In Ephesians 3, Paul writes out his own prayer to our Father God. In this text (vs.15), He is described as being the Father of His family in heaven and on the earth.
Paul uses the Greek word, pas, which literally means “all without exception.” This word has been variously translated as ‘every’ family or as ‘the whole’ family.
The focus of the entire book of Ephesians is on the church, as the coming together of Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus from all across the ancient world.
Because of this focus, and especially within the specific context of the remaining portions of this particular prayer of Paul’s, the translation “the whole family” seems more precise.
Paul continues his prayer, with very powerful exhortations for the Body of Christ to come together in God’s love, as each person individually grows in and shares that special love with all the others:
EPHESIANS 3:17 May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love,
18That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];
19That you may really come] to know [through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [having the richest measure of the divine Presence, to become a body filled and flooded with God Himself]!
20 Now to Him Who, by the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]
21To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout every and all generations forever and ever. Amen (so be it).
In these verses, Paul casts a vision for the Ephesians and for every type of gathering of Jesus’ followers, throughout all time.
Paul’s wondrous vision begins with Jesus making His abode, dwelling place, permanent home, within the hearts of each of us, as we continue to believe Him and learn to trust Him more and more.
Trust is the operative word for our relationship with Jesus, because it connotes both knowledge that the Person we are trusting really does love us, and an understanding that we must have faith in that Person, in order to truly trust them.
Our knowledge and acceptance of the love of Jesus for us grows with our faith and trust in Him. As our ability to receive the love of Jesus for us grows, it must flow out through us, in love toward others.
Strong, deep, secure roots always produce good fruit, if the planting is allowed to grow to its full measure!
When we begin to live out and act on the love that Jesus wants to shine through us to others, we must learn to lean on Him to be empowered and enabled to actualize His loving-kindness, because it will always take us beyond our own abilities.
Jesus’ love must take on more and more of a corporate nature, as we learn to work with others, to show His love to many more people than we could do by ourselves, as isolated lone rangers.
This empowerment is not only for what we are about to do, but is also given to us to envision, to begin to see how immense His love can be, how far it can stretch, and how many people could actually be touched by it, as it is being expressed by many combined believers walking and releasing His love together.
Of course, this combined effort is not only built on individuals knowing the love of Jesus themselves, but is generated by each sharing with many others within the Body of Christ, so that the love flows out of an abundance, that is present and active and growing already.
The real, ongoing experience of loving together, not only broadens our horizons in knowing how unimaginably huge God’s love, but everyone touched by it is indelibly impacted in a positive way.
This impact is so great that it causes the people who have been touched in this way to move far past any theoretical understandings in their minds.
They rise up, to go on and become filled with the very Presence of God, until He Himself has saturated and flooded their beings, both as individuals and as a whole gathering of God’s people.
Being flooded with the richest measure of the fullness of God not only seals the true experiential knowledge of God in us, but also teaches us to expect the full power of God resident within each of us by the Holy Spirit, to be available to us as we pray, worship, and move forward in His unfolding will and His Kingdom extending out from us.
Fully embraced by Jesus’ love, and enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be more fervent and bold in our prayers, and in our godly objectives.
We can move forward, prophetically enlightened to trust God farther, knowing He will always do “superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams].“
This level of faith and love is not usually experienced by an isolated individual, but is the result of sustained corporate walking by faith and working in God’s agape love by multiple dedicated servants of Jesus.
Paul’s prayer concludes with a faith-filled hope for every generation to somehow enter into the same kind of glory that Jesus Himself walked in, during His days on the earth.
His hope is not unattainable, because it is the same as Jesus indicated could happen, if His disciples would learn to love and trust and obey all that He was teaching them (and each of us since their day).
We have this only this singular generation in which to become totally His, and to become mightily used by Him, for His purposes to the people of our day and time, people we are being called to learn to love, even as Jesus loves them.
This can never be humanly accomplished on our own, but by purposely committing ourselves to Jesus daily, we will be found in Him and He in us, both to generate within, and then to transmit His incredible love out to others through our eyes, our bright faces and smiles, our words and our actions!
Neil Uniacke, Executive Director
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