Ephesians 3:14-21

Every once in a while we run into a task that is just beyond us, don’t we? On normal occasions most of us probably feel some level of confidence in our ability to accomplish at least the basics of what is required of us at work, at home, in the family. But there are occasions on which even the most basic of tasks, ones with which we feel pretty familiar, still overwhelm us. And we realize how much help we really need, just day to day—that independence is really a myth. 

I am reminded of an insurance claim I once heard about in which a man had been injured rather seriously on the job. He was asked on the claim form to give a cause for the injury and he entered the words, trying to do the job alone. Well, any of you in the insurance industry know that isn’t nearly enough information, so the company requested more detail. And this letter was the man’s response: 

Dear Northern Indemnity Heath Insurance Company:

I am writing in response your request for more information regarding my serious and multiple work related injuries as reported on Claim Form NI-C-1031L. Your inquiry related to my answer recorded in box 12: “Cause of Injury” where I wrote: “Trying to do the job alone.” Let me explain further.

I refer you to box 10 where I report my profession as a brick layer. On Saturday, July 12, we were almost finished with the façade brick work on a four story building at 1214 W. McLain. I am a foreman and I let my crew go home on time and I planned to finish the job alone. After completing the final row of bricks, I began to clean up. There were quite a few unused bricks left over, but we had installed a pulley attachment so I decided to go down the ladder, raise up a barrel to the fourth floor level, and lower them down. Knowing that bricks are quite heavy, I secured the rope firmly to the bottom of the scaffolding. Then I proceeded up the ladder to the fourth floor. I filled the barrel with bricks, climbed back down, and untied the rope. In have since learned that a barrel of bricks weighs approximately 285 pounds. Here I refer you to box 6 on my claim form in which I indicate my weight as 163 pounds. The barrel of bricks began to descend very rapidly. I regret to report that here I lost all presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope. Somewhere in the vicinity of the second floor I met the barrel on its way down. That accounts for the cuts and abrasions on my head and upper body. I continued to ascend all the way to the fourth floor where my hand jammed into the pulley. This accounts for my broken thumb and severely sprained wrist. At exactly the same moment, however, the barrel struck the ground with such force that the bottom broke out. Free of the weight of the bricks, the empty barrel with no bottom weighed only about 22 pounds. Again I refer you to my weight recorded in box 6. I immediately began a quite speedy descent. Once more, in the vicinity of the second floor, I met the barrel on its way up. This accounts for my dislocated ankle and the multiple bruises on my lower body. Unfortunately I landed firmly atop the pile of bricks; that accounts for my back and neck injuries, but what was worse was that the intense pain caused me once again to lose my presence of mind and let go of the rope. The barrel was thus unsecured and plummeted back to ground level causing my chest and internal injuries.

Hopefully this detailed account satisfies your need for more information. And, by the way, I can assure you that I will never again try to do the job alone.

Sincerely,

Forrest L. Turpen
Mason, Retired

Sometimes what seems like the most basic of tasks can turn into a real fiasco when we try to do the job alone—tasks with which we believe ourselves to be pretty familiar; roles which we’ve become accustomed to and feel ready to fill. We can see such dynamics not only in our professional involvements, but also in our marriages and families. On any given day we can all of a sudden feel very unsure whether we truly understand what it really means to be a husband, for instance, or a father, insecure about our grasp of core aspects of being a wife or a mother. We can also find ourselves feeling that way about being a Christian. Do we really know what it means to walk with God? Have we grasped the essence of the faith and do we live it out consistently, and with integrity? 

Having such questions arise in our minds can be very unsettling. It can strike fear into our hearts and we can begin asking ourselves some questions that have potentially troubling answers: Do I really get it? Am I truly a Christian? Or have I just been playing a game with myself? Do I have a genuine relationship with God, or have I just learned how to use Christian vocabulary and how to get along well with others at church? These can be disturbing questions, but unfortunately they are not uncommon ones to be asked in the depths of one’s heart, in quiet moments of self reflection. Christians can doubt. Their experience with God can grow cold. Their amazement at the riches of God’s grace lavished upon them in Christ can erode into a lusterless and common lifestyle which they can perceive to be virtually indistinguishable from the lifestyles of some of the more well-adjusted non-Christians they know.

