Deeper Commentary

 

CHAPTER 3

3:1 For this cause, I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles- The "cause" is that in the preceding verse, 2:22. There, Paul has taught that God is working through His Spirit so that He may indwell His people through the Spirit. When he finishes his parenthesis, he continues praying "For this cause..." that the Spirit will dwell in them richly (:14-19).

Understanding the way Paul breaks off into another theme and then resumes is the key to understanding some of the more difficult passages in his writings. Here we have a huge bracketed section, as it were: "For this cause I, Paul [the prisoner of Jesus Christ... ]"; and then there is a parenthesis of 13 verses, until then he resumes: For this cause I bow my knees" (Eph. 3:1,14). There are other examples in his letters: "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare [his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say] at this time his righteousness" (Rom. 3:25,26). "But if I live in the flesh [this is the fruit of my labour... nevertheless to abide in the flesh] (this) is more needful for you" (Phil. 1:22-24).

"The prisoner" suggests Paul wrote to them from prison in Rome. He feels that his imprisonment was for the sake of the Gentiles receiving the Gospel. And so it was; for it was Jewish fury and jealousy over this issue which led them to get him imprisoned. But we recall that he was sent to the Gentiles, and Peter to the Jews. So much could 

3:2- See on Eph. 4:7.

If indeed you have heard- This doesn't mean that they had not heard of the fact that Paul by God's grace was sharing with the Gentiles the news of salvation. He means rather 'If you have really appreciated', and he will go on in :16-19 to pray that they will be helped by the Spirit towards such an appreciation. 1 Pet. 2:3 has a similar idea: "If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious". There was no doubt that they had heard that the Lord was gracious. It was a question of appreciation.

Of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you- Paul surely alludes to how he was the especially commissioned apostle to the Gentiles, with the role of taking God's grace to them.

3:3 As I wrote before in few words: How by revelation was the mystery made known to me- Perhaps Paul had written a brief, unpreserved letter to the Ephesians before. Or maybe the reference is to Galatians, where he explains that he received the ideas concerning grace to the Gentiles by revelation from the Lord Jesus Himself, and not from men.

God’s ways are described as a secret, a mystery; the Hebrew word used in this connection means ‘A confidential plan revealed to intimate friends’; and yet they are revealed to the true believers (Am. 3:7-8; Jer. 23: 18,22 AV mg.; Ps. 25:14; Eph. 3:3-6). Therefore the congregation of true believers is called “the secret assembly of the saints”(Ps. 89:7 Heb.).

3:4 Whereby, as you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ- This is not boasting as to how much Paul understands; rather he wants them to perceive his understanding and share it as their own. He will go on to pray, as he has done earlier, that their eyes will be opened by the Spirit to perceive the mystery of Christ (1:18; 3:18). His prayers for their enlightenment would therefore mesh with their own reading or hearing of his words to them. The gift of the Spirit to perceive therefore opened their eyes to the real import of the written words; just as the Ethiopian commented that he could not understand the word he was reading without extra help.

3:5 This in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit- The "other generations" could equally be rendered "other ages", as if Paul recognized the Jewish division of human history into ages. The inclusion of the Gentiles is stated in the Old Testament, both directly and obliquely. But the obvious truth had not been "made known" or "revealed". Just as we noted on :4 that the Spirit would give the Ephesians understanding of the written word so that they 'got it', likewise Paul is saying that all those Old Testament references (which he himself brings to our attention in his letters) needed "the Spirit" to reveal their (now) obvious meaning. And the Lord worked through the apostles and New Testament prophets to make that revelation- through His Spirit. This is yet more evidence that man does not face off against God over an open Bible alone; the Spirit reveals the meaning at the right time.

3:6 That the Gentiles are fellow-heirs and fellow-members of the body and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel- This is "the mystery of Christ" of :4. "The Gospel" had already been revealed to Abraham, in the form of the promises which clearly implied the acceptance of the Gentiles into His seed (Gal. 3:8). But as noted on :5, this (now) obvious truth had to be revealed by the Spirit. The words on paper required an interpretation which was given by the Spirit at the right time. The delay in revealing this truth was surely because the body of Christ was not then in existence, and His work and sacrifice had not then been completed. And seeing He had genuine freewill, there was the possibility He could have failed. In this we see the thrill of victory when he finally dies perfect and morally triumphant, and the endless wonder and significance of His resurrection.  

