The Productive Prayer Life of Paul-Ephesians 3:14-21

Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (NASB95)

In Ephesians 3:14-21, the apostle Paul prays a second time for the Ephesians.

His first prayer for them is contained in Ephesians 1:15-22.

In this passage, we have the “protocol” and “posture” of Paul’s prayer.

Notice that Paul addresses his prayers to the Father and not to the Lord Jesus.

All prayer made by the believer-priest in the church age must be addressed to God the Father (John 14:13-14; 16:23-27; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 2:18; 3:14; 5:20; Col. 1:3, 12; 3:17; 1 Pet. 1:17; Rev. 1:6).

Ephesians 3:14 also reveals the “posture” of Paul’s prayer meaning he states that he bows his knees to the Father.

The Scriptures do not command a particular posture in prayer (position of the physical body as a whole) since it is the posture or attitude of the heart, which is important to God, thus it can be accomplished sitting, standing, kneeling down or on one’s face.

Although bodily posture is secondary to the attitude of the soul, it is instructive to note that at times the Lord Jesus Christ prayed while standing, wherever He happened to be at the moment (Mt. 14:19).

Ephesians 3:16-19 gives us the “petitions” that compose Paul’s prayer.

Paul’s prayer consists of three petitions and this is indicated in the original Greek text where Paul employs the conjunction hina with the subjunctive mood of the three different verbs in order to denote the purpose for which he prayed to the Father.

The first petition is that the Ephesians would be strengthened with power through the Spirit in the inner man.

“The inner man” refers to the new Christ nature that the believer receives at the moment of justification through regeneration.

At the moment of justification, through regeneration, the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life by God the Father, thus giving the believer a new nature, the nature of Christ.

The new Christ nature gives the believer the capacity to experience and enjoy fellowship with God and to love all men as Christ loved all men.

We are commanded to put on the new Christ nature in order to practice the righteousness of God, which manifests itself in loving one another as Christ loved.

The inner man, the new Christ nature is strengthened with power through the Spirit when the believer obeys the voice of the Spirit, which is heard through the communication of the Word of God.

The Word of God is alive and powerful and is the believer’s spiritual food that strengthens the new nature’s control over the soul.

Ephesians 3:17 contains the result of Paul’s first petition being fulfilled.

It teaches us that there are two things that will result when we are strengthened with power through the Spirit in the new Christ nature:

(1) Christ will dwell in our hearts through faith.

(2) We will be rooted and grounded by means of His love for us.

Christ dwells in our hearts when we think like Christ and this is accomplished through faith in the Word of Christ.

This principle of faith operates quite simply: God speaks and we hear His Word.

Faith is the positive response and obedience to God’s commands and prohibitions and acting upon those directions.

The believer is commanded to walk by faith and not by sight (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7).

What does it mean to be rooted and grounded in love in Ephesians 3:17?

To be rooted and grounded in love means that our love for others is motivated by our love for the Lord and our love for the Lord is demonstrated by our obedience to His commands to love one another and our obedience to His commands is the response in our souls to the love, which He exercised towards us (1 John 4:7-11).

Ephesians 3:18-19a contains the second petition of Paul’s prayer.

From the English translations, it appears that there are two petitions but in the Greek, there is only one.

The phrase “to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge” defines for us the second petition and tells us what these four dimensions refer to.

These four-fold dimensions in Ephesians 3:18 are a reference to Christ’s love for us.

“And to know” is the verb ginosko, which refers to an experiential knowledge of Christ’s love for us.

An experiential knowledge of Christ’s love for us means that we personally encounter His love through the process of fellowship and being affected by this encounter in the gaining of practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Christ.

Ginosko functions grammatically as an “epexegetical” infinitive meaning it is defining for us what Paul is talking about when he uses the terms “breadth, length, height” and “depth” in Ephesians 3:18.

Therefore, Paul’s second petition in Ephesians 3:18-19a is that the Ephesian believers would be able to comprehend spiritually and to know experientially with all believers the infinite, eternal love that the Lord Jesus Christ’s has for them.

“The breadth” of Christ’s love is His willingness to die for all men both Jew and Gentile and accept both Jew and Gentile into the family of God through faith in Himself (Jn. 3:16; Eph. 2:11-22).

“The length” of Christ’s love refers to the fact that He loved us before the foundation of the world and elected us to the privilege of a relationship and fellowship with Himself before the foundation of the world.

“The height” of Christ’s love in that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in the Person of Christ and have been raised and seated with Christ at the Father’s right hand.

“The depth” of Christ’s love for us is seen in that He was separated from the Father during those last three hours of darkness on the cross and then died physically and was buried.

Ephesians 3:19b contains the third and final petition of Paul’s prayer.

“You may be filled up to all the fullness of God” refers to becoming spiritually mature, which is the maximum production of Christ-like character produced by the Holy Spirit in the believer who experiences fellowship with the Lord.

Ephesians 3:20-21 contains Paul’s doxology meaning Paul is “praising” God for who and what He is and the power He has demonstrated towards us through the death, resurrection and session of His Son Jesus Christ.