Ephesians 3.18a-The Purpose of Paul's Intercessory Prayer Request for the Recipients of This Epistle
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday September 3, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:18a-The Purpose of Paul’s Intercessory Prayer Request for the Recipients of the Epistle
Lesson # 179
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. 17 Namely that the one and only Christ’s power would dwell in your hearts through your faith …because each and every one of you are firmly rooted, yes specifically, because of all of you without exception are firmly established by means of the practice of divine-love, 18 each and every one of you as a corporate unit would cause yourselves to be able to fully comprehend with each and every one of the saints what constitutes being the breadth, length, height and depth (of Christ’s love for each and every one of you as a corporate unit). (Lecturer’s translation)
Now, as we noted in our study of Ephesians 3:17, the conjunction hina (ἵνα), which appears in Ephesians 3:18, introduces the assertion exischysēte katalabesthai syn pasin tois hagiois ti to platos kai mēkos kai hypsos kai bathos (ἐξισχύσητε καταλαβέσθαι σὺν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἁγίοις τί τὸ πλάτος καὶ μῆκος καὶ ὕψος καὶ βάθος), “each and every one of you as a corporate unit would cause yourselves to be able to fully comprehend with each and every one of the saints what constitutes being the breadth, length, height and depth.” (Lecturer’s translation)
The thought from this assertion in Ephesians 3:18 is completed in Ephesians 3:17 with the causal participial clause en agapē errizōmenoi kai tethemeliōmenoi (ἐν ἀγάπῃ ἐρριζωμένοι καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι), “because each and every one of you are firmly rooted, yes specifically, because all of you without exception are firmly established by means of the practice of divine-love.” (Lecturer’s translation)
Thus, these assertions form a single thought which are being introduced by the conjunction hina (ἵνα).
As we also noted, the participial clause which completes Ephesians 3:18 is causal for emphasis.
Consequently, the conjunction hina (ἵνα) should be translated before the causal participle clause in Ephesians 3:17 rather than to begin Ephesians 3:18.
So therefore, if we translated this causal participle clause in Ephesians 3:17 after the hina (ἵνα) purpose clause in Ephesians 3:18, Paul would be saying the following: “each and every one of you as a corporate unit would cause yourselves to be able to fully comprehend with each and every one of the saints what constitutes being the breadth, length, height and depth because each and every one of you are firmly rooted, yes specifically, because all of you without exception are firmly established by means of the practice of divine-love.” (Lecturer’s translation)
Thus, Ephesians 3:18 is composed of a hina (ἵνα) infinitive purpose clause, which presents the purpose of the hina (ἵνα) direct object clause in Ephesians 3:16 and the one in Ephesians 3:17, which is a complementary infinitive clause that explains the one in Ephesians 3:16.
Therefore, here in Ephesians 3:18, this hina (ἵνα) purpose clause presents the purpose of the Father answering Paul’s intercessory prayer in Ephesians 3:16 that the recipients of this epistle would be given strength by means of power through the personal intermediate agency of the Spirit for the benefit of their inner being, i.e., the indwelling nature of Christ.
In Ephesians 3:17, Paul explains what he means by this request, namely that the power of Christ would dwell in their hearts through their post-justification faith in the Spirit inspired contents of Ephesians.
This hina (ἵνα) purpose clause in Ephesians 3:18 states that the recipients of this epistle would be fully able to comprehend or grasp with the all the saints what constitutes being the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love for them.
Thus, in Ephesians 3:16-18, Paul prays that the recipients of this epistle would be given strength by means of power through the personal intermediate agency of the Spirit for the benefit of their inner being, i.e., the indwelling nature of Christ.
Namely that, the power of Christ would dwell in their hearts through their post-justification faith in the Spirit inspired contents of Ephesians.
The purpose of which is that they would be to fully able to comprehend with all the saints what constitutes being the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love for them.
The reason why they are able to fully comprehend the four dimensions of the Lord’s love for them is that each and every one of them are firmly rooted, yes specifically, because all of them without exception are firmly established by means of the practice of divine-love.
The love of God is manifested in their lives through obedience to the Lord’s Spirit inspired command to love one another.
Consequently, they would have an experiential knowledge of Christ’s love for them when they practice this command, which is the subject of Ephesians 3:19.