The miracle of the mystery of salvation, that peoples from all background can be reconciled to God and to one another with an intimacy that is beyond nationality, beyond friendship, beyond family. This miracle can be lost on Christians at times. And that loss can throw the whole of one’s life into a spiritual disorientation that quickly spreads into all other areas of life if it is left unchecked. Ever been there? So, what causes such times to come upon us? And what do we do about it when they do?

Well, first, I believe what causes such times to come upon us is the spiritual counterpart to the experience of the brick mason we just laughed at—trying to go it alone in our walk with the Lord. We can become very familiar with the patterns of the Christian life over time, and an unexamined confidence can begin to develop in our hearts that we know pretty much what it takes. We begin to think we can handle our responsibilities pretty capably and even though there’s rarely a time when we would actually say, “Oh, I don’t need to pray about that,” even though there’s rarely a time when we would actually say, “I don’t really have to spend any time in the word today,” we can begin living in such a way that we may as well have said it. We just, gradually, with one very simple compromise followed by another, move away from a lifestyle of healthy spiritual disciplines and systematic dependence on the Spirit of God to move us through the day. I believe that’s what causes such times to come.

So, what can we do about it? Paul gives us an excellent example right here in Eph.3:14-21. He prays for these Ephesian believers essentially that their relationship with God would be real and active. He has shared some virtually unbelievable truths with them about all their salvation entails, and now he feels the need to pray for them—again, for the second time in these first three chapters—that they would get it! Many see this second prayer as a continuation of the first, which was recorded in the latter half of ch.1—there are several similar themes—and the title we used for that prayer was, “Get It?” Do you get it? That seems to be Paul’s implied question as he prayed for them there in ch.1, and now again here in ch.3. And the content of the prayer is his seeking God for those blessings that would enable them to get it.

Paul begins in vs.14 right where he left off in vs.1, before taking that extra moment to describe further the mystery of Christ. “For this reason,” he wrote, “I bow my knees before the Father, (15) from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,” There is a Greek wordplay here between the word for father and the word for family.  It might even be best to translate the word fatherhood rather than family. The idea is the same, but it better captures the Greek wordplay. It emphasizes at once our intimacy with God, but also the fact that our heavenly father is the archetypal father—the one from whom all others derive their name. It also reemphasizes the togetherness revealed in the mystery—the Father to whom we all have access through the Son, in the Spirit (cf. 2:18). And from there, Paul proceeds to offer two requests for the Ephesians in prayer—requests that can ensure that their relationship with God is vibrant, real, and active.

First Request: An Enabling Faith – 16-17a 

Let’s begin by looking at the words Paul chose. His first request begins with a reference to God’s power; one of those themes that recalls his earlier prayer in ch.1. The passive infinitive translated to be strengthened (16), although it certainly means strengthened, also carries the connotation of resistance or endurance. Interestingly, it is the tailored solution for the condition of discouragement mentioned back in vs.13. It’s the antidote. And the word translated power (16) is the one that encompasses all that God is capable of doing. But then, Paul has already established that context in praying that we might be strengthened according to the riches of his glory (16), meaning that “his giving corresponds to the inexhaustible riches” of his glory (O’Brien, 257). Thus, the combination of these two verb forms suggests that Paul is asking God to do everything within his power to enable us to be suitably strengthened both in our resistance against evil and in our endurance in the truth. It is through the Holy Spirit that this power is being poured into us. And it is into our inner being that it is being poured—our inner being is essentially the place of our moral awareness—the place where Paul says he delights in the law of God (Rom.8:22); the place that is being renewed daily (2Co.4:16) even while the outer man is wasting away. In more familiar language, it is our heart (17).

That’s what vs.17 tells us: we’re strengthened with power in our inner being so that Christ may dwell in (our) hearts through faith. And these two statements are parallel; that is to say, they are describing one and the same thing: being strengthened with power through the Spirit in our inner being IS Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith. And this is not saving faith—the Ephesians already had that. This is daily faith—being filled with the Spirit, strength to have confidence in God regardless of the challenge of the present moment, strength to believe and live the truth. And finally this verb dwell insinuates that Christ should be completely at home in our inner being; he has taken up residence there. Paul used the exact same verb in Col.1:19 when he said that the fullness of the God was pleased to dwell in Christ. When Christ dwells in our heart through faith we are enabled to trust him implicitly in daily situations. And implicit trust is an awesome thing to experience.

