We start reflecting on a new prayer of Paul’s in Eph. 3:14-19: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Read MoreThe last element in Paul’s prayer in Eph. 1:16-20 is that we come to know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (vv. 19-20). Whenever I read this passage, I’m impressed by the vocabulary he uses. The NASB translation, which is more literal, shows this better: “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might....” Notice the superlative Paul uses: “the surpassing greatness of His power....” Notice also the redundancy: “the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe... in accordance with the working of the strength of His might....” It is as if he is feeling the incompetency of human language to express what he wants to say about the greatness of God’s power. So, he just piles on synonym after synonym as if that is all he can do.
Read MoreToday, we will reflect on the second thing Paul prays that we would know: “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (v. 18). You may think that we have dealt with this yesterday in conjunction with “the hope of His calling.” We talked about God calling us as His sons in Jesus Christ and the inheritance we are entitled to as His children through our union with the Son of God. That is certainly what this second element is about. But there may be more. Notice how Paul speaks of “his [God’s] glorious inheritance in the saints,” not “the saints’ glorious inheritance in God.” Could it be possible that Paul is not speaking so much of the inheritance we will receive from God as the inheritance God will have in the saints?
Read MoreWe are reflecting on Paul’s prayer in Eph. 1:16-18. The main petition of this prayer asks God to grant knowledge to us through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (v. 16). Paul prays for three things that we would come to know in the knowledge of Christ. The first is “the hope to which he has called you” (or, “the hope of his calling”). To those who live in the flux of time, hope is a much-needed, invaluable commodity. We are trapped in the present, not knowing what the future will bring. Hope is what gives us the strength and courage and even anticipation to look forward to the future, especially when our present is less than desirable. Without hope, we will be dragged through the corridor of time rather than walking resolutely toward our destination with a sense of purpose. And hell is supposed to be a place of utter hopelessness.
Read MoreToday, we will move on to another prayer of Paul’s in Ephesians: “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places...” (1:16-20). The main petition of this prayer is that God would give the Ephesians the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Then, Paul goes on to tell us three things that he wants them to know. Today, we will reflect on the main petition and we will address the three things in the coming days.
Read MoreThe prayer we are going to consider this morning is, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places...” (Eph. 1:3). This is another prayer of praise to God. In this prayer, too, Paul addresses God as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (which we talked about before so I won’t go over it again). This time, Paul blesses God for “bless[ing] us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Notice how Paul blesses God for “every spiritual blessing.” Here, Paul is consciously drawing a contrast between the blessings of Israel under the old covenant and the blessings of the church under the new covenant:
Read MoreToday, let’s reflect on one more prayer from 2 Corinthians: “But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for” (vv. 7-9). Here, Paul mentioned what he and his colleagues prayed for the Corinthians—“that you may not do wrong [or, bad, evil].” This is a lofty prayer, an impossible one, in fact. We know that we will never be sinless in this life. Not only is it sin to break God’s law (sins of commission, such as, “Do not steal”); it is also sin not to do what God’s law demands (sins of omission, such as, “Love your neighbor as yourself”). Not only do we sin consciously and willfully; we also sin unconsciously and unknowingly. But sin is sin whether we do it willfully or unwittingly, though the degrees of culpability may vary. So, we can see it is impossible to be sinless in this life so long as sin still dwells in the members of our body.
Read MoreWe don’t have the actual words of the prayer we are going to reflect on today; we only have Paul’s account of it in 2 Cor. 12:7-9: “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Read MoreToday, instead of reflecting on a prayer, we will think about God’s desire for us to be a reason for someone else’s thanksgiving to God. This is what Paul says in 2 Cor. 9:12-15: “For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift” (2 Cor. 9:12-15)! Here, “the ministry of this service” was the collection the Corinthians promised in support of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem and delivering it to them. Jerusalem had recently experienced a severe famine and Paul asked the Gentile Christians, including the Corinthians, to contribute to their relief. Many churches responded with a pledge of generous giving. Paul in this letter was urging the Corinthians to make good on their promise. As he did so, he was sharing with them the significance and effect of their giving.
Read MoreToday, we will reflect some more on Paul’s prayer in 2 Cor. 2:14-16: “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” Yesterday, we focused on Christ’s triumphal procession, in which we take part by God’s grace. We rejoiced in the reminder that Christ has already won the victory over sin and Satan and death and hell and we are called to share in that victory. We also noticed that this victory, for now, is manifested in the advancement of the gospel to the ends of the earth, not in physical, political dominion over others. It is due to this spiritual character of Christ’s victory in the present era that Paul was able to say, “Christ always leads us in triumphal procession....” We said that Paul was mainly speaking of the preaching ministry of the church in this prayer. How could he say that it is always triumphant?
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