Ephesians 3.19c-The Church Age Believer Experiencing the Abolute Fullness of God's Love for Them
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday September 14, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:19c-The Church Age Believer Experiencing the Absolute Fullness of God’s Love for Them
Lesson # 184
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). 19 Ultimately, to cause each one of you as a corporate unit to know the one and only Christ’s love for all of you without exception, which in comparison is an incomprehensible knowledge, in order to cause each one of you as a corporate unit to fulfill the purpose of experiencing the absolute fullness, namely, the one and only God’s love for all of you without exception. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 3:19 is composed of the following:
(1) complementary infinitival clause: gnōnai…tēn hyperballousan tēs gnōseōs agapēn tou Christou (γνῶναί…τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως ἀγάπην τοῦ Χριστοῦ), “to cause each one of you as a corporate unit to know the one and only Christ’s love for the benefit of all of you without exception, which in comparison is an incomprehensible knowledge.” (Author’s translation)
(2) hina (ἵνα) purpose-result clause: hina plērōthēte eis pan to plērōma tou theou (ἵνα πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ), “in order to cause each one of you as a corporate unit to fulfill the purpose of experiencing the absolute fullness, namely, the one and only God’s love for all of you without exception.” (Author’s translation)
The complementary infinitival clause advances upon and intensifies the one which appears in Ephesians 3:18.
The latter expresses Paul’s Spirit inspired desire that the recipients of this epistle would cause themselves to be able to fully comprehend with each and every one of the saints what constitutes the breadth, length, height and depth.
The former expresses his Spirit inspired desire that they know experientially Jesus Christ’s love for them.
Therefore, the advancement and intensification is between “comprehending” and “knowing experientially” Jesus Christ’s love for the recipients of this epistle.
This interpretation is indicated by the fact that in Ephesians 3:18, the verb katalambanomai (καταλαμβάνομαι) speaks of the recipients of this epistle grasping the nature, significance or meaning of the four dimensions of Christ’s love for them.
On the other hand, as we will note, in Ephesians 3:19, the verb ginōskō (γινώσκω) speaks of the recipients of this epistle “knowing experientially” Jesus Christ’s love for them.
The latter is an advancement upon the former because it requires that the believer accept by faith Jesus Christ’s love for them, which gives them the capacity to practice the Lord’s command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He loved the church age believer.
To “comprehend” something is to grasp it with the intellect.
However, to “experience” something is to personally encounter it.
Now, the hina (ἵνα) purpose-result clause in Ephesians 3:19 presents both the purpose and the result of the recipients of this epistle being able to fully know Jesus Christ’s love for them experientially.
Thus, this would indicate that the recipients of this epistle being filled up to all the fullness of God accomplishes the Father’s purpose of them knowing Jesus Christ’s love for them experientially.
Being filled up to all the fullness of God is an elliptical statement which in actuality speaks of the recipients of this letter knowing Christ’s love for them experientially as causing them to experience the absolute fullness, that is, the one and only God’s love for them.
Paul employs the figure of ellipsis in this hina (ἵνα) purpose-result clause, which means that he deliberately omits the articular genitive feminine singular form of the noun agapē (ἀγάπη), “divine-love” though it is implied from the context.
It functions as a genitive of apposition or epexegetical genitive, which indicates that this fullness is identified as being the Father’s attribute of love, which He demonstrated to the human race by sending His Son into the world to become a human being and suffer His wrath in place of all of unregenerate humanity and perfectly keep the Law of God, which unregenerate humanity had no capacity to do.
The noun plērōma (πλήρωμα), “fullness” pertains to the totality and completeness is related to the Father’s attribute of love, which was perfectly manifested by His Son in relation to the church age believer.
Thus, it refers to the Father’s attribute of love.
This word contains the figure of metonymy, which means that the fullness of God the Father’s love for the church age believer is put for experiencing the fullness of the Father’s love for them or in other words, experiencing the fullness of the Father’s love for them in its totality or entirety.
This word functions as a genitive of apposition or epexegetical genitive, which means it defines the referent of the noun plērōma (πλήρωμα), which is ambiguous and begs to be defined.
Thus, this indicates that this fullness is identified as being the Father’s attribute of love, which He demonstrated to the human race by sending His Son into the world to become a human being and suffer His wrath in place of all of unregenerate humanity and perfectly keep the Law of God, which unregenerate humanity had no capacity to do.
The noun theos (θεός) functions as a subjective genitive, which means that the genitive substantive functions semantically as the subject of the verbal idea implicit in the head noun, which is the noun plērōma (πλήρωμα), which is modified by the noun agapē (ἀγάπη), which is omitted but implied from the context.
Therefore, this construction speaks of the recipients of this epistle experiencing God the Father’s love for them in its totality, i.e., fullness.
The noun plērōma (πλήρωμα), “fullness” is also modified by the accusative neuter singular form of the adjective pas (πᾶς), which means “absolute” since in this context, the word pertains to perfectly embodying the nature of a thing.
Since it is used in relation to the Father’s love for the child of God, this adjective is describing the fullness of the attribute of divine-love for the child of God being perfectly embodied by God the Father.
This word is the object of preposition eis (εἰς), which functions as a marker of purpose indicating that the recipients of this epistle experiencing the fullness of God the Father’s love for them is the purpose for which Paul wants them to know Jesus Christ’s love for them experientially.
The verb plēroō (πληρόω) is expressing the idea that by the recipients of this epistle causing themselves to know Jesus Christ’s love for them experientially, the Holy Spirit would enable them to experience the fullness of God, i.e., the fullness or totality of the Father’s love for them.
The aorist tense of this verb plēroō (πληρόω) is a constative aorist, which describes in summary fashion the idea of the recipients of this epistle knowing Jesus Christ’s love for them experientially, which in turn causes them to experience the fullness or totality of God the Father’s love for them.
The aorist tense is not an ingressive aorist, which would express the idea of the recipients of this epistle “entering into the state of” being filled up to the fullness of God’s love as a result of possessing an experiential knowledge of the Lord’s love for them.
This is indicated by the fact that in Ephesians 1:15, Paul affirmed that the recipients of this letter, which we noted were Gentile church age believers living in the Roman province of Asia, were already practicing the command to love one another, which along with their justifying and post-justification faith, was the reason why he interceded in prayer to the Father for them on a regular basis.
Therefore, they already possessed an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ’s love for them as manifested by the fact that they were already obeying the Lord’s command to love one another as He has loved them (cf. John 13:34; 15:12).
The passive voice of the verb plēroō (πληρόω) indicates that these Gentile church age believers as the subject would receive the action of being able to experience the absolute fullness of God the Father’s love for them through the personal intermediate agency of the Holy Spirit.
The power of the Holy Spirit would be appropriated when these Gentile Christians appropriate by faith Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching in this letter.