Paul Prays For Christians To Know God

After Paul's long explosion of praise to God for his spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3-14), he begins to pray for the church at Ephesus. That's right; he's in prison, but he is full of praise and prayer! You can't put chains on that.

Faith and Love
Paul says he has heard about the Ephesians faith in Christ and love for the saints (1:15). These two things go together. No one has faith in Jesus who does not love his church (1 John 3:14). God’s people love God’s people. God’s people grow in their love for God’s people. This is a fruit of being born again.

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.                 Psalm 16:3, ESV

Prayer For Revelation: To Know God (v17).
So Paul has told the church that he is praying for them. Now he tells them what he is praying! “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him…”

Notice first the God-centeredness of his prayer. Paul is praying to GOD! Prayer is not wishful thinking or listening to ourselves talk. We are speaking with the Creator God who has revealed himself to us in Scripture and in Christ! Paul also prays in a way that acknowledges the three Persons in the One God. He is praying to the Father, in reference to the Son, for blessings given by the Spirit (many commentators believe the ‘spirit of wisdom and revelation’ refers to the Holy Spirit himself).

Notice also the God-centeredness of his request. Paul is not only praying TO God, and speaking to God ABOUT God (Father, Son and Spirit), but his request is FOR God; He prays that God would show God to the Ephesians! What they need is God himself! And so Paul prays that God give them ‘knowledge’ of God. Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God and Jesus Christ (John 17:3).

The world does not know God (John 8:54-55; 1 Cor 1:21; Gal 4:8; 1 Thess 4:5; 2 Thess 1:8; Titus 1:16). God must reveal himself; we need the Holy Spirit to give us ‘wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.’ Even believers need the Spirit to continue to reveal God to us.

Prayer For Revelation: To Grasp the Spiritual Blessings (v18-23).
Paul has prayed that the Ephesians be given revelation in order to know God. But he continues to pray, that God may give more revelation to their hearts, so that they may understand the spiritual blessings given to them in Christ. “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know…” (18a). Paul prays for God to shine light on the inward eyes, revealing truth to the hearts of these believers!

Even believers can sometimes walk in dullness, unaware of the great truths of God, the glorious spiritual blessings we already have! We need to be reminded (Rom 15:15; 2 Pet 1:13; 3:1), by preaching the gospel to ourselves daily (Lk 9:23; Rom 6:11; Jude 1:21), hearing it from the other saints (Heb 3:13; 10:24-25), and receiving spiritual illumination from the Holy Spirit, which is what Paul asks for here.

Paul prays for spiritual illumination, “that you may know” three things:

1. The Hope of God’s Call (18b). “what is the hope to which he has called you…” Before coming to Christ through the gospel, the Ephesians were “having no hope and without God in the world” (2:12). Now they have hope. What made the difference? God’s call. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, God called the Ephesians out of darkness and into the kingdom of his Son. They now have HOPE (“confident expectation” – Mounce). Verses 3-14 have described the spiritual blessings lavished on the Ephesians (and all who are ‘in Christ’). Their hope is based on God’s gracious work on their behalf. He has chosen them, predestined them to adoption as sons, given Christ to redeem them from sins by his blood, and then called them through the work of the Spirit in the gospel call. What a solid foundation for hope!

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:30, ESV

2. The Riches of God’s Saints (18c). “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…”
The word inheritance can either be translated as our inheritance or God’s inheritance. It is either speaking of the saints’ glorious inheritance waiting for us in heaven, or God’s inheritance of his chosen people. Both of these are biblically true statements, and so the point is this: Paul prays that we would understand the riches of the relationship between God and his people, the church, which will be enjoyed forever in glory. This is truly a lavish inheritance, for it is full of the love of God! We will be with him and enjoy his glorious grace forever; and he will bring to himself, for his own enjoyment, the people he has chosen and loved before the creation of the world!

Consider the value of the church in God’s sight. “The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” Paul wants us to have illumination so that we will grasp the value of the church to God. This relationship between the Lord and his people is a wealthy inheritance full of glory! This verse should correct any of us who have a low view of the church. The church is the rich inheritance of God!

3. The Greatness of God’s Power (19-23).
“and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe…” Paul not only wants us to understand the hope of our call and the riches of God’s forever relationship with his church; the last thing he prays for us to ‘get’ is that God’s mighty, infinite, sovereign power – his power that is immeasurably great – is ‘toward us who believe!’ The Almighty One is exerting his unfathomable power for the benefit of the church (O’Brien)! What a thought! No wonder Paul prays that the Ephesians have insight into this!