I used to play a little game with both of our older girls when they were younger. At the top of a long flight of stairs—and we had a few of those at Moody Church—my mathematical mind would begin to calculate the odds of this little girl negotiating twenty-six stairs in a row without incident. Not liking the odds I needed an option for descent which would look more fun to them than the stairs themselves. With them still at the top, I would go a few steps down, turn around, and hold out my arms. Without a second thought they would jump off the top step never questioning the fact that I would certainly catch them. That’s faith—implicit trust. 

That is the same sort of faith that Paul prays for the Ephesians to experience in their inner being in Christ. Will we jump off the top step into Jesus’ arms without second thought? That is not a blind leap, you understand. It is fully sighted. And our field of vision also encompasses the manger, the cross, the empty tomb, and the decorated table at the marriage supper of the Lamb.I pray “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in you inner being.” That  is the sort of faith we need. The second half of vs.17, then, begins the second request.

Second Request: An Engaging Love – 17b-19

This second request grows right out of the first based upon the parenthetic clause: being rooted and grounded in love. It seems that Paul was stating that being rooted and grounded in this way is the direct result of being strengthened through the Spirit and indwelt by Christ. And that in turn was the basis for being empowered to grasp the vast dimensions in this second request. The two verbs rooted and grounded are both foundation metaphors. Roots are the foundation of plants. Being grounded in the foundation of a building. Thus, Paul is praying to the Father that the inner work of the Son and the Spirit in the Ephesians would enable them to comprehend the vast dimensions of the love in which they have already been established, rooted, grounded.

Now there is no clear object being described by these four dimensions: breadth, length, height, and depth, but the most probable object is the love of Christ itself—that which is the clear subject in the next verse. And this immense love of Christ, just like the faith we were empowered to receive, can only be understood by grasping the significance of the mystery. Remember, he started this petition with, “For this reason….” God chose the Jewish people not for their own sakes, but to fulfill his purpose through them—to love the world through them. Through the seed of Abraham, God sent a Savior whose sacrifice for sin was sufficient not for Jews alone, but for everyone who would believe. So, not only is the wisdom of God made known to the angelic forces through the mystery; the love of God is made known to all believers through the mystery. 

On the heels of comprehending the vast dimension of God’s love, then, is the request to know his love—to know his love that is unknowable! Does that sound odd to you? It should. Here, at the critical moment, at the climax of an eloquent and forceful prayer, Paul prays for something which sounds very much like a logical contradiction—at very least like a paradox. Further, he ties it to the realization of our very spiritual maturity itself. In 4:13 the image of being filled to fullness of Christ is clarified to be an image of spiritual maturity. If being filled with all the fullness of God depends on knowing something which is unknowable, we have to wonder if it is even possible. 

Ray Bakke tells a story about lot of havoc that was being caused by German submarines during World War II and the Allied effort to neutralize them. A panel of experts was gathered to generate ideas and alternatives. One expert said, “I have the perfect solution. The submarines need to be brought to the surface in order to be destroyed. All we need to do is bring the ocean to a boil. If we boil the ocean, the submarines will have to surface and then we can take care of them with our battle ships.” 

“That’s fine,” said the moderator, “but how do we boil the ocean?” 

“You called me here for solutions,” said the expert. “And I’ve given you a solution. How you implement it is up to you.”

Is that what Paul has done here in Eph.3:19. Has he given us an impossible solution and left the implementation up to us? Is it even possible to know something—something like love—which is essentially unknowable? I would like to suggest that it is—especially when we’re talking about something infinite and immaterial like God’s love. I would like to suggest that we can know God’s unknowable love by experiencing it to such an extent that we realize we could not possibly put it into words.

