Tuesday, July 25, 2006

First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Ephesians 3:14-21

[Each week, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Hopefully, it's helpful to others as well, since most weekends, our Bible lesson is one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world.]

The Bible Lesson: Ephesians 3:14-21
14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

General Comments:
1. For background on the book of Ephesians, see here.

2. Paul (or whoever the writer of the letter is) has made a number of attempts to offer prayers for the Ephesian Christians. But each time, he's felt obliged to provide background explanations for the bases of the prayers. In our lesson, he gets down to brass tacks, finishing up the prayers and capping them off (in verses 20-21), with a doxology. (Doxology is a compound word from the New Testament Greek. Doxos means glory and logos means word. A doxology is a word of glory for God.)

3. The basic theme of the prayer petitions here is to ask God to help the Ephesian Christians experience the blessings of spiritual maturity. The first petition asks that God grant them strength to deal with life's inevitable difficulties. The second that they would know God's love.

4. The knowledge of God's love that's discussed here contrasts with the knowledge about God that the first-century gnostics claimed to have about God and Christ. For the gnostics, knowledge was an intellectual acquisition. It was head knowledge which allegedly gave one access to information shrouded in secrecy.

Orthodox Christianity has always held that God has revealed Himself first through Israel and ultimately, in the Person of Jesus Christ. The knowledge to which our passage refers is the knowledge that comes from experiencing a relationship with God as He has revealed Himself to us through Jesus Christ. It's the knowledge of closeness to God.

See here, here, and here.

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