The Fullness of God

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

THE FULLNESS OF GOD

Eph 3:14-19

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

NIV

Something interesting about Paul saying that he kneels before the Father and that he says the whole family in heaven and earth derives its name. It appears this prayer of Paul is a type of dedication of the gospel church, the temple in whom the Spirit dwells. Looking back when Solomon dedicated the temple he built for God to dwell among his people in Jerusalem, Solomon knelt before all of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. What Paul is doing here is reminiscent of that act of Solomon. How incredible it is how the whole of God’s word fits together to reveal who we are and who he is and our relationship together. This brings us to the second idea in which Paul uses the word whole family in heaven and on earth. Checking with the Greek here we noticed family is singular, so then all the angels in heaven and God the Father and Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit and all of us believers, the church on earth are one singular family who derives our name from the Father. Just as in the human realm we carry the family name past on for generations. However, as believers, we now carry the name of the Father. Paul also prays that our inner being will be strengthened by the glorious riches of God through the power of the Spirit who dwells within us. Here again, we have to refer to the Greek word translated to strengthen. The more accurate meaning is to empower, to increase in vigor. What exactly are we empowered to do? Why would we need increased vigor? It would seem it is meant for us to believe in Jesus, to have our hearts empowered by the Spirit so Jesus will dwell in our hearts through faith. That would make us think we cannot even believe, or have faith in Jesus on our own strength. In some sense, we did not decide alone to follow Jesus. It was the glorious riches of God through the power of the Spirit working in our inner being that empowered us to believe. That sure diminishes anything we might boast about ourselves. Even our faith is a gift of God. Everything is all about God and his love for us, who he created in His image. We do not even have our own image, we are but the image of God. We do not have our own name, but we carry the name of our Father. We do not have our own strength but are empowered by the Spirit. Our whole life is totally dependent on God and his love for us. If we could grasp the fullest of his love, which we can, as we are rooted in his love, and empowered by the Spirit to grasp how wide and long and deep and high is the love of Christ. In addition, we need to see how his love surpasses all knowledge. We cannot learn about his love. It does not require years of study and earned degrees to gain an understanding of the love of Christ. We get it because of the empowering of the Spirit within us and we also may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. Hold on a minute! We can be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. What exactly does that mean? What does that look like? We are his image, we are filled with him, we are empowered by him, so then what should be the result? It is almost beyond comprehension, but we should be like him, full of love, the fullness of God.