Ephesians 3:20

“For this cause” translates toútou chárin, the same words that open verse 1 (Ephesians 3:1). They tie the prayer to everything Paul has said in this chapter (Ephesians 3:1–13) about “the mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:4), which God has now made known by his Spirit: that the Gentiles “should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6). Paul has just described his own commission to bring that news to the Gentiles. The greatness of what God has done moves him to pray that the people who have received this grace would be strengthened to live in it. What brings him to his knees is a truth about God, and his prayer grows straight out of his teaching.

Paul says “I bow my knees”. The verb kámptō means to bend, and góny is the knee, so the words describe kneeling, which in Israel was a recognised sign of reverence, submission and earnest pleading. Standing was a common posture for prayer among the Jews, and kneeling or lying face down was kept for times of intense petition, confession or worship. Solomon was “kneeling on his knees” when he prayed at the temple (1 Kings 8:54), Daniel “kneeled upon his knees three times a day” (Daniel 6:10), and Paul himself “kneeled down, and prayed with them all” (Acts 20:36). Paul names his posture where he could have said only “I pray”, and it shows how seriously he comes before God, with his whole person bowed in humility and dependence. The humility that kneeling shows belongs in every prayer, whatever position the body is in. Paul writes as a prisoner (Ephesians 3:1), likely in Rome around A.D. 60–62, and he prays this way in chains.

His letters show how often he prayed for the churches, asking for their growth in love, understanding and strength, as he does in Philippians 1:9–11. This is the second great prayer of Ephesians, after his prayer for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in Ephesians 1:17–19.

“Of whom” points back to the Father of verse 14. The word for family, patriá, is formed from patḗr, and it means a lineage, a line of descent from a father, or fatherhood itself. Paul is playing on the two words: the Father (patḗr) is the one from whom the family (patriá) is named. He is the origin of his family and of the very idea of family.

The KJV reads “the whole family”, and pâs means all, every or the whole. Read this way, the verse speaks of the one household of God’s people, taking in both those who have died in faith and are now in heaven and those who are still living on earth. “Heaven and earth” together name the whole, and death leaves the family unbroken. Hebrews speaks of believers coming to the heavenly Jerusalem and the assembly of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:22–23). Because the same word can mean “every”, the verse can also be read as saying that every family and every fatherhood, in heaven or on earth, takes its name from him, so that all true fatherhood has its pattern in God. Both readings put the Father at the source of all belonging.

To name, onomázō, means to name, call or mention. Among the Hebrews, giving a name was an act of authority that marked ownership, identity and destiny. God names this family, so it is his, he brought it into being, and its members share an identity that comes from him and are meant to bear his character, as a child carries the family name. Through Christ, believers are adopted and receive “the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15), and each one is “an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7).

Paul’s first request is for strength. “That he would grant you” uses dídōmi, to give, so the strength is a gift that God gives at his own initiative. Paul asks for inner fortitude and spiritual understanding, which matter far more to him for this church than wealth or earthly success.

God gives “according to the riches of his glory”. The word for riches, ploûtos, comes from a root meaning fulness and speaks of wealth and abundance, and glory, dóxa, is God’s own splendour and majesty. Paul says “according to”, so God gives in proportion to his riches, and his glory has no end. The same measure appears when Paul speaks of the riches of God’s grace in redemption (Ephesians 1:7–8) and when he promises the Philippians that God shall supply all their need according to his riches (Philippians 4:19). Those riches are bound up with “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

“To be strengthened” is krataióō, to empower or make vigorous. The verb is passive, because believers receive this strength from God. “With might” is dýnamis, power that is real and effective, the word behind the English “dynamic”. The strength comes “by his Spirit”. The preposition diá names the means, and pneûma, a word that means breath or wind and then spirit, here means the Holy Spirit, through whom God’s power reaches us. Paul prays in the same way for the Colossians to be strengthened with all might (Colossians 1:11), Isaiah says that God gives power to the faint (Isaiah 40:29), and Paul could say, “I can do all things through Christ” (Philippians 4:13).

The second request is “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”. The verb katoikéō means to house permanently, to reside. Paul asks for Christ to settle in their hearts as his home, at rest there and in charge of it. The heart, kardía, is the centre of a person’s thoughts, feelings, will and spiritual life. “By faith” is diá with pístis: faith is the means by which Christ’s presence is received and kept, through a trust in him that goes on day by day.

Paul is writing to believers, so he is praying for the deepening of what began when they first believed. Christ’s dwelling in a believer starts at salvation, and Paul prays that his presence would fill every part of their lives. Jesus promised it: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). He told his disciples to abide in him as branches abide in the vine (John 15:4–5), and Paul calls it “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Before Christ, God’s presence was often tied to a place, such as the temple. Through the finished work of the Lamb of God, “which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and through the gift of the Spirit, he makes his home in every believer.

The Spirit strengthens the inner man so that Christ may dwell in the heart, and the goal in verse 19 is the fulness of God, so the Father, the Son and the Spirit are all at work in the believer.

The next clause, opened by hína (“that”), begins a purpose that is completed in verse 18: “that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend”. The two words describe the people who will comprehend. Rhizóō means to root, and so to make stable. It is a picture from farming, of a tree whose roots go deep into the soil and draw life and steadiness from it. Themelióō means to lay a foundation. It is a picture from building, of a house that stands through storms because its foundation is solid. Joined by kaí, “and”, the two pictures together describe a life that grows and also holds firm. Both are perfect passive participles, which describe a state that God has already established and that continues. Paul pairs the same ideas in Colossians 2:6–7, where believers are rooted and built up in Christ. Christ is himself “the chief corner stone” of the building (Ephesians 2:20), so he is both the foundation they are grounded on and the source of life they are rooted in.

