For this reason I bow my knees to the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ],
Paul stops teaching here and kneels. Two things in this short verse shape all he asks for: the reason he prays, and the Name he prays to.
Paul writes as a prisoner. He has just asked his readers not to lose heart over his suffering, and his kneeling grows out of that concern.
In telling the saints of his bonds on their account, Paul asks them not to lose heart, but rather to boast. They might well delight to speak of the grace given to Paul to suffer for their sakes, so that God might enrich them with such wonderful divine communications. But the natural tendency is to lose heart on learning that the man who brought them God's testimony now sits in prison because of it. Would they not fear and shrink from the afflictions that faithfulness to such a testimony brings? So Paul prays for them to the Father. His heart is stirred more deeply, his longing for their blessing grows, and he bows his knees.
This is the second prayer in the letter, and Paul uses a different name for God. One writer traces both names back to the risen Lord's own words.
We should also remember these words of the Lord: "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." The two prayers of the apostle in the Epistle to the Ephesians rest on these two titles. The prayer of chapter 1 is founded on "God of our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 17); that of chapter 3 on "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 14). The first of these is used in relation to glory, the second to communion in love.
Another writer names what each prayer asks for.
"God and Father" are the blessed words that stand in the foreground of this Epistle. God is light and God is love. The first prayer is a prayer for light, that His redeemed people may know and be enlightened. So Paul addresses it to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. The second prayer, in the third chapter, is for love, and so he addresses it to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The first prayer asked that they know. This one asks for something knowing alone cannot give.
How fitting it is, then, that the Apostle bows his knees in prayer (v. 14) before he leads us on to the practical working out of these great truths in our walk (Eph. 4). He does not pray now for the first need of souls, that we should come into the full knowledge of Him and understand these truths, as in chapter 1. He prays for something far deeper: communion with Him in what we know. Without that, the most precious truth does not work in us.
One writer draws out the practical side of this second prayer.
In the first prayer, it is the Christian in Christ; in the second, it is Christ in the Christian. So in chapter 1 the apostle prays that the saints may grasp their standing in Christ as risen and glorified. In chapter 3 he prays that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, and that His Spirit may strengthen them with might in the inner man. This is clearly practical. The one we have called Christian standing; the other, Christian state.
Paul names his posture here, and not in the first prayer. One writer weighs what that difference shows.
I am not suggesting that he fails to take this attitude in both prayers, or in all his prayers. But there is an earnestness in the attitude he takes here which is absent in chapter 1. So I have no doubt about this: however important these things are in his mind in the first prayer, he feels them to be of still greater importance in this second prayer.
One writer calls the posture fitting, but refuses to make it a rule for everyone.
We find our Lord kneeling in prayer (Luke 22:41). We find the apostle Paul kneeling with the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:36). It is in every way a fitting posture. But when people speak of it as "an imperative duty," we regard that as an unwarranted assumption... Let them kneel, or sit, or stand, as they feel led. But let them not try to force their attitudes as "an imperative rule" upon other people.
- Cause. "For this reason" reaches back to Paul's imprisonment. He begs his readers not to lose heart, and his own suffering drives him to his knees for them.
- Name. He prays to the Father, not to "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ" as in chapter 1. The first name goes with glory, this one with communion in love.
- Aim. The first prayer asks for light; this one asks for love. It seeks not more information but communion, without which the most precious truth does nothing.
- Result. Chapter 1 prays that we see ourselves in Christ. Chapter 3 prays that Christ dwell in us: standing first, then state.
- Posture. The bowed knee marks an earnestness absent from the earlier prayer. It is a fitting posture, but not a rule to impose on others.
of whom every family in [the] heavens and on earth is named,
Paul stops mid-letter to kneel, and before he asks for anything he names the One he prays to — the Father. Two questions follow: is this one family or many, and why does Paul choose this title?
Some translations read "the whole family." That wording has led readers to picture the church split in two — half in heaven, half on earth.
The expression "the whole family" gets tangled up with people's ideas about the Church, as if part of it were in heaven and part on earth. But the real force is "every family." There is no reference to the unity of the Church here. On the contrary, he means that when we look at the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, we rise high enough to take in every class of creature that God has made.
The name "Father" reaches further than the names God used before.
There will be many families both in the millennial heavens and on the millennial earth. Under the name of Jehovah, the Jews alone were named or included. As it is written, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2). But in the apostle's prayer we have the contrast to this... When He brings forth His Son, the "heir of all things, through whom also he created the world," He takes the title Father. Under this name He takes in the wide circle of creation — of "every family" — both in the heavens and the earth. The blessing no longer stops at the favoured Jew or the honoured Gentile. He extends it to every class of being He has made.
Naming here means more than a label. One writer reaches back to the garden of Eden for the picture.
In the first creation all the animals passed before Adam. He gave them names that set out the distinguishing characteristics to be displayed in each family. So it is with the eternal counsels for the new creation. Every family in heaven and earth — angelic beings, the church in heaven, and the saints on earth — will be named of the Father. Each family then has its distinguishing character according to the eternal counsels of the Father. This is a scene where the Father is the source of all, the Son the centre of all, and every family in heaven and earth displays some special glory of the Father.
So who are these families? And where does ordinary human fatherhood fit in?
