Ephesians 3:14-21
The church needs Spirit-given strength to know Christ's love and become a God-filled people for His glory.
14 For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
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 person,
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth,
19 and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
21 to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
The church needs Spirit-given strength to know Christ's love and become a God-filled people for His glory.
Paul resumes his prayer by bowing before the Father and asking that believers be strengthened by the Spirit in the inner being, that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith, that they would grasp and know Christ's surpassing love, and that they would be filled to all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-21 resumes the prayer Paul began in 3:1 before his digression about the mystery and his Gentile ministry. It also forms a companion prayer to Ephesians 1:15-23. In the first prayer, Paul asked that believers would know the hope of God's calling, the riches of His inheritance, and the greatness of His power displayed in Christ's resurrection and exaltation. In this second prayer, Paul asks that this power would strengthen believers inwardly by the Spirit, that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith, and that they would know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge. The prayer closes the doctrinal exposition of chapters 1-3 and prepares for the ethical exhortations of chapters 4-6. Before believers are told to walk worthy, maintain unity, put off the old self, walk in love, live as children of light, submit to Spirit-shaped household order, and stand in spiritual warfare, Paul prays for inward strengthening, Christ's indwelling rule, and fullness in God.
Ephesians 3:14-21 functions as a pastoral prayer for a church that has just been told it is part of God's eternal purpose, one new humanity in Christ, God's household, God's temple, and the display of God's manifold wisdom to the heavenly powers. In a Greco-Roman world where strength could be measured by status, patronage, civic belonging, rhetoric, wealth, household power, and spiritual control, Paul prays for a different kind of strengthening: power through God's Spirit in the inner person. His prayer centers believers not in self-sufficiency but in Christ's indwelling presence and love. The passage gives the church a vision of maturity that is inward, communal, Trinitarian, love-shaped, and doxological.
The Mystery Revealed and the Church Strengthened in Christ’s Love
God has revealed his once-hidden mystery by making Gentiles full co-heirs in Christ, displaying his wisdom through the church and strengthening his people to know the immeasurable love of Christ.