The soil and the foundation are “love”, en agápē, “in love”. Love is the ground of the whole Christian life. Paul calls it the greatest of faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13), and he speaks of “faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6).

Paul prays that they “May be able to comprehend”. The verb katalambánō means to take eagerly, to seize or lay hold of. It describes a grasp that takes hold of a truth and makes it one’s own, deeper than understanding an idea. This is a capacity God gives, which is why it follows the prayer for strength in the inner man in verse 16.

They are to comprehend it “with all saints”. The word hágios means set apart for God, holy, and in the New Testament the saints are all believers. Grasping Christ’s love is something God’s people do together, each bringing what they have come to know, so that the whole church grows in it and comes to the unity of the faith (Ephesians 4:13). For a church of Jews and Gentiles who were learning to belong to one another (Ephesians 2:11–22), this mattered greatly. The church is one body with many members (1 Corinthians 12:12–27), and the members need one another to know the love of Christ.

The four measures are “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height”. Plátos is width, and with length, depth and height it makes up a full measure of space. Paul repeats “and” between each, which piles one dimension on another. He uses measurements everyone knows to describe something too great to be measured.

“To know” is ginṓskō. It can mean to perceive or understand, and in Scripture it often means the close, personal knowledge of a relationship, as when “Adam knew Eve” (Genesis 4:1). Paul prays that believers would know Christ’s love by living in it and being changed by it.

The love is agápē. The word describes a love of goodwill and self-giving, a love that chooses and acts for the good of the one loved, whatever they deserve. Greek has other words for love, such as eros and philia, and agápē is the word for the self-giving love of Christ. God showed it supremely on the cross: “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Paul is persuaded that this love holds us fast against every power in creation (Romans 8:38–39).

This love “passeth knowledge”. Hyperbállō means to throw beyond the usual mark, to surpass or excel, and the knowledge it passes is gnosis, understanding with the mind. So Paul prays that we would know a love that is greater than knowing. We truly know it and grasp real parts of it, and its full measure always lies beyond us, so there is more of it to learn for the whole of life.

At Ephesus there was speculation about a secret, higher knowledge for a few, of the kind that later grew into Gnosticism. Against any such pride, Paul places the highest knowledge in a love that every believer can know and none can exhaust.

This is where the whole prayer has been heading: “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”. The noun plḗrōma means fulness, completion, or what fills something up. Paul literally prays that they would be filled eis, “unto” or “into”, all the fulness of God, a movement toward being full. To be filled with God’s fulness is to have his presence, character and power fill a life, so that it grows complete and mature and shows who God is.

Paul has asked for the greatest things he can name, and now he turns to praise. “Now unto him that is able” begins a doxology, a short word of praise that gives glory to God, of the kind Paul often places at the high point of a prayer or an argument. “Able” is dýnamai, to have the power to do something. God is able to do whatever is in keeping with his nature and will, and his ability is certain because of who he is.

What he can do is “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”. In Greek “exceeding abundantly” is one word, hyperekperissoû, and it follows “above all” (hypér pánta), so hyper is heard twice. Hypér means over, beyond or above, ek means out of, and perissós means more than enough, beyond measure. Together they say “far beyond, beyond all measure”. “Ask” is what we say in prayer, and “think” takes in everything we can imagine or plan. God’s ability goes past our boldest prayers and our widest imagination, as the LORD said through Isaiah that his thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8–9). Paul has already praised the vast plan of blessing God has made in Christ (Ephesians 1:3–14), and here he praises the God who can do even more.

“Unto him be glory” is a wish and a prayer that God would receive the glory he is worthy of. Glory, dóxa, means honour, renown, splendour and majesty, both the excellence God has in himself and the shining out of his power and holiness. To Jewish ears it recalled the kabod of the LORD, his presence and majesty, and to Greeks it could mean reputation or honour. In praise, to give God glory is to honour him for who he is and what he has done.

This glory is “in the church”. Ekklēsía means a calling out, then an assembly, and in the New Testament the congregation of believers. Here it is the whole people of God, called out of the world and united in Christ. The church is where God’s glory is shown, in changed lives, in its unity and in its worship. Paul has just said that by the church “the manifold wisdom of God” is made known to the powers in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10).

It is “by Christ Jesus”, through whom alone the church can give God glory. Christ is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3), he glorified the Father on the earth (John 17:4), and he is the head of the church, which is his body (Colossians 1:18, Ephesians 1:22–23). Through his work, his headship and his Spirit, believers live and worship in a way that honours God. Peter writes that in all things God is to be glorified through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 4:11), and Paul says, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen” (Romans 11:36).

Paul shows us what to ask for when we pray for other believers: strength in the inner man, Christ at home in their hearts, deep roots in love, and a grasp of Christ’s love that keeps growing. These requests go to the heart of the Christian life, and you can make them for yourself and for the people you name before God.

Paul prayed this way because he had seen what God’s grace had done in bringing Jew and Gentile into one family. Truth about God is a strong reason to pray, and the family named from the Father is the people we pray for and pray with. We come to know Christ’s love “with all saints”, so the believers around us, of every background, are part of how we come to know it.

However small or large our requests are, verse 20 stands over them. God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, by the power already at work in us, and every answer he gives ends where Paul ended, in glory to him in the church by Christ Jesus, for ever.