Welcome to talk number six in our series on Ephesians.
In the first five talks we were considering the first 14 verses of Chapter 1.
We examined exciting themes such as:
- the will of God for our lives,
- the fact that we are chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world,
- the fact that we are in Christ and all that that means,
- and what it means to be sealed with the Holy Spirit.
Today we turn our attention to verses 15-23 which in the NIV are given the heading Thanksgiving and Prayer.
Ephesians 1:15-23 Thanksgiving and Prayer
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints (God’s people),
16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (his holy people),
19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength
20 which he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given (name that is invoked), not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,
23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
The reason for the NIV heading is very clear from vv15-16
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints (God’s people),
16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
So let’s structure our talk by asking two questions:
- What is Paul giving thanks for?
- What is Paul praying for?
What were Paul’s reasons for giving thanks?
For all the reasons we have been considering in previous talks (outlined above)
But also, more specifically in vv15-16
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints (God’s people) 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you…
He gives thanks for their faith in the Lord Jesus
The church at Ephesus was now considerably larger than the 12 people mentioned in Acts 19 when Paul first visited them. Many others had come to faith in Christ and Paul rejoices at the good news. Of course, we too rejoice when we hear of people becoming Christians. And so do the angels! Nothing can give us greater joy than to hear of people being saved.
He gives thanks for their love for all God’s people
When you come to faith in Jesus, you are born again, or to change the metaphor, you are adopted into God’s family. You are one of his children. And all those who have come to faith in Christ are your brothers and sisters. How wonderful!
Without question we should have a love for all God’s people. But sadly this is not always the case. There can be divisions in churches, a problem which Paul deals with in the opening chapters of 1 Corinthians. And, as we will see in chapters 2 and 4, even these Ephesians needed to be reminded that we are one in Christ.
There is no contradiction here. The fact that we love one another does not mean that we do not need to be reminded to do so!
Nevertheless, Paul had much to give thanks for:
The spiritual blessings given to all who are in Christ (v3), which were the subject of our first five talks, and the specific blessings referred to in vv15-16
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints (God’s people) 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you…
And before we move on, just note the phrase I have not stopped…
Despite all these blessings, Paul knew that they still needed his prayers.
16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers
What does Paul pray for?
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (his holy people),
19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
He prays that God’s Spirit will give them wisdom and revelation. For what purpose?
So that they may know him better.
So that the eyes of their heart may be in lightened. For what purpose?
In order that they may know two things:
The hope to which he has called them
His incomparably great power
What is this hope?
V 18 the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (his holy people)
We have an inheritance in Christ!
But this verse talks about HIS inheritance in us!
How does this work?
By the fact that as God’s children we are joint-heirs with Christ.
Romans 8:17
Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
The Greek word is sunkleronomos. To be a sunkleronomos means that you inherit what they inherit. The word is used in three other places in the NT. This reveals that you can be a joint-heir with someone in any of three ways:
- By sonship (Hebrews 11:9)
- By marriage (1 Peter 3:7)
- By grace (Ephesians 3:1-6)
And we are joint-heirs with Christ in all these three ways!
He is appointed as the heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2) and we share his inheritance with him!
But that leads to our second question:
What is the incomparably great power Paul is referring to?
And we will have to deal with that in our next episode 🙂
I hope you’ll join me.
Thanks for listening.