Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21
Context: Why does Paul emphasise praying to “the Father from whom every family… derives its name”?
Prayers to God are vast enterprises, even as God is vast. The aspect of God that we refer to in prayer gives a great indication of what we’re saying is important in this prayer. The first aspect of what Paul does in who we’re praying to is making it clear that the Father is who we’re praying to. As we consider Father, we are considering the Source. It’s also fitting, as Paul is talking about the work that the gospel does in making us part of the family of God, that we refer to God as the Father. Not only the Father in the general and universal sense, but the Father as the Source of all family. This emphasis grounds our prayer in family, and the heart of all family, regardless of the distinctions we may want to make about that family. This emphasis reinforces the sense in which the identity of the One Paul is addressing unifies Jew and Gentile. Unity through the Son propels this prayer to the Father. This is part of the glorious reason for this emphasis. It also puts us in mind that this prayer isn’t about an individual – this is about how we belong to the global family of God the Father.
The word Paul uses for “family,” patria, is built directly from the word for “Father,” pater — so the Greek reader would have heard Paul saying something closer to “the Father from whom all fathering derives its name”. That’s not incidental poetry; it’s the theological hinge of the whole prayer. Paul has just spent two chapters dismantling the wall between Jew and Gentile, declaring them “one new man” in Christ (Ephesians 2:15), and now he kneels — a posture of costly, deliberate submission rather than the standing prayer more typical of Jewish worship — to root that new, mixed family in something older and deeper than either group’s ancestry.
Every human family, every angelic order, every structure we call “family” on earth or in heaven is a faint echo, a derivative naming, of the Fatherhood that originates in God Himself. So when Paul prays to this particular Father, he isn’t simply choosing a respectful title; he’s reminding a fractured, ethnically divided church that their shared identity doesn’t come from bloodline, nation, or custom, but from the one Source who named family into existence in the first place. That’s why the prayer can hold both Jew and Gentile without strain — because it was never resting on either of their inheritances to begin with
Content: What does Paul pray for regarding the believers’ inner life?
Christ dwells in our hearts in faith; being rooted and grounded in love, be strengthened to comprehend with the saints all the dimensions of this love in the quest to know the love of God that goes beyond knowledge so that we can be filled with the fullness of God.
It’s one thing to write that down from the section of Scripture. It’s another thing to understand what that is in my own words. The first thing that strikes me about this instruction is that this is not an individual pursuit. Paul is writing to a group of people, and this instruction is a communal one. So, when he says that this is something we do alongside the saints, the idea is that this communal activity is one we can engage in, connecting us to other saints beyond ourselves. Which is to say, knowing the dimensions of the love of God is something we do relationally and connect it with the efforts of those beyond us—two elements of the instruction that are ground-breaking and fascinating. Then the heart of what’s going on inside us is the very intriguing element of looking to know what goes beyond our ability to know. I get that this will be explored further in the next question, but it’s at least worth considering here that this task is something we do together in the immediate community, as well as connect with others in the family to know what’s going on in the heart of the Creator. What brings us together in the Father through the Son by the Spirit?
Another fascinating aspect of what Paul is asking for is the importance of power and strength for the task. The reference to being rooted and grounded gives us the picture repeated throughout Scripture of the tree planted. Even as we refer to the Father as the source, we practice what it means to deepen our roots in His love and draw strength from Him. What it is to rely on Him as we’re plugged into Him. Even as Jesus talks about us being the branches connected to the Vine, we draw all our nutrients and sustenance for life from Him. In this context, Paul says we’re ever deepening our connection in Him to draw the power and strength to undertake this enterprise of knowing the wonderful dimensions of His love. It’s intriguing and exciting to get strength from the Source to know more about the Source. We can see why Paul wants this to be a key task of what’s going on inside us, so that it can drive what goes on outside us. Essentially, as we continue this pursuit, it shapes what we do, how we carry out the good works that God has prepared for us.
Concept: What does it mean to “know this love that surpasses knowledge”?
Paul has a knack for coming up with these fascinating phrases. It’s a bit like the “unsearchable” riches of Christ. In this case, Paul introduces a concept that is supposed to go far beyond the cerebral and academic sense of acquiring information on something through the mental study of that thing. He invites us to partake in a whole-life activity of investment in the love of God. When we speak of loving God with all our strength, mind and being, this is the knowing that Paul invites us into here, and it’s applying that to the vast aspect of God that goes beyond everything we have to know something. It goes beyond feelings and thoughts; it’s the exploration of the divine, which by definition goes beyond our finite being.
The invitation isn’t directly from Paul – it’s the invitation that God gives. God says it’s possible to grow in knowing, but that growth is in knowing something that will always be far greater, deeper, richer and higher than anything you’ll ever be able to grasp and comprehend. This aligns with many scriptures that refer to the amazingly vast aspect of knowing God – phrases like as far as the east is from the west, etc. This enterprise, in which we’re invited to know God, is something so awesome in nature that it should consume us totally, knowing full well that whatever we taste and experience is but a small part of the greater reality. Considering the incredulous nature of this invitation should also point to why we wouldn’t have the capacity for focusing on trifling, irrelevant matters that are outside of this quest. This quest is enough to take up the whole of our being for the rest of eternity.
Conclusions: How does Paul’s confidence in God’s power (“immeasurably more”) encourage you?
I like electronic devices that have strong battery life. I prefer my laptops and mobile devices to operate off charge for long periods while still capable of using various applications. What does this have to do with the question? In Christ, there’s now an internal battery operating in my heart and the heart of the connections I have with the family of God that powers operations in various applications of life that is far greater than any source of power in the universe. That’s an incredible reality to consider and connect to.
Whenever I hear that verse, I get the impression that people are referring to it as though it’s a magic spell that can give them power to do anything. In its context, I’m appreciating that what’s going on is far greater than our feeble and small-minded desire to get the power to be able to magic up whatever we want. In this context, I’m massively encouraged to know that in this quest to know the incomprehensible love of God, there is the power of God Himself at hand to help in that quest. This is yet another reason why He’s worthy of honour, glory, power, praise, adoration and adulation. He isn’t giving me a test without help. He is inviting me into something that He has given the answer to, far beyond me and us, yet well within our ability to tap into it and make progress in the task. Knowing the love of God is tapping into the power of God to love as He loves. And that power means that however much I’m asking or thinking about, He’s capable of things far beyond that, so that He will be glorified in the pursuit of Him being known through us and for His glory.
Next time:
WIWO – Ephesians – Episode Eight: Unity in the Body
Reading – Ephesians 4:1-16
We can take great courage, reassurance and delight knowing God our Father will supply us with all we need to know Him more and more together. This is a tremendous reason to enjoy the quest to take His Word In so we can live His Word Out.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
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