3 Things Every Christian Needs
Three Things Every Christian Needs
After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints. Sometimes we forget that we should pray as earnestly for people after they are saved, as we do for their salvation. The faith and love of these Ephesian believers was an incentive to Paul to pray for their continued spiritual growth. 16. Cease not to give thanks for you. Thanks on your behalf; that is, thanks to God for what he had done for the Ephesians. Making mention of you in my prayers. Paul did not regard prayer as something vague and indefinite. He remembered them and their needs specifically before God.
He who hears and answers prayer is described firstly as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. More frequently we have the title ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (see on v. 3), but here (where the following phrase doubtless has influenced the form of this) simply has God, that is, the God whom he acknowledges and whom he reveals to us. There is nothing in the expression which is contrary to his own sharing of the Godhead; for he could speak of the Father as ‘my God’ (Matt. 27:46; John 20:17). Secondly, he is the Father of glory. (Cf. the titles ‘God of glory’ in Acts 7:2 and ‘Lord of Glory’ in 1 Cor. 2:8.) He is the Father to whom all glory belongs; for all the power and majesty revealed in creation, providence and redemption (see on v. 6) are his, and he the source. Such a thought of who God is gives to prayer a sense of awe and strengthens faith in those who pray (cf. 3:14ff.).
Father of glory (ὁ πατὴρ τῆς δόξης). The Father to whom the glory belongs.
The Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Spirit has not the article, but the reference is to the Holy Spirit. Compare Matt. 12:28; Luke 1:15, 35, 41; Rom. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:2. Wisdom and revelation are special forms of the Spirit’s operation. He imparts general illumination (wisdom) and special revelations of divine mysteries. The combination of two words with an advance in thought from the general to the special is characteristic of Paul. Compare grace and apostleship, Rom. 1:5; gifts and calling, Rom. 11:29; wisdom and prudence, Eph. 1:8; wisdom and knowledge, Col. 2:3.
In the knowledge of Him (ἐν ἐπιγνώσει αὐτοῦ). The sphere in which they will receive God’s gift of wisdom and revelation. To know God is to be wise. The condition is not merely acknowledgment, but knowledge. Ἐπίγνωσις knowledge is never ascribed to God in the New Testament. Of Him refers to God.
1:15–17. The complexity and magnitude of these truths is beyond the ability of us to comprehend or appreciate fully. Therefore, Paul follows the presentation of these truths with a prayer for our enlightenment. He prays generally that the believers might have a Spirit of wisdom and of revelation, so that [they] may know him better. Wisdom involves the practical ability to act on what one knows and believes. Revelation is God letting you experience himself and his truth. Paul referred to it here as guiding one into God’s truth and God’s way of life. For us it also involves God’s authoritative revelation in Scripture. Wisdom then becomes the practical ability to understand Scripture and apply its truth to daily living
Ask God to teach you through His Spirit...
Our Hope Comes From God 18a
Our Eternal Riches Come From God. 18b
We enter into the “hope of his calling” by faith. That calling has its commencement in the council chambers of the living God in eternity past (Ephesians 1:4); it has its continuance in our coming to know Christ as Savior and the Holy Spirit as Comforter (1:13); and it has its completion in Heaven (1:14).
Our God is Exceedingly Powerful. 19-23
In Christ. In the case of Christ. Christ’s dead body was the point on which this working of divine power was exhibited.