3:7 Of which I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of His power- All preaching work is to be done as a servant, after the pattern of the Lord Jesus, the servant of all. Being made a servant recalls Paul's language about how the Lord Jesus throughout His life and supremely in his death was "made a servant" (Phil. 2:7). Paul made himself a servant of all (1 Cor. 9:19), and yet here he says he was "made a servant" according to God's powerful working. God's game plan with us is to humble us, make us slaves- and insofar as we willingly seek to go along with that plan, He will work with us as we with Him. "His power" in that sense is perfected in human weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). "The working of His power" is a phrase Paul uses about God's work in each and every believer through the Spirit given to us (Eph. 1:19; 4:16), a "working" or [Gk.] 'energy' released within each of us through our baptismal association with the Lord's resurrection (Col. 2:12). Paul was not therefore a special case; we each have the same power working in us to achieve and enable the Lord's intended mission for each of us. It is only our dysfunction which doesn't allow it to operate fully.

3:8 To me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ- Twice (also in :7) Paul marvels at the grace we have received in order to share the Gospel with others. Preaching is not therefore a mere duty, to be performed in the spirit of glum witness to a disinterested world. It is a wonderful grace given that we should have the honour of inviting others to eternity. Whenever Paul talks about preaching, he talks of humility. In one of his earliest letters, Paul stresses that he felt like the least of the apostles, he honestly felt they were all better than he was (1 Cor. 15:9). However, he reminisces that in his earlier self-assurance, he had once considered himself as not inferior to "the very chiefest apostles" (2 Cor. 11:5). Some years later, he wrote to the Ephesians that he felt "less than the least of all saints" (Eph. 3:8). This was no Uriah Heep, fawning humility. He really felt that he was the worst, the weakest, of all the thousands of believers scattered around the shores of the Mediterranean at that time. As he later faced his death, he wrote to Timothy here that he was "chief of sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15), the worst sinner in the world, and that Christ's grace to him should therefore serve as an inspiration to every other believer, in that none had sinned as grievously as he had done. Paul coins a word here to emphasise his humble status in contrast to the honour of being a preacher: "less than the least" (elachistotero). He was a preacher despite the fact he was chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15); only through mercy / forgiveness had he received the commission he had (2 Cor. 4:1).

Paul felt he was  less than the least" of all saints, that he would be the least in the Kingdom (Eph. 3:8). He uses a closely related word to that used by John when he spoke of how he must "decrease" (Jn. 3:30). It was as if he felt like John at his most 'decreased', in prison fearing death; and remember that Paul wrote Ephesians from prison too. But John was weak in prison; he doubted (momentarily) whether Jesus was the Messiah, "him that should come" (Lk. 7:19). Yet Paul seems to allude to this when he says that "he that shall come will come" (Heb. 10:37)- as if to say 'John, my hero, you had your weak moments too, but I've tried to learn the lesson from them'.

3:9 And to make all men see what is the intention of this mystery which for ages has been hid in God who created all things- To 'make see' is the same word used in 1:18, where Paul prays for the eyes of the believers to be "enlightened". The "all men" therefore particularly has in view those who have already believed (see on Mt. 20:27); he wishes both Jew and Gentile believers to perceive the wonder of the unity which God's program has in mind for us. He will go on in 3:18,19 to pray that the believers will be empowered by the Spirit to comprehend and know the wonder of the Gospel and its implications in personal relationships. All this prayer and concern about realizing the implications of the Gospel is proof enough that the Christian life is not simply knowing or preserving a set of doctrines. That alone will not save. We need the Spirit to open our eyes to the implications of these things. The comment that "God created all things" may be a reference to the new creation of believers (2 Cor. 5:17; AV adds "by Jesus Christ"); but it may be simply making the point that all things literally were created in order to merely provide a backdrop for God's essential intention- the "fellowship" (AV, NEV "intention") between persons in Christ. The fact the church is riven with so many inter-personal tensions is sadly a reflection of the way that we have missed the point of the Gospel, and remained on the level of technical knowledge of propositions rather than allowing the Spirit to enlighten us as to the implications in practice. These things were "hid in God" in the sense that they could only be actualized by the Lord Jesus, His work and sacrifice. But in Him and through the members of His faithful body, they are now revealed.

3:10- see on Gal. 6:6.

