1:17
Ephesians contains a couple of Paul’s prayers for the people, and we should note the boldness of these prayers. “The God of our Lord Jesus Christ”. This sort of phrase is a warning against taking phrases or verses in isolation. Taken on its own it could imply that Jesus is not God, but when the section and letter as a whole is looked at such a conclusion is seen to be untenable. Jesus is fully God and fully man, and anyone statement on its own may well emphasise one aspect or the other. Jesus did many things, one of them was showing what it means to be fully human, how we are supposed to be when we live lives in perfect obedience to, faith in, and love for the Father. Paul asks that God may give us the “Spirit of revelation”. This could equally be “spirit of revelation”. In the former it is the Holy Spirit, but they had already received the Holy Spirit. So “spirit of revelation” would mean the Holy Spirit opening their eyes, their hearts and minds, to see the fullness of who Christ is, and who we are in Christ. We are to know God better. We should pray this for ourselves, and for those that we know, especially people in our family and those we have relationship with (people in our own church, small groups etc).
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