Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:15c-Paul Heard About the Divine-Love of the Recipients of the Ephesian Epistle

Ephesians 1:15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 1:16 I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers. 1:17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him, 1:18—since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened—so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 1:19 and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength. 1:20 This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms 1:21 far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 1:22 And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and he gave him to the church as head over all things. 1:23 Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (NET)

Now, in Ephesians 1:15, the noun agapē (ἀγάπη)means “divine-love” since it does not refer to the function of human love but rather the exercise of divine-love that is produced by the Holy Spirit through the believer who is obedient to the Spirit inspired command of the Lord Jesus Christ to love one another as He loves.

It is used of the love of God manifested in the life of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle after their justification.

This love is prompted by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God regarding the Father’s love in eternity past for them by electing and predestinating them to be conformed to the image of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

It is also prompted by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God regarding the Son’s love for them in time and which love was manifested through His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand.

Lastly, it is also prompted by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God regarding the work of the Holy Spirit at the moment of their justification when He identified them with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand, and which action on the part of the Spirit is called the baptism of the Spirit.

All of this indicates that the recipients of the Ephesian epistle reflected the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit by exercising faith in this divine love on their behalf which manifested itself in obedience to the Spirit inspired commands and prohibitions of Scripture.

Consequently, this love was manifested in their relationships with each other and the non-Christian community and the members of the Trinity.

These believers demonstrated love for the Lord Jesus by obeying His command to love one another as He loves them (John 13:34; 15:12; 14:15).

The articular construction modifying the abstract noun agapē is distinguishing the manifestation of the love of God by the recipients of the Ephesian epistle from the manifestations of human love by members of the human race.

It is also distinguishing the manifestation of the love of God by the recipients of the Ephesian epistle from their exercising faith in Jesus Christ, which resulted in the Father declaring them justified.

The adjective hagios(ἅγιος), “saints” describes all the members of the body of Christ who have been set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of justification in order to order serve God exclusively.

As we pointed earlier, the baptism of the Spirit resulted in the church age believer being united with and identified with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand.

The adjective hagios is modified by the adjective pas which denotes totality and is used in a distributive sense meaning “each and every one.”

The word is in the first predicate position which indicates that this adjective is more emphatic than the noun.

The adjective hagios is the object of the preposition eis (εἰς), “on behalf of” functions as a marker of benefaction indicating that the love of God practiced by the recipients of the Ephesian epistle was for the “benefit of” each and every one of the saints.

The personal pronoun kagō (κἀγώ), “I myself” is expressing in emphatic terms the apostle Paul’s great care and concern for the spiritual well-being of each of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.

It is also marking a transition in the epistle, namely it is marking a transition from the doxology or preface in Ephesians 1:3-14 to Paul’s intercessory prayer to the Father on behalf of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle in Ephesians 1:15-23.

Specifically, the word marks a contrast between the actions of the Trinity in Ephesians 1:3-14 to Paul’s in Ephesians 1:15-23.

The verb akouō(ἀκούω) pertains to receiving news about a person or persons.

Therefore, the word refers to Paul “hearing” in the sense of receiving news regarding the recipients of the Ephesian epistle exercising faith in Jesus Christ at the moment of their justification for eternal salvation and then exercising the love of God toward each other after their justification.

The word refers to hearing by word of mouth this information about the conversion and spiritual growth of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.

The participle form of the verb akouō is usually translated by the English translations (NIV, ESV, TNIV) as a causal participle which indicates the cause or the reason or the basis of the action of the finite verb, which in our context appears in verse, namely, eucharisteō.

Usually, the causal participle will precede the verb it modifies, which is the case here in Ephesians 1:15.

This type of participle answers the question, why?

Therefore, if the verb akouō is a causal participle it would mean that it is answering the question as to why Paul gave thanks for the recipients of the Ephesian epistle and interceded for them in prayer to the Father.

So Paul would be saying that he gave thanks and interceded in prayer to the Father for the recipients of the Ephesian epistle “because” of their conversion through faith in Jesus Christ and in addition their love which they exercised towards each other after their justification.

However, the participle form of the verb akouōcan be interpreted as a temporal participle.

Now, the aorist tense of the verb is normally, but not always antecedent in time to the action of the main verb.

But when the aorist participle is related to an aorist main verb, the participle will often be contemporaneous or simultaneous with the action of the main verb.

However, the main verb pauō, which appears in Ephesians 1:16 is in the present tense which is significant since if Paul wanted to express a causal idea, he would have put akouō in the present tense but instead he puts the word in the aorist tense.

This strongly suggests that Paul’s emphasis is a temporal idea rather than a causal one.

Furthermore, the prepositional phrase Dia touto (Διὰ τοῦτο), “because of this” points back as we noted to the contents of Ephesians 1:3-14 indicating that the reason why Paul interceded in prayer for the recipients of the Ephesian epistle was that they were believers in Jesus Christ and identified with Him.

Thus, to interpret the verb akouō as a causal participle would be redundant.

Therefore, for these reasons it is better to interpret akouōas expressing a temporal idea and specifically antecedent action which should be translated “after.”

This would indicate that the action of Paul hearing about the conversion of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle and the divine-love they practiced amongst each other after this conversion takes place antecedent or prior to the time Paul gave thanks to the Father for them and interceding in prayer for them.

Therefore, the antecedent temporal participle indicates that Paul continued making it his habit of giving thanks to the Father when he prayed for the recipients of the Ephesian epistle “after” hearing of their faith in the Lord Jesus at their justification as well as hearing about them practicing the love of God on behalf of all the saints.

However, even though syntax of the sentence expresses a temporal idea, the implication is causal meaning that by informing the recipients of the Ephesian epistle when he thanked the Father for them and interceded in prayer for them, he is also giving them two reasons for this thanksgiving and intercessory prayer for them.

In other words, by telling them the two occasions which prompted him to thank the Father for them and intercede in prayer for them, he is clearly implying that these two occasions, also gave him two reasons for thanking the Father for them and interceding in prayer for them.

The syntax of the sentence makes clear that Paul is telling his readers when he thanked the Father for them and interceded in prayer for them and by doing so he is providing them the two reasons which caused this thanksgiving and intercessory prayer for them.

Hearing of their conversion and of them practicing the love of God toward all Christians gave Paul two reasons to offer thanksgiving to the Father for them and intercede in prayer for them.

Now, it appears strange that Paul writes of hearing about the faith and love of the recipients of this letter when the books of Acts makes clear that he knew the Ephesians face to face or personally (cf. Acts 19:8-10; 20:31).

However, as we noted in our introduction, the recipients of the Ephesian epistle are not only members of the Ephesian Christian community but also members of the various Christian communities throughout the Roman province of Asia because this epistle is a circular letter.

The Ephesian epistle is a circular letter in the sense that it was intended to be read not only by the Christian community in the city of Ephesus but also by the many house churches throughout the Roman province of Asia, which is now called Turkey.

As we noted previously, we would expect that Paul’s lengthy stay in Ephesus would prompt him to send personal greetings in this epistle, but this is not the case.

However, this absence would be understandable if the letter is a circulatory letter intended for all the various house churches in the Roman province of Asia.