The intention was that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places- We note the idea of "intention" (as in :9). God will not force His way upon those who refuse Him, and even with those of us who accept His way, He bears with our dysfunctions- which mean that His ideal intentions remain not fully achieved in this life. We waste so much potential by our slowness and obtuse dysfunction in spiritual matters. The wisdom of God was seen by Paul as being His plan to save and unite all men, Jew and Gentile, within His Son (Rom. 11:33; 1 Cor. 1:24; 2:7). That wisdom is given to us by the Spirit (1:17); it is ours for the asking (James 1:5). The unity of Jew and Gentile in the church is the context here, and that was to be the public exhibition of God's manifold wisdom. We can read "the rulers and authorities" as referring simply to the rulers of this world; for 'the heavens' can Biblically refer to those in authority over the masses on 'earth'. The church at Ephesus had been born within a background of conflict with the rulers of this world; and the unity between Jew and Gentile in the church was intended to witness to them of God's manifold wisdom. The church is the body of Christ; He is manifest only through us. We are Him, in that sense. Our bodies are members of His body (1 Cor. 6:15). All that we do, in word and deed, is in the Name of the Lord Jesus- i.e. as representing Him whose Name we called upon ourselves in baptism (Col. 3:17). We are the words of His epistle to both the world and the brotherhood; He has no other face or legs or arms than us (2 Cor. 3:3). We can thereby limit Him if our disunity fails to manifest His wisdom as intended.

But Paul was a Jew writing to those influenced by Judaism. It could be that "principalities and powers" (AV) could refer to Angels, which were a major aspect of Jewish thought in the first century. In this case it would appear that the Angels learn and increase their knowledge from watching our response to the Gospel. "Principalities and powers" is a phrase apposite to the Angels and  it is clearly used regarding the Angels who gave the Law in Col 2:15. In this case Eph. 3:9,10 could be read like this: "To make all (both Angels and Christians- AV "men" is not in the original) see what is the fellowship of the mystery (that both Jews and Gentiles can be saved), which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God (and therefore from the Angels too)… to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the ecclesia the manifold wisdom of God". We share the heavenlies with the Angels- and in any case, why cannot 'the heavenlies' refer to literal Heaven also in a sense? As Christ was resurrected and ascended to literal Heaven, the Heavenlies of Eph. 1:20, so we are baptized and spiritually ascend to Heaven straight afterwards (Eph. 1:20). An Angelic interpretation would avoid the difficult that the human principalities and powers to whom the mystery was made known would not accept that mystery, according to 1 Cor. 2:7,8,14: "We speak the wisdom of God (cp. Eph. 1 "the manifold wisdom of God") in a mystery (cp. "the mystery… which hath been hid" in Eph. 1)… which none of the princes of this world knew (principalities and powers!)… the natural man (i. e. the princes of this world) receives not the things of the Spirit of God (the "mystery" of :7), for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned". Because Angels control world rulers, "principalities and powers" could perhaps refer both to them and the Angels behind them.

3:11 According to the eternal purpose which God purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord- I noted earlier that God's purpose with us in Christ was not simply hatched from the beginning of this present world; but from eternity, from before time- and it shall continue beyond time, for eternity. The unity in Christ, this fellowship between the redeemed which the cross enabled, had been God's original intention; how tragic, therefore, is our disunity within the church. The mystery of His will, His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself from not merely 'the beginning' but from eternity, was that "in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather together all things in Christ" (Eph. 1:10). Thus the unity of the redeemed is not just an incidental product of our redemption and unity in Christ; it was the essential intention and goal of God from before the beginning of the world, and was only revealed through the unity achieved by the cross (Eph. 3:9,10). This was His "eternal purpose" (Eph. 3:11). These passages in Ephesians need meditation; for it is easy to underestimate the tremendous emphasis given to how the mysterious unity of the body of believers, together glorifying His Name, was so fundamentally and eternally God's main purpose. And so Paul marvelled that he had been chosen to plainly reveal this, God's finest and most essential mystery, to all men; for it was not revealed at all in the OT, nor even (at least, not directly) by the Lord Jesus. And we may likewise marvel that we have a living part in it. That I, the little boy with glasses from the council estate behind Grove Park railway station in an anonymous South London suburb... was known from eternity by God, to live for eternity in unity with the rest of His people... And you too. What a tragedy it is when a person steps out of that purpose, opts out because of some petty argument with others, or is thrust out of it because they didn't get this or that right or messed up or fellowshipped this one or that one, or got maxed out on earning more money to buy that dream house or car ... and what a glory, an honour, to be able to extend a place in that eternal purpose to those around us.

