Paul’s chains advance Gospel: (3:13): Just as a mother endures the pain of childbirth in order to bring new life into the world, Paul’s persecution and suffering in the jail has given much motivation and encouragement for the new believers and fresh ones to come to Christ. It is true with many foreign missionaries who came to India and suffered and laid down their lives and like a kernel of wheat which grows unless it is dead, the suffering and death of many saints have enabled the gospel to reach to nook and corners of the world.
The second prayer for the Ephesians: (3:14-21):
This is the second prayer for the believers of Ephesians. The first one being (1:15-23). It was the prayer for enlightenment. But now Paul prays for the enablement of the church in (3:14-21). The entire passage can be divided into two parts of the prayer i.e. a prayer of attribution and a prayer of petition.
Attribution: (3:14-15): Paul says: “I kneel before the Father” which is quite a difficult task as Paul was chained with a Roman soldier in the house arrest. Kneeling is a real act of worship. Jesus knelt down and prayed. James the brother of Jesus called James the Just was a man of prayer and his knees were found to be white as a camel. Paul attributes that the entire hosts of heaven and all the believers of the earth, past, present and future derive their name through God the Father.
Petition: (3:16-21): Paul makes a 3-fold prayer for the believers of Ephesians.
- Strength with power: (3:16): Paul prays that the believers may be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit. This is possible only by the free glorious riches available in Him. The glorious riches further means that God would deal with his people according to the fullness of grace and power which constitutes His glory and thus makes Him the source of all the goodness to His created beings.
- Grasp the dimension of God’s love: (3:17-19): God’s love covers our entire life.
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- God’s love is so wide that it covers our own experience and reaches out to the whole world.
- God’s love is so long that it continues the length of our lives.
- God’s love is so high that it rises to the heights of our celebration and elation.
- God’s love is so deep that it reaches to the depths of discouragement, despair and even death. When we are isolated or feel lonely, we can remember God’s love.
Some things we cannot understand but we can experience. Since God is infinite and we are finite, we can experience God in our lives which requires no language to explain. His love surpasses our knowledge. One cannot explain with his own words how much is God’s love for human beings. Paul is trying to convey us that in God we have super abundance of grace available to us and we can draw them from Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Benediction: (3:20-21): The benediction of Paul to the church of Ephesians is an eye-opener to one and all. Many times we ask very limited things limiting God’s power and His grace. But we must understand that there is no limit to what God can do. Yes He is able to do far more than we can ask or far more than we could ever imagine. And He does it according to the power that works in us. To Him be the glory in the church means that God’s glory is being manifested throughout all eternity or all ages in the body which He has redeemed. Amen. This is how church members should live their lives in this world.