In his biography of D. L. Moody, Lyle Dorsett (A Passion for Souls, Moody Press, p. 156) recounted the story of a period Moody’s life and ministry, right on the heels of the Chicago Fire in 1871 where Moody was overwhelmed by the very familiar pressures of his life and out of touch with God. Listen to Dorsett’s words:

As Dwight Moody walked the streets of New York seeking funds for rebuilding the religious facilities of Chicago, he admitted, “My heart was not in the work of begging. I could not appeal. I was crying all the time that God would fill me with His Spirit.” Moody was so burned out that nothing else really mattered. He said that “it did not seem as if there were any unction resting on my ministry.” He had endured almost four months of intense spiritual agony. “God seemed to be just showing me myself. I found I was ambitious; I was not preaching for Christ; I was preaching for ambition. I found everything in my heart that ought not to be there. For four months a wrestling went on in me. I was a miserable man.”

But suddenly, “after four months the anointing came. It came upon me as I was walking in the streets of New York.” The Holy Spirit came upon Moody in great force while he was walking down Wall Street. All of a sudden nothing was important except to be alone with the Lord. He went as fast as he could to the residence of a New York friend and asked for a room to pray in.

“Ah, what a day!—I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it, it is almost too sacred an experience to name—Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for fourteen years—I can only say God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to say His hand.”

He explained this profoundly sacred experience to his friend D. W. Whittle, who noted it in his diary: “God blessed him with the conscious incoming to his Soul of a presence and power of His Spirit such as he had never known before. His heart was broken by it. He spent much time in just weeping before God so overpowering was the sense of His goodness and love.”

D. L. Moody knew God’s love that surpasses knowledge. So did many other saints in the history of the church. Such experiences are uncommon, but they are not unheard of. This is not a second baptism in the Spirit, some unique second blessing. It is a repeatable experience. It is what happens when one is truly filled with the Spirit as Eph.5:18 calls for. This is the unknowable love of God being known. This is being filled with all the fullness of God. And that is the purpose of Paul’s prayer. Paul prays that we would experience God’s love to such a depth that it would be indescribable. This certainly explains why we need to be strengthened with power in our inner being by the Holy Spirit. Anything short of that would not allow us to experience the vast dimensions of God’s love in such a penetrating way. And anything less penetrating is not truly being filled with all the fullness of God.

Conclusion

So, let me ask you: is it possible for God to do this in your life? Could he so fill you with faith and so captivate you with his love? Oh, I don’t think so, you may answer. That sort of filling is really for those like and others who have a special calling from God. But isn’t the whole context of this passage rooted in the truth that there is no special breed of Christian? The dividing wall of separation between the haves and the have-nots has been broken down in Christ and one new man has been formed? Don’t all have access to one and the same God by one and the same Savior through one and the same Spirit? So, let me ask you again: is it possible for God to do this in your life? Could he so fill you with faith and so captivate you with his love? Could he really do it? Let’s look at the last two verses

Lesson – Doxology: An Encouraging Reminder – 3:20-21

“Now,” vs.20, “to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us.” This verse means exactly what it seems to mean. After enlightening us as to the nature of our salvation and praying that somehow we might enter in to a full experience of all that it means, Paul faithfully encourages us by reminding us that God is able to do more within us than we can even fantasize about. Thus, he hasn’t set the bar too high, because his very point is that God’s ability to answer exceeds not only about ability to ask, but even our ability to imagine. If He couldn’t, we would truly have no hope. And how is it that God can accomplish all of this? Again it is by the very power that is at work within us which enables our faith in Christ to grow in consistency and in reliability.

Now, vs.21, “to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” A God who is able to raise sinful rebels to such heights of experience is deserving of glory—through the savior and the saved, both now and forever more. Let him receive glory in Jesus Christ because this is his Son in whom all of the blessings in the heavenly realms consist. Let him receive glory through the church because he has given glory to the church by blessing them with every spiritual blessing in Christ. And as his church we must never yield to the temptation to believe that the examples and illustrations God gives us in Scripture exaggerate what He desires us to experience in our relationship with Him. 

Make sure you interpret those examples and illustrations responsibly—such portions of Scripture are not God’s version of Aladdin’s Lamp—but do not ignore or undersell the rich teachings of the Word. Jesus Christ gave his life that we might experience the fullness of God—that we might be filled with all his fullness. As his children we should not stop short of experiencing just that—far from being befuddled by his call to know the unknowable love of God, we simply should not be satisfied with anything less!