3:12 In whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him- The “boldness” with which we come before the “throne of grace” right now, is the “boldness” with which we will come before that same throne at the final day of judgment (Heb. 4:16; Eph. 3:12 cp. 1 Jn. 4:17). Faith in the Lord Jesus therefore produces this boldness and confidence; faith in Him therefore means believing, trusting in Him, that He has saved us and shall do so at the last day. Faith in Him doesn't simply mean believing He once existed, for about everyone from atheist Communist to Judaist to Muslim believes that much. Nor does it refer to a mere knowledge of some propositions about Him. It is trust that really, He has and will save us eternally, and on account of Him we have a place in God's eternal purpose which was always in Him (:11). Prayer therefore will be with such confidence- not confidence that we shall absolutely receive the requests made in the terms in which we asked for them, but a confidence in God's presence as we speak with Him. 

3:13 Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory- Our confidence in the Heavenly throne room explained in :12 should mean that nothing on earth makes us waver. They had heard and perhaps witnessed Paul's tribulations at Ephesus for them, and were aware he was in prison in Rome. He was a living exhibition of the sufferings which come from being "in Christ". And it naturally made the converts worry at what might be coming their way. Instead of fearing as a result of Paul's sufferings, they were to instead glory in them.

"Lose heart" is a phrase elsewhere translated "faint not" and it occurs in Lk. 18:1: "He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint”. There are so many allusions by Paul to this verse and the ensuing parable. This shows just how like us Paul was; he had his favourite parables, one or two that really stuck in his mind, just as we do. And he alluded to them! They were in his heart, to inspire and motivate him, just as the Lord intended. Paul picks up the idea of not fainting in 2 Thess. 3:13: "Brethren, be not weary (s.w. "not to faint") in well doing" . What well-doing did Paul have in mind? Attending the Sunday meetings? Being patient with some difficult sister in the ecclesia? The connection with Lk. 18:1 tells us what he had in mind: keep on praying intensely. It's no co-incidence that Paul started that section of 2 Thess. 3 (in v.1) with the exhortation: "Brethren, pray for us". And he concludes it with the same rubric: "Brethren, be not weary" (faint not), in your prayers. He knew from the parable that repeated prayer was powerful. And so he asks them to keep at it for him, because he needed it. Perhaps Paul had the same thing in mind here when he wrote to the Ephesians (3:13): "In (Christ) we have boldness and access with confidence (to God, in prayer, cp. Heb. 4:16)... wherefore I desire that ye faint not (s.w. Lk. 18:1) at my tribulations"; is he not implying 'You know how powerful prayer is, so don't faint in it, you know what struggles I'm having, please keep on praying for me, like that persistent widow in the parable'. This fits in with a number of other passages in which Paul unashamedly begs his brethren to pray for him. In this we see his humility, his high regard for other brethren who were almost certainly weaker than him, and also the physical desperation of his daily life. 

3:14- see on Eph. 1:15.

For this cause I bow my knees to the Father- This resumes the train of thought from "this cause" in :1. The intervening verses, as noted there, are a parenthesis. What we now read until the "Amen" in :21 is a unique transcript of Paul's prayer for them, said on his knees, and also mixing praise with worship; for to bow the knee is an idiom for praise as well as the prayer of request. Paul uses the same words in writing of how every knee shall bow to God at the day of judgment (Rom. 14:11); but he lived in prayer now as he would before the day of judgment. That was exactly the sense of his idea of being "confident" both in prayer now and the day of judgment in the future- see on :12. Our attitude in prayer to God now will be out attitude at the day of judgment.

3:15 From whom every family in heaven and on earth is named- "Every family" may be a reference to every church, especially appropriate given that most of the early churches were house churches, meeting as family. The phrase can equally be rendered "the whole family". Paul chooses to use the word patria to describe this new “family in heaven and earth” to which we belong in Christ. The word patria is defined by Strong as meaning “a group of families” that comprise a nation [s.w. Acts 3:25 “all kindreds of the earth”]. The various family units / house churches comprised the overall body of Christ, the nation of the new Israel. Eph. 3:15 takes on a new meaning in the light of the house-church nature of early Christianity. God is the pater [father- the head of the house] from whom every home [patria] in heaven and on earth is named”. We’re invited to see God as a family God, with us as “the household of God” (Eph. 2:19; 3:15). See on Acts 8:3; Col. 1:20. By baptism into the Name, we have His family Name named upon us. To be aware of who Yahweh is, of the characteristics outlined in Ex. 34:5-7 that comprise His Name… this must surely affect our behaviour, seeing we bear that Name. It is an understanding of the Name that inspires our faith in forgiveness. "Though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many" (Jer. 14:7,9,21). The Name is called upon us in baptism (Jer. 14:9 = Eph. 3:15), and this is why we urge men to be baptized into the Name to wash away their sins. See on Heb. 13:15.

