Ephesians 3.16a-Paul Prayed the Father Would Cause the Recipients of the Letter to be Given Strength By Means of Power Through the Spirit
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday August 17, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:16a-Paul Prayed the Father Would Cause the Recipients of the Letter to be Given Strength By Means of Power Through the Spirit
Lesson # 172
Ephesians 3:14 For this reason, I make it my habit of bending my knees in the presence of the Father 15 from whom each and every family located in the heavens as well as located upon the earth is designated a name. 16 I make it a habit of occupying myself with praying that according to the wealth produced by His glory He would cause each and every one of you as a corporate unit to be given strength by means of power through the personal intermediate agency of His Spirit for the benefit of your inner being. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 3:16 is composed of the following:
(1) direct object clause hina dō hymin…dynamei krataiōthēnai (ἵνα δῷ ὑμῖν…δυνάμει κραταιωθῆναι), “that…He would cause each and every one of you as a corporate unit to be given strength by means of power.”
(2) prepositional phrase: kata to ploutos tēs doxēs autou (κατὰ τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ), “according to the wealth produced by His glory.”
(3) prepositional phrase: dia tou pneumatos autou (διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ), “through the personal intermediate agency of His Spirit.”
(4) prepositional phrase: eis ton esō anthrōpon (εἰς τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον), “for the benefit of your inner being.”
Paul is using the figuring of ellipsis because he is deliberately omitting the first person singular present middle indicative conjugation of the verb proseuchomai (προσεύχομαι), though it is implied from the context.
Here the verb refers to the intercessory prayer of the apostle Paul offered up to the Father on behalf of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle but without reference to the fact that it is intercessory.
Thus it simply refers to prayer in its general sense or the simple act of making a prayer to the Father without reference to its content.
The context indicates it refers to Paul’s intercessory prayer on behalf of the recipients of this letter because the contents of Ephesians 3:16-21 make this clear.
The present tense of the verb proseuchomai is a customary present used to signal an action that is to regularly occur indicating that Paul “made it his habit of” or “regularly” interceding in prayer to the Father on behalf of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.
The middle voice of the verb is an intensive middle, which would indicate that Paul made it his habit of “occupying himself” with interceding in prayer to the Father on behalf of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.
Therefore, we can see that the clause hina (ἵνα) direct object clause is modified by these three prepositional phrases, which together present the content of Paul’s second intercessory in this epistle.
They assert that Paul made it his habit of occupying himself with praying to the Father that according to the wealth produced by His glory He would cause each and every one of the recipients of this epistle to be given strength by means of power through the personal intermediate agency of His Spirit for the benefit of their inner being.
The dative second personal plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), “each and every one of you as a corporate unit” not only refers to the recipients of the epistle as a corporate unit but is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions expressing Paul’s concern for each and every one of them.
This word functions as a dative of interest or advantage or benefaction, which indicates that Paul’s intercessory prayer to the Father here in Ephesians 3:16-21 is “for the benefit of” of “on behalf of” each and every one of the recipients of the epistle as individuals and as a corporate unit.
The verb didōmi (δίδωμι) pertains to causing someone to have something in an abstract or physical sense.
Here the former is in view since it speaks of the Father causing each and every one of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner being according to the wealth of His glory.
The referent of the first person singular form of this verb is of course the Father.
The active voice of this verb is a causative active which would indicate that the Father is not the direct cause of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle being strengthened with power according to the wealth of His glory.
Rather, the Holy Spirit is directly involved in this action of strengthening the recipients of this epistle with power as indicated by the prepositional phrase dia tou pneumatos autou (διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ), “through the personal intermediate agency of the Spirit.”
The latter expresses the fact that the Holy Spirit is the Father’s personal intermediate agency who will strengthen the recipients of this epistle with power.
Therefore, the causative active voice is expressing the idea of the Father causing each and every one of the recipients of the epistle to be strengthened with power “through the personal intermediate agency of” the Holy Spirit in the inner being according to the wealth of His glory.
The verb krataioō (κραταιόω) means “to become strengthened, to become powerful or strong” in a spiritual sense.
The noun dunamis (δύναμις), “by means of power” refers to the exercise of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, which is indicated by the dia tou pneumatos autou (διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ), “through his Spirit,” (NET), which modifies it.
This word functions as a marker of means, which indicates the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit is “the means by which” the recipients of this letter will be strengthened for the benefit of their inner being or new Christ nature according to the wealth produced by the Father’s glory, i.e., the manifestation of His transcendent character and nature through both the work of the Son and the Spirit.
Therefore, this expresses the idea that Paul is praying that the recipients of this letter will be strengthened in their inner being or new nature according to the wealth produced by the Father’s glory, i.e., the manifestation of His transcendent character and nature which was accomplished through the work of the Son and the Spirit, “by means of” power through the personal intermediate agency of the Holy Spirit.
The noun pneuma (πνεῦμα), “Spirit” refers of course to the Holy Spirit.
The articular construction of this word is employed with genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), which refers to the Father, to denote possession.
The latter is expressing the relationship between the Father and the Spirit.
This construction emphasizes the Spirit is in a relationship with the Father and is also distinguishing the Spirit from the Father.
The noun pneuma (πνεῦμα), “Spirit” is the object of the preposition dia (διά), which functions as a marker of personal intermediate agency, which indicates that the Father will strengthen the recipients of this letter with power for the benefit of their new Christ nature “through the personal intermediate agency of the Spirit.
The passive voice of the verb krataioō (κραταιόω) indicates that these Gentile church age believers living in the Roman province of Asia would receive the action of being strengthened with power through the personal intermediate agency of the Holy Spirit for the benefit of their new indwelling Christ nature, which is according to the wealth produced by the Father’s glory.
Therefore, this is another “divine-passive,” which Paul employs in the Ephesian epistle.
The contents of Paul’s first intercessory prayer on behalf of the recipients of this epistle, which appears in Ephesians 1:15-23 also mentions that the omnipotence of God.
Paul teaches that the same omnipotence that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is available to each and every church age believer who is in union with Him and identified with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
Ephesians 1:15 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 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. 18 Namely, that the eyes of your heart are enlightened in order that each and every one of you would possess the conviction of what constitutes being the confident expectation of blessing produced by His effectual call, what constitutes His inheritance, which is characterized by glorious wealth, residing in the person of the saints. 19 Also, what constitutes being His incomparable, great power on behalf of each one of us who believe which is equivalent to the exertion of His sovereign, omnipotent power to overcome. (Author’s translation)
The noun megethos (μέγεθος), “great” describes the Father’s omnipotence as preeminent and superior in relation to the power of His moral rational creatures, namely angels and human beings and the verb hyperballō (ὑπερβάλλω), “incomparable” describes the His omnipotence as eminent and beyond comparison.
The noun dunamis (δύναμις), “power” refers to the omnipotence of God the Father which He exercised on behalf of the church age believer through the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session of His Son Jesus Christ.
Secondly, it refers to the Father’s omnipotence, which He manifested through the work of the Holy Spirit on behalf of the church age believer at their justification when the Spirit identified the church age believer with Jesus Christ in these events in His life.
So therefore, Ephesians 1:19 is of course speaking about the Father’s divine omnipotence which was manifested on behalf of the church age believer through both the work of the Son and the Spirit.
This omnipotence is now available to the church age when they appropriate their union and identification with Jesus Christ.