Ephesians 1:15-23. A Prayer for the Person Who Has Everything
The Person Who Has Everything
In my previous article, I mentioned that I was once given a Lego train set for my birthday. It was basically the best gift ever, all I could ever have asked for.
A few years later, my mum gave me a cheeky birthday card. On the front, it said, “What do you give the person who has absolutely everything?” I opened the card and it said, “Absolutely nothing.” I was devastated. Thankfully, my mum proceeded to give me a present.
In Ephesians 1:3-14, we see that God has given Christians absolutely everything—every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms—adoption to sonship, redemption, forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit sealing our future. This is so much better than a train set, right?
In Ephesians 1:15-23, Paul goes on to show us how you pray for the person who has absolutely everything. There are three things in particular we can pray for.
1. Pray That They Know God Better (1:15–17)
Paul has heard that his readers now have faith in Jesus and also love each other dearly (verse 15). Since they have this faith and love, they must have received all of the spiritual blessings mentioned in Ephesians 1:3-14. And so, “for this reason” (verse 15), Paul continuously gives thanks and prays for the Ephesians (verse 16). And what does he pray for them?
Firstly, Paul shows us that we pray that they know God better. He asks God to give them the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who is the source and giver of wisdom and revelation. Why does he want them to have the Spirit? Answer: “So that you may know him better” (verse 17). He doesn’t want them to be content with knowing God as they currently know him. He wants them to know him more. This certainly involves knowing more stuff about God, but it’s more than that. It also means having a deeper, more intimate relationship with God.
I find it interesting that the Spirit is called the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation.” It gives me Isaiah vibes. In Isaiah 11:2, the prophet foretells the coming of the Messiah who receives the Spirit:
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD.
Here, the Spirit gives the Messiah revelation and wisdom, resulting in him knowing and fearing the LORD. (Obviously, because the Messiah is God’s eternal Son, there’s a sense in which he already knows God. But the Spirit enables the Messiah to come to know him as the Messiah who is now fully man as well as fully divine.)
In Ephesians 1:17, we discover that the same Spirit who gives the Messiah revelation and wisdom now gives us revelation and wisdom. This revelation and wisdom enables us to know and fear God as well.
2. Pray That They Know What They Have (1:18)
In verse 1:18, we get the second prong of Paul’s prayer for the person who has everything: pray that they know what they have. It starts off interestingly.
The eyes of your heart. Paul says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” Obviously, Paul isn’t saying that there are little eyeballs on the organ in your chest known as your heart. Rather, he’s speaking of “the eyes of our hearts” as the part of us that enables us to perceive spiritual stuff. He wants us to become spiritually “enlightened” so that we can understand some key things God has given us. What are these key things?
#1. Hope. Paul wants his readers to know “the hope to which [God] has called you” (verse 18). God has “called” or invited his people into a certain hope. By “hope”, Paul isn’t talking about wishful thinking. Rather, he’s talking about a certain thing that they are looking forward to. He wants his readers to know the reality of what they’re about to receive. And what are they about to receive?
#2. Inheritance. In the very next phrase, Paul outlines the content of their hope. They are looking forward to “the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” (verse 18). What’s this inheritance? Back in verse 14, we learned that the inheritance involves a future redemption, in addition to the redemption that they currently have (see 1:7). This future redemption that they await will be rich and glorious. If you’re feeling poor and dull right now, God has something great coming for you. Paul prays that his readers will know this.
So, Paul is praying that God’s people will know what they have: hope of inheritance to come.
3. Pray That They Know God’s Power (1:19–23)
Then, in verse 19, Paul prays that they will also know God’s power, “his incomparably great power for us who believe”. This power is greater than we can fathom. Nothing compares to it.
Just as the Spirit who was at work in the Messiah now works in us, so also the same power that worked in Jesus now works in us. The power that works in us is the same power that:
raised Jesus from the dead;
seated Jesus at God’s right hand in heaven;
placed Jesus above every other ruler imaginable;
places Jesus in charge in the present age and in the age to come.
Jesus now rules over all things, for all time and in every place. Think of any time or any place—Jesus rules over that. Verses 22–23 tell us that he rules all things for the church, that is, his gathered people, his “body”. This shouldn’t surprise us. The power that God exerts is “a power for us who believe”.
This power now fills us—Jesus’ church and body—with his fullness, “the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (verse 23). In the Old Testament, God’s glory filled the tabernacle, and, later, the temple. Now, by God’s power, God’s glorious Son, Jesus, fills us in every way. He fills us with his power, his presence and his purpose.
So, Paul prays that God’s people know God’s power, the power that raised Jesus, established him as ruler over everything for all time, and that now fills us.
Back to The Person Who Has Everything
So, back to the person who has everything. What do you pray for the person who has everything, who has every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms?
Pray that they know God better. Pray that they know the hope and inheritance God has given them. And pray that they know God’s incomparable power.
And of course, you can pray the same thing for yourself, and you can pray the same thing for someone you know who doesn’t know God.
Discussion Questions
Pray and Get Going
1. What should you pray for someone who seems to have everything?
Read Ephesians 1:15-23
2. What do you notice about Paul’s prayer habits? (1:15-17)
3. What does Paul ask for in verse 17, and why?
4. What does it mean for the eyes of someone’s hearts to be enlightened? (1:18-19)
5. What does Jesus have power over? When? For whom?
6. How does this passage reshape how and what we pray for people?
Pray and Give Thanks
Other Posts in this Series
Ephesians 1:1-14 (marticles.net/eph1a)
Ephesians 1:15-23 (marticles.net/eph1b)
Ephesians 2:1-10 (marticles.net/eph2a)
Ephesians 2:11-22 (marticles.net/eph2b)
Ephesians 3 (marticles.net/eph3)
Ephesians 4:1-16 (marticles.net/eph4a)
Ephesians 4:17-5:20 (marticles.net/eph4b)
Ephesians 5:22-6:9 (marticles.net/eph5b)
Ephesians 6:10-24 (marticles.net/eph6)
If a link doesn’t work, either the article hasn’t been written, or I’m bad at coding.