3:16 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that you may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man- This is evidence enough that the function of the Holy Spirit is within the inner man, and the gift of Spirit strengthening doesn't refer solely to the temporary miraculous gifts. And this verse is likewise evidence enough that the Spirit doesn't simply enter us through Bible reading. For Paul prays that God would give them this gift. There is a strong element of external agency here, the prayer of a third party for this working in the inner man to happen. There are many examples even in the Old Testament of God working directly upon human hearts / spirits. There is a huge wealth of spiritual strength with God- "the riches of His glory". Although we are given the Spirit at baptism, we continue to receive it, and it appears from this prayer that it can be also given in response to the prayers of third parties. John the Baptist was "strengthened in the Spirit" (Lk. 1:80), and yet "John did no miracle" (Jn. 10:41). The reference is to internal strengthening; to palm off all references to the Holy Spirit as referring to the temporary miraculous gifts is just not the correct interpretation. We are to humble ourselves under the strengthening hand of God (1 Pet. 5:6 s.w.); His activity seeks to humble us that we might be exalted in due time. The Spirit is given at baptism, and Paul prays that that indwelling gift might give them strength. The Corinthians had received the gift, but were "not spiritual" (1 Cor. 3:1). We too have the same gift but need to realize the potential. These promises of internal spiritual strengthening don't mean that we shall not sin; the only other reference to "the inner man" is when Paul laments that he delights in God's law "in the inner man" (Rom. 7:22), but still sins because he is in the flesh. We should not therefore ignore the promises of the Spirit's work because we know we are sinners and shall continue sinning throughout our mortal lives.

3:17- see on Lk. 6:48.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you would be rooted and grounded in love- It is the "spirit of Christ" which dwells in us (Rom. 8:9,11). This is the promised Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, which would dwell within us to the extent that the Lord's physical absence would be compensated for by His Spirit making His presence real to us. And the simple end result of that is, in a word, "love". Such love, both the love of Christ for us and our response in lives of love, will become our root and foundation. And if we are “rooted and grounded in love”, then :18 promises that we will come to appreciate yet more “the love of Christ”. There is an upward spiral of spirituality. It is the love principle which alone can give stability to our otherwise unstable existence. People do not know really how to live, how to think, how or what to be. It is having a foundation in the love principle which constantly and consistently provides the answers to our endless questions as to how to respond to all the mental and secular issues which we meet hour by hour.

3:18 That you might be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height- As noted on :17, the gift of the Spirit enables us to perceive the love of the Father and Son. Rom. 5:5 says the same- "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us". Again we have in view a gift of the Spirit within our spirit, or as Ephesians terms it, "the inner man". The gift of understanding something of the dimensions of the Lord's love is not received by us in isolation; the heightened comprehension is "with all the saints".

"The love of Christ" often refers to the Lord's sacrifice. We cannot sit passively before the cross of the Lord. That “love of Christ" there passes our human knowledge, and yet our hearts can be opened, as Paul prayed, that we might know the length, breadth and height of it. The crucified Son of God was the full representation of God. The love of Christ was shown in His cross; and through the Spirit's enlightenment we can know the height, length, breadth of that love (Eph. 3:18,19). But this passage in Ephesians is building on Job 11:7-9: "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea". The purpose of the connection is to show that through appreciating the love of Christ, unknowable to the unenlightened mind, we see the Almighty unto perfection, in a way which the Old Testament believers were unable to do. It was as high as Heaven, and what could they do? And yet it must be confessed that we do not in practice attain to such fullness of knowledge and vision. We look to the Kingdom, one of the excellencies of which will be the full grasp of the Almighty unto perfection, as manifest in the death of His Son. All we now know is that that cross was the fullness of God, it was "the Almighty unto perfection”. But then, we shall know, we shall find it out. And yet, paradoxically, in some sense even now we can know “the love of Christ" [a phrase often used about the cross] that passes human knowledge. Speaking of His upcoming death, the Lord warned that where he was going, the disciples could not then follow; but they would, afterwards. This doesn’t necessarily mean they too were to die the death of the cross. Rather could it mean that they later would enter into what His death really meant; then they would see with some understanding, rather than run away from the vision of the cross. And for us, one of the Kingdom’s riches will likewise be that we shall then understand that final climactic act the more fully. Yet we begin that discovery now.

