Day 12 (Tuesday) Ephesians 1:15-23
Read the passage. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians has some similarities to his prayer for the Colossians. As you read the prayer, he wants believers to have wisdom and knowledge of who they are in Christ, but especially he wants them to know the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe. Spend a moment to consider what this power is about, especially that God raised Jesus from the dead. Paul prayed this prayer because he believed that we need a greater personal understanding of this power and its availability to us.
- What is your understanding of the power God has made available to us?
- What does this mean for you in your prayers and serving of God?
Prayer
- Bless our Mission 25 team with unity, creativity, and wisdom in decision-making.
- Pray that those belonging to our church would truly comprehend the power of God given to us and that we would then walk in that power as we share the good news of Jesus with those around us.
- Pray for not-yet-believers in the community who have already heard about Jesus—that the eyes of their hearts would be opened to the good news about him. Can you pray specifically for someone you know who has heard the good news but not yet believed?
Go Deeper
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God’s Ultimate Purpose: An Exposition of Ephesians 1 (Edinburgh; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1978), 391–393.
The Scofield Bible introduces these three petitions with the following general heading: ‘The prayer for knowledge and power.’ By so doing, it suggests that the Apostle is praying two things for these Ephesians: first, that they may have certain knowledge, and then that they may have power. I suggest that that is a wrong interpretation and a rather serious one. The Apostle here is not so much praying that the Ephesians may be given power, as that they may know the power of God that is already working in them. Clearly, the two things are entirely different, as is shown by the entire context.
The object of this section of the Epistle, as we have seen repeatedly, is to give assurance and certainty in order that true Christians may have confidence; so here it seems quite clear that the Apostle is emphasizing the power of God in the saints rather than the power which God gives to the saints.
This immediately raises a fundamental problem of theology and doctrine; indeed, it raises two possible views of Christian salvation. It is interesting to observe that differing views of salvation are generally determined by this question of power. One view is that salvation is the result of something I do, plus the power that is given to me by God. I, plus the power of God! It is granted that I cannot achieve salvation without the power or the help that God gives me, but this conception of salvation is that God aids me, and God enables me to arrive at it. The other view is that salvation is the result of God’s power at work—in me and through me, and this is the view which we must take of this particular passage.
At this point, the Revised Standard Version is helpful. Instead of saying, ‘What is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward (or toward us) who believe,’ it says, ‘what is the immeasurable greatness of His power in us who believe.’ The Apostle is emphasizing the power of God in us. It is of course true to say that God gives us strength and power; and we need that power constantly; and in its place and setting, that needs to be taught. But here, the grand object which the Apostle has in mind is to make the Ephesians see and realize, and us with them, the greatness of God’s power in us, what He is doing in us.
The result would be that our fears would vanish, and we would have a new confidence and assurance with respect to our salvation. Indeed, this is ultimately the final ground of assurance both objective and subjective—the former leading to the latter.
The logic in the sequence of these three petitions seems to me to be as follows. With his great pastoral heart, the Apostle is concerned about these Ephesians. He knows that they have believed, that they have trusted in the Lord Jesus, and that they have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, he is praying for them without ceasing and praying that they may advance into the depths of understanding, knowledge, and comprehension of the Christian life and its possibilities. So, he has offered the first two petitions, and this third petition becomes quite inevitable.
Songs for Worship and Reflection
