Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:17d-An Experiential Knowledge of the Father

Ephesians 1:1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will to the saints who are living in Ephesus. Specifically to those who are believers in Christ Jesus. 2 May the grace originating from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ resulting in peace cause itself to be manifested for the benefit of each and every one of you. 3 The God, namely the Father of the Lord ruling over us, who is Jesus Christ, is worthy of praise. Namely, because He is the one who has blessed each and every one of us by means of each and every kind of Spirit appropriated blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. 4 For He chose each and every one of us for His own purpose because of Him alone before creation in order that each and every one of us would be holy as well as uncensurable in His judgment. 5 He did this by predestinating each and every one of us for the purpose of adoption as sons because of His love through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will. 6 This was for the purpose of praising His glorious grace, which He freely bestowed on each and every one of us because of the one who is divinely loved. 7 Because of whom, each one of us are experiencing that which is the redemption through His blood, namely the forgiveness of our transgressions according to His infinite grace. 8 This He provided in abundance for the benefit of each and every one of us because of the exercise of a wisdom, which is absolute and divine in nature resulting in the manifestation of an insight, which is absolute and divine in nature. 9 He did this by revealing the mystery of His will for the benefit of each and every one of us according to His pleasure, which He planned beforehand because of our faith in and union and identification with Himself. 10 This was for the dispensation which brings to completion the various periods of history. Namely, to unite for the benefit of Himself each and every animate and inanimate object in the sphere of the sovereign authority of the person of the one and only Christ. Specifically, to unite for the benefit of Himself those things in the heavens as well as those things on the earth in the sphere of the sovereign authority of Himself. 11 Because of whom, each and every one of us has been claimed as a possession because of having been predestinated according to the predetermined plan. Namely, the one who is causing each and every animate and inanimate object to function according to His purpose, that is, His sovereign will 12 in order that each and every one of us would belong to a particular group of people. Namely, those who are certain of possessing a confident expectation of blessing because of their faith in and union and identification with the one and only Christ for the purpose of praising His glory. 13 Correspondingly, because of whom, each and every one of you were sealed by means of the omnipotence of the one and only promised Spirit, who is holy because each and every one of you obeyed the one and only message, which is truth, namely, the proclamation of the one and only gospel, which produced your salvation. Specifically, because each one of you believed in Him. 14 The Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until He redeems His possession for the praise of His glory. 15 For this reason, after I myself heard about the faith among each and every one of you in the one and only Lord Jesus as well as you are practicing divine-love, which is on behalf of each and every one of the saints, 16 I never permit myself to cease regularly expressing thanks to the one and only God because of each and every one of you. I do this while disciplining myself to make it my practice of remembering each and every one of you during my prayers. 17 I make it a habit of occupying myself with praying that the God, that is, the glorious Father of the one and only Lord ruling over each and every one of us as a corporate unit, who is Jesus Christ, would cause each and every one of you to receive divine wisdom, specifically, divine revelatory wisdom provided by the one and only Spirit with respect to an experiential knowledge of Himself. (Lecturer’s translation)

Now, in Ephesians 1:17, the noun epignōsis (ἐπίγνωσις) means, “an experiential knowledge” since the word pertains to possessing an experiential knowledge of someone or something and being affected by this encounter in that a person gains more practical wisdom and as a result mature in character.

Therefore, here in Ephesians 1:17, the word speaks of recipients of the Ephesian epistle personally encountering the Father by exercising faith in Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching and being affected by this encounter in that they gain a practical wisdom and more of the character of Christ.

The genitive masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos(αὐτός) means “He Himself” whose antecedent is God the Father since they agree in gender (masculine) and number (singular).

This word functions as an objective genitive, which indicates that the Father receives the action of being known experientially by the recipients of the Ephesian epistle or personally encountered by them.

Therefore, the noun epignōsis (ἐπίγνωσις) means, “experiential knowledge” and refers to the recipients of the Ephesian epistle personally encountering the Father by receiving His wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit through Paul’s apostolic teaching, which he communicated in this epistle.

In other words, this word speaks of the recipients of the epistle personally encountering the Father through the process of fellowship when they accept by faith this revelation provided them through Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching.

The intended result is that they would gain practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Christ.

The noun epignōsis (ἐπίγνωσις) is the object of the preposition en (ἐν), which functions here as a marker of an experiencer of an event expressing the idea that the recipients of the Ephesian epistle would receive divine revelatory wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit “with respect to” an experiential knowledge of the Father.

In other words, the recipients of the Ephesian epistle would personally encounter the Father by accepting by faith Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching.

This would result in them gaining more practical divine wisdom and more of the character of Christ.

The implication is that by accepting by faith the divine revelation Paul received from the Holy Spirit, the recipients of the Ephesian epistle would not only receive divine wisdom but also would possess an experiential knowledge of the Father.

In other words, by accepting by faith the divine revelation Paul received from the Holy Spirit, the recipients of the Ephesian epistle would not only receive divine wisdom but also would personally encounter the Father.

Paul’s intercessory prayer on behalf of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle in Ephesians 1:17-23 sounds similar to his intercessory prayer on behalf of the Colossian Christian community in Colossians 1:9-12 since they share much of the same language.

Colossians 1:3 We continue making it our habit of giving thanks to God namely the Father of our Lord, who is Jesus, who is the Christ when we make it our habit of occupying ourselves with praying on behalf of each and every one of you as a corporate unit. 4 We do this because we heard about your faith in Christ, who is Jesus and in addition your love which you continue to regularly demonstrate for the benefit of each and every one of the saints. 5 All of you do this because of the confident expectation which is reserved in the heavens for all of you. All of you heard this by means of the teaching, which is the truth, namely the proclamation of the gospel. which all of you continue to appropriate for the benefit of all of you. Just as in fact throughout the entire world, it continues to produce fruit as well as spread so also it continues to produce fruit as well as spread among all of you from the day all of you obeyed. Consequently, all of you acquired an objective experiential knowledge of the grace originating from God by means of the truth. 7 Just as all of you learned the truth from Epaphras, our beloved fellow-servant who is faithfully serving the Christ on behalf of each and every one of us. 8 The one who also revealed to us your divine-love by means of the Spirit’s power. 9 For this reason also, from the day we ourselves heard about all of you, we never permit ourselves to cease making it our habit of occupying ourselves with praying on behalf of each and every one of you. Specifically, we make it our habit of occupying ourselves with making urgent requests that (God) would cause all of you to be filled with that which is knowing His will experientially by means of a wisdom which is absolute resulting in a discernment which is spiritual. 10 The purpose would be all of you living your lives in a manner worthy of the Lord so as to be fully pleasing to Him. This would result in all of you bearing fruit by means of each and every kind of action which is divine good in quality and character and in addition increasing in knowing experientially God the Father. (Lecturer’s translation)

When Paul speaks of the Colossians knowing the Father experientially, he is speaking of them personally encountering the Father through the process of experiential sanctification or fellowship with Him as the Father is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the pages of Scripture and prayer.

It also refers to being affected by this encounter with the Father while experiencing fellowship with Him.

This will in turn result in the gaining of practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Christ.

Colossians 1:11 This is because of all of you are empowered by means of a power which is absolute, because of a power which is sovereign, namely, His glory. The purpose of which is to perfectly embody perseverance as well as patience with joy. 12 All the while, all of you making it your habit of giving thanks to the Father who has qualified each and every one of you with regards to sharing in the saints’ inheritance residing in that which is characterized by light. (Lecturer’s translation)