can’t be understood until it’s experienced.
But this isn’t referring to warm feelings. Our experience of God’s love is the result of God’s Spirit and God’s Son working in our “inner person” to produce love within us, love for God and love for others. The love that God gives us is incomprehensible, but God’s Spirit gives us strength to comprehend its dimensions, its “breadth and length and height and depth.” The love of God goes in every direction. It goes wherever it’s needed for as long as it’s needed. It can reach any person, anywhere, at any time, living in any sin. It stretches from eternity past to eternity future.
It surpasses human knowledge because it’s not from a human source. Because of the immensity and infinity of God’s love, the only way we can know it is if God teaches it to us, or if God gives it to us. This is exactly what he does for the believer. Paul says it this way in Romans 5:5, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Through the Holy Spirit, when we believe the gospel, God tips the pitcher of his love over and fills the cup of our hearts with his sweet and satisfying love. Have you tasted it?
Jesus’ love isn’t like the world’s love. The world’s love is based on attraction and so only lasts as long as the attraction. Jesus’ love is based on his own nature and therefore lasts forever. Worldly love lasts until it’s offended. Jesus’ love lasts despite every offense. Worldly love loves for what it can get. Jesus’ love loves for what it can give. The world can’t comprehend the love of Christ until the Spirit of Christ opens their hearts to see it and taste it.
“Filled With All the Fullness of God”
The third thing Paul prays for is that the church would experience the fullness of God (v. 19b). The word for “filled” and “fullness” refers to a total dominance. We use the word like this as well. We say, “That driver was filled with rage,” meaning that they were dominated by rage. A person filled with happiness is totally dominated by happiness. To be “filled with all the fullness of God” means to be totally dominated by God.
God strengthens our inner person by the Holy Spirit, leading us to love and obey Christ, which leads us to experience God’s fullness in our lives. This is an amazing and indescribable reality. An illustration might help bring it home to our hearts. There was a certain man who begged on the streets for a living. One day he touched a man on the shoulder and said, “Hey, mister, can you give me a dime?” As soon as he saw his face, he was shocked to see that it was his own father. He said, “Father, father, do you know me?” The father threw his arms around him and with tears in his eyes said, “Oh my son, at last I’ve found you! I’ve found you. You want a dime? Everything I have is yours.” The man was a beggar, begging his own father for ten cents, when for years his father had been looking to give him all that he had.
This is a picture of what God wants to do for his children. He brings us to himself in order to make us like himself by filling us with himself, with all that he is and all that he has. Paul prays that the Spirit would strengthen them to understand the love of Christ so that they would be “filled” with more and more of God. His power, perfection, wisdom, and holiness. He prays this way because he knows that only God can help them do all the things he’s about to command them to do in chapters 4-6. Only when we’re filled up with God can we truly obey God.
“Glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus”
The fourth and final thing that Paul prays is for God’s glory to be revealed through them (vv. 20-21). There’s a progression in Paul’s prayer in verses 16-21. Paul ends with this confession of God’s ability to do amazing things after verses 16-19. The conditions of verses 16-19 must be met before God’s amazing work in and through us can be done. We often quote verses 20-21 as if they stand alone. We want God to do amazing things in our lives, but we don’t do verses 16-19. We fail to follow the pattern of Paul’s prayer. When we look to God’s Spirit for inner strength, when our hearts and lives are full of the love of Christ, and when God is dominating our lives, then and only then will we see God do amazing things.
God doesn’t work in a vacuum. He doesn’t answer prayers that aren’t prayed. He doesn’t make us strong and healthy Christians unless we eat the food of his word. He doesn’t remove sinful habits from our lives until we’re honest about them and confess them to him and to other believers. God wants to do amazing things in our lives, but few of us experience this because we fail to seek him.
Paul says in verse 21, “Now to him (who can do amazing things) be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.” God will do amazing things ultimately for himself, not for us. God has given us himself in Christ in order to make us more like himself so that he can show off himself to a world who desperately needs him.
May God help us to pray this way for ourselves and for our church, that we would “put God into things” by prayer. May God ignite the resources of his truth in our hearts so that we might live lives of obedience to him. May he strengthen our inner person by his Spirit, help us to understand the greatness of Jesus’ love, and help us walk in his fullness so that he gets glory in our church and in his Son Jesus “throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”