Paul had been, in chapter 2, describing the great blessings the Ephesians had received from God. He then prayed for the Ephesians, stopped in the middle of his prayer, and, in a rather abrupt way, inserted an explanation of his ministry. God was creating a “new humanity,” and Paul wanted the church to understand his responsibility in relation to what God was doing. Paul just added one sentence, but it is a long one. The actual prayer will continue in verse fourteen.

Paul’s Ministry (1-13) 

Paul wished for the Ephesians to know he had been given a prized responsibility by God to take great care of revealing His plan for a “new humanity” to be created. While sitting in prison in Rome, Paul recognized that he was actually not Rome’s prisoner, but a prisoner of Jesus so the Gentiles could fully hear and know the Good News. Paul realized he had been given grace to take up that holy responsibility of revealing God's plan (1-2).

God had revealed the mystery to Paul. The word mystery did not so much mean a secret as it meant something unknown, which was then, through Paul and others, being made known. The mystery was revealed to Paul by revelation. The revelation, which was given to Paul by Christ, was what made Paul more than just an apostle, but rather an apostle of Jesus Christ. 

Paul had not only taught about this mystery, the hidden plan of God, but he had also written about it in letters he’d been sending to churches. He was teaching and writing so others could come to understand the plan of God being revealed in Paul’s day (3-4).

Paul then announced that the plan of God had been revealed by the Holy Spirit to Christ’s apostles and prophets (5).

The mystery was specific and clear: Gentiles and Jews were to be united to God through the sacrificial death of Christ. Circumcision, sacrifice, political systems, or religious rites would not bring everyone together in God—Christ would. In Christ, diverse groups of Gentiles, along with Jews, would become heirs with Christ and literal members of Christ’s Body. They would also become inheritors of promises given to Christ (6). 

Paul was given the power and strength to preach the gospel, the mystery of “grace,” and then make that “grace” function in the daily life of the church. It worked this way: as they received the treasure box full of gifts found in Christ, they generously shared those gifts with others as the world was looking on.  

Paul considered himself the least deserving of all the apostles, so he claimed God’s grace as his qualifying factor (7-8).

Paul again announced that Christ had ordained him for the task of revealing God’s plan to everyone, which, up to Christ’s death and Resurrection, had been kept hidden (9).

After walking in the treasures of abundant grace, the Gentiles and Jews were reunited in Christ. They were then commissioned to show off the incredible complexity of God’s wisdom to everyone. 

The church lived in complete loving unity—no age, color, ability, gender, weight, nor cultural background prejudices. Nothing was to interfere with their love and commitment to each other and Christ. So powerful was their love and unity that the very principalities governing the cultural mindset of the world would be forced to pay attention and be ultimately overcome. 

Further, those spiritual powers of darkness would come to know, by the love of Christ’s Body, that killing Jesus did not put a stop to God’s plan of redemption. Rather, killing Jesus, in an ironic twist of their ignorance, became the foundation for the redemption of humanity and the destruction of the dark spirit of the world (10-11).

The death of Christ gave those in allegiance to Christ not only instant, but also confident, access to the presence of God (12).

Paul reminded the church that the road to Christ getting His world back would be filled with trials, but they were not to lose heart. Paul was suffering for them so they could experience God’s presence (glory), just as they were going to yet suffer so others could experience God’s presence (glory) (13).

Paul began this section in verse two. If you look at verse one, you might notice he stopped in mid-sentence and began another sentence. The sentence he began in verse 2 ended in verse 13. 

In essence, Paul was saying in these verses, “What an awesome God. He made what looked like certain defeat His greatest triumph of all time.”

Paul’s Prayer (14-21) 

Finally, Paul came back to the prayer he abruptly stopped praying in verse one. He again started with the words “for this reason” to connect his readers back to his original thought. 

In chapter one, he prayed for an awareness of God’s power; here Paul prayed for a revelation and realization of that power. The Roman-Greek world considered power to be an impersonal force like wind, to be manipulated, controlled, and even harnessed for human benefit. Paul’s view was much different: he prayed for a power based on relationship with God through the sacrificial union with the sacrificed, risen, and exalted Son, Jesus. To Paul, this was the power of all power.

You will notice in this prayer that Paul wanted the Ephesians to experience the four dimensions of something. Most scholars believe the “something” he wanted experienced was love. 

The problem with this suggestion is that the context is about power, so when Paul was describing the breadth, length, height, and depth of something, you can interpret it as Paul describing love or power. Love and power have similar characteristics; they are without limits and go well beyond what we could imagine or ask. I once heard a Bible professor say, “If you can interpret something one of two ways, then God meant for it to be interpreted either way.” Paul was praying for the Ephesians to be so overcome with an understanding of His love and power that they would be unable to measure either.

Paul then took the posture of bowing before Father and declared that all of creation had actually only one prototype-Father, while some had made Him their personal Father. Whether He is a personal Father or prototype-Father, the entire creation gets its foundational name or identity from Him (14-15).

The essence of Paul’s great prayer was for the Ephesians to receive “out of the riches of the Father’s” presence inner strength (16) to make Christ at home in their hearts so that:

• their roots could go down so deep into God (17)

• they could begin to really know the limitlessness of God’s love and power (18)

• they could begin to personally experience the greatness of God’s love (19)

• they could end up becoming the people God had created them to be

Paul finished his prayer with a burst of praise, realizing God was going to accomplish much more than even followers who were full of Jesus could ever imagine (20-21).