Paul addresses the Father as the One who gives His own Name and character to every family that will one day fill the heavens and the earth. The Lord Jesus is our Head, and in some sense He is also the Head and Leader of every one of these different families. God will have many families, some for heaven and some for earth. Among the heavenly families will be the church and "the spirits of the righteous made perfect," that is, Old Testament saints. For the earth there will be Israel, redeemed Gentiles, and so on. Now among men every family takes its name from the one who is father to it, the one from whom it derives its origin. But fatherhood among men is only a reflection of the divine Fatherhood.
The title is not decoration. It sets the tone and the scale of what Paul then dares to ask.
The name of the Father, in which we are brought into nearness of communion and relationship, gives its character to the prayer of chapter 3... But under the name of Father of our Lord Jesus Christ every family in heaven and earth comes, and we are heirs of all. And the apostle seeks our blessing according to the riches of glory of Him to whom everything belongs.
Knowing that many circles exist is not the point of the prayer. The point is knowing which one you are in.
Every family, and I suppose there are many, has its distinctive privilege... but each one of these families is named of the Father, because the name of Father gives the full revelation of God. But the apostle's desire is not that we should know a great deal about the families of other ages. He wants us to know the particular privilege that belongs to the family we Gentiles are part of.
- Source — Every family in heaven and earth traces its name back to one Father; human fatherhood is only a reflection of His.
- Scope — The name Jehovah took in one nation only; the name Father takes in every class of being God has made.
- Naming — The Father names each family, giving it the character He has chosen for it, just as Adam named each creature in the garden.
- Many — Angels, Old Testament saints, the church, Israel, redeemed Gentiles. Many families, some in heaven, some on earth, each with its own privilege.
- Yours — Paul's aim is not that you list the other families. It is that you know your own, and pray under the title that makes you an heir of all.
in order that he may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man;
Paul has just finished setting out the mystery — the deep purpose of God he has been unfolding in this letter. Now he kneels and prays for what words alone cannot give: inward strength from the Spirit, supplied out of the riches of God's glory.
Paul has already said everything he can about the mystery, and in simple words. He prays because words alone cannot do the work.
The Apostle clearly saw that stating the truth in set terms would not achieve God's purpose. It is reached only as the Holy Spirit, in mighty power, gives the believer perception through deep exercise of soul.
Another writer draws a line between what anyone can grasp and what only the Spirit can give:
Our natural ability, even in someone born of God, is of no use for understanding the things that belong to divine counsel. Anyone can understand the gospel preached to the people of the world — repentance and forgiveness of sins. But when we come to the deep things of God, we must have the help of the Divine Spirit. Yet God grants this freely.
The phrase means something real inside the believer. Three passages show what it is.
In Romans 7 the apostle looks into himself. He made that wonderful discovery that one part of him, the flesh, "does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot." But he also found a part of himself that delighted in the things of God. In Romans 7 that inward man is without power. In Ephesians 3 the apostle prays that they might be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. He does not say it has already happened. What is lacking is strength, and the Spirit of God is there to give that strength. The third reference is in the closing verses of 2 Corinthians 4: "though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day."
So the inner man is not the natural person improved. It comes from God's own work:
The outward man is the physical man — the man who walks, eats, sleeps, and does the ordinary things of life. The inward man belongs only to the Christian. It speaks of a gracious work of God in the soul, beginning with the new birth, the fruit of God's sovereign act.
One commentator notes which word Paul uses here, and which one he does not.
The Apostle does not say "according to the riches of His grace," as in Ephesians 1:7. He says "according to the riches of His glory." The prayer is not connected with meeting our need, but with the fulfilment of the counsels of the Father's heart.
One writer explains why every believer's capacity for truth is still not enough here:
Every believer, as one whom God has worked upon and who has received the Holy Spirit, has the spiritual capacity to receive truth. But this verse shows that special communications from God need special preparation of heart, if they are to be impressed on the heart. Does this not mean that the Holy Spirit forms us to receive the truth of the Father's counsels as we are occupied with the Father's glory? We easily become absorbed in our needs, and perhaps in our service for the Lord too — things we do need to speak to the Lord about. But there should be time for communion with the Father about His things, about His glory and about Him who sits in that glory on the Father's throne.
This is Paul's second prayer in the letter, and it asks for something the first did not.
This is an entirely different line of truth from his prayer in Ephesians 1. There it is a question of standing; here it is of state. In Ephesians 1 he prays that the saints might know their place before God in Christ more fully, with all the privileges of that position. Here it is a question of practical power by the Holy Spirit.
The power Paul asks for has a purpose.
God is indeed displaying His glory in all its fullness. He wants us to grasp this in the heart — but for what purpose? Not so that signs and miracles may display what God is working, but "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." How fitting that He should dwell there through faith — not as a Visitor, known now and then and only in part, but truly dwelling there.
- Weakness. The inner man is God's own work in you. Yet in Romans 7 it delights in God without strength: the lack is never desire, always power.
- Prayer. Paul prays instead of explaining. Set words cannot open the deep things of God; only the Spirit can.
- Measure. The supply comes "according to the riches of His glory." It is not just enough to meet a need. It is enough to fulfil what the Father purposed.
- Method. When we are occupied with the Father's glory instead of our own needs and service, the Spirit strengthens the inner man.
- Aim. The power is not for display but for residence — that Christ may dwell in the heart, not visit it.