Fully Loaded with Love
For the last few months, we’ve been working through Ephesians and the salvation they experience as a result of their faith in God and their belief in the Son. It’s been about their identity in Christ as believers and Paul has been guiding them on how to deal with these matters for both the Jew and the gentile. Now Paul prays for them that they may take their salvation and build on it, to put it into action so that they may receive the wonders of God’s fullness.
Scripture
Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, (15) from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, (16) that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, (17) so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, (18) may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, (19) and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Bible Study Questions
Lessons in prayer
What do we learn about the structure of our prayers from this powerful prayer of Paul’s? What do we learn about our pose during prayer?
Ephesians 3:14 ESV For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
Matthew 26:39 ESV And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
Mattew 14:13 ESV Lord help me
The name of every family
In verse 15, Paul says that every family on earth and in heaven is named. What do you think he was referring to?
Ephesians 3:15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
Philippians 2:9-11 ESV Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Strength for our inner beings
In verse 16 Paul speaks about our inner beings being strengthened to receive Jesus in our hearts. Why is it necessary for our inner beings to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to receive Jesus in our hearts?
Ephesians 3:16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Romans 7:18-19 ESV For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Jesus’s dwelling place
When Jesus started His public ministry, He didn’t have a permanent home. The Greek word for dwell means a place to settle down - to live permanently. Do you think Jesus didn’t have a home on the earth because He planned to take up residence in our hearts?
Ephesians 3:17 ESV so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
Matthew 8:20 ESV And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Not just a visitor
With Paul praying for Christ to live in our hearts, permanently, what do you think the practical implications could be?
Ephesians 3:18 ESV so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
1 Peter 2:11 ESV Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
1 Timothy 4:7 ESV Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;
Length, breadth, height, and depth
Paul uses a common building terminology to show the expanse of Christ’s love for us. What is Paul referring to, when he refers to the breadth, length, height, and depth?
Ephesians 3:18 ESV may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth
Ephesians 2:11-18 ESV Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Ephesians 1:4 ESV even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Ephesians 2:6 ESV and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Loaded with Jesus’s love
After praying that the Ephesians come to know the expanse of Christ’s love, he goes on to say that the love of Christ is beyond comprehension. What do you think happens when we begin to truly understand Christ’s love for us?
Ephesians 3:19 ESV and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
James 1:22-27 ESV But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.