Ephesians 3:19-21 - Glory in the church

3:19

It is possible that some of the terms used here (“surpasses knowledge” and “fullness”) are countering gnostic type ideas. The Ephesians existed in an environment where many ideas were floating around. The love of God goes way beyond knowledge. It goes beyond anything that knowledge or intellect can enable us to achieve. Human intellect is good and useful, it is a gift from God, but we must not make an idol out of it. As soon as we make an idol out of it, it rapidly becomes useless, or even harmful. And the goal is that we “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”. Just think about that for a while, and consider the enormity of it. We must never be satisfied with a little knowledge of God. He wants us to have full knowledge of Him.

3:20,21

Paul ends this section with another declaration of praise to God. God is able to to immeasurably more than we can ever ask or imagine. This does not mean we should not ask or imagine, but we should do so knowing that our asking or imagining does not limit God, does not describe limits for Him. And God does these things “according to His power at work within us”. Again, we need to ponder on this, on the enormity of it all. God does things by displaying His power in the church. There is glory to God in the church and in Christ Jesus “throughout all generations, for ever and ever”. We sometimes think that the early church was somehow ideal, this is not a Biblical thought.