God has more spiritual culture, for want of a better way of putting it, than to describe the love of Christ just with a string of superlative adjectives. Paul prayed that his Ephesians would be strengthened by the Spirit's working in the inner man, so that they would "be strong to apprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (Eph. 3:18,19 RV). There is a paradox here; to know something that can't be known, that passes knowledge. We can only know that love by God working on our inner man, so that we realize the experience we have of the love of Christ, and by seeing it manifested in others.

3:19 And to truly know and understand the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God- "To truly know" doesn't mean that we know to perfection every aspect of the Lord's love. It rather means that we know His love for us as the ultimate truth. "The truth" is not so much a set of doctrinal propositions as the simple fact that the Lord loved us to the end, and we shall live eternally with Him through that love. 

It is surely apparent that it would be pointless to pray for our brethren if in fact those prayers have no power at all, and if ultimately we are all responsible for our own spiritual path.  There is in all this an incredible and most urgent imperative. This is why Paul bowed his knees in prayer for the Ephesians, knowing that his words could really increase and enrich the quality of their relationship with God, if not their very salvation (Eph. 3:14-19). If my prayers can influence your eternal destiny, if they can lead you from condemnation to the eternity of God’s Kingdom: then I must, if I have any gram of love and care within me, dedicate myself to prayer for you. And you, likewise, for me. Prayer for others’ spiritual well-being becomes no longer something which is ‘tacked on’ to our tired, repetitious evening prayers.

All the fullness of God dwelt in Christ (Col. 1:19; 2:9); "and of his fullness have all we received" (Jn. 1:16). God's fullness, the full extent of His character, dwelt in Christ, and through His Name which speaks fully of that character, that fullness of Christ is reckoned to us. And so, in line with all this, Eph. 3:19 makes the amazing statement. And it is amazing. We can now “be filled with all the fullness of God". Let's underline that, really underline it, in our hearts. We can be filled with all the fullness of God. Filled with all the fullness of God's character. See on Eph. 1:23. We are counted righteous, counted as if we have the Lord's moral perfection; but as Romans 8 explains, the Spirit is given in order to help us become in reality what we are counted as being by status. The language of 'filling' is used about being filled with the Spirit in our inner person (Acts 13:52; Rom. 15:13; Eph. 4:10; 5:18). It is the filling by the Spirit which reveals to us the fullness of God.

3:20 Now to Him that is able to do immeasurably above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us- This is one of several allusions to Paul's final address to the Ephesian elders; I suggested on 1:1 that Ephesians was initially a follow up letter to that meeting:

Acts 20:19 = Eph. 4:2 "lowliness of mind"
Acts 20:27 = Eph. 1:11 "counsel", God's plan.
Acts 20:32 = Eph. 3:20 God's "ability".
Acts 20:32 = Eph. 2:20. Building upon the foundation.
Acts 20:32 = Eph. 1:14,18 "The inheritance of the saints."

Answers to prayer are described as “great and mighty things, which you know not” (Jer. 33:3)- i.e. the very nature of answered prayer is that it is above all we ask or think. It leads to a sense of wonderment with this God with whom we are in relationship. And answered prayer is indeed part and parcel of a living relationship with the Father and Son. But Paul may simply mean that the spiritual help he has just prayed for is far beyond anything the Ephesians could "ask or think" of requesting. He urges them to believe that God is indeed "able" to work the spiritual transformation he has just prayed for. And that ability is potentially within each of us; for each baptized believer has received "the power that works in us", it is a question of allowing it to operate. Again we note that the Spirit works within us; there is no reference to the miraculous gifts, they were an incidental, temporal external witness to the profound fact that God's Spirit power has been given into the hearts of believers and is at work there. God is at work in our hearts, in our psychology- but we must be open to this.

3:21 To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations for ever and ever. Amen- The allusion seems to be to the concluding doxology of the model prayer: "For Yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen". "The power" has been defined in :20 as the Spirit power which works within us. Our glorification of God is therefore due to our thankfulness for His power working within us to transform us into persons who shall live for ever and ever to His glory.