Ephesians 3:14-16 - I kneel before the Father

3:14,15

After the rather lengthy digression, Paul gets back to his kneeling before the Father (see v1). The “for this reason” is the wonder and majesty of God and His salvation plan. The world misrepresents God, Paul wants us to know the truth about God. Verse 15 here stresses the unity. Indeed, unity is a primary theme of Ephesians. We have had the Jewish-Gentile unity in Christ talked about in chapter 2, and later Paul will emphasise unity within the church. It is often said that religion brings division. The truth is that true unity is found only in Christ. We are all part of God’s creation, and Christ is the only means of salvation. Now someone may immediately object that in saying Christ is the only way to salvation I am being divisive, but that is looking at things from a purely human perspective, as if man decides how he can be saved. This is self-evident nonsense. Since sin against God is the primary problem, only God can save us and He decides how that is done, not us.

3:16

Paul now gets into the prayer, and, as with all his prayers, it is a biggy. He prays that we will be strengthened in our innermost being according to the riches of His glory. We are all faced with difficulties and challenges in life. In these times the key element is what we are like on the inside. When we feel weak almost anything will overcome us, but when we are strong in the Lord we can overcome anything. So we are strengthened by the Father, and this according to His riches in glory. There is a rich source of help for us! We should remember this when we are at our most needy. And this strengthening occurs through the Holy Spirit. So we see again the God-centeredness of this, this is no self-help guide! The source of our help is God, and the agent of our hep is God.