The “divine interruption” of Ephesians 3:2-13 brought Paul back to his first thoughts in Ephesians 3:1. It’s almost like when Paul mentioned his tribulations (imprisonment) in 3:13 that it became the connection back to his thoughts in 3:1 about being “the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles.” Thus, he used the exact phrase in Greek as is translated in most English translations, “for this reason,” including the New King James Version I am using in this study[i]
In Ephesians 3:14 the “for this reason” led directly to a change in Paul’s physical expression of prayer, “I bow my knees.” Jews normally prayed standing.[ii] Falling to one’s knees was an expression of a troubled heart, of something felt deeply.[iii] This physical expression was likely characteristic of Paul because in Acts 20:36, at the close of his emotionally charged final visit with the Ephesians elders, Paul “knelt down and prayed with them all. Then they all wept freely, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more.”
Paul’s prayer was “to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul understood that the earthly mission of Jesus was to fulfill the eternal purposes ordained in the heart of the Father. This is not an artificial separation of the triune nature of the Godhead but affirmed the cooperative divine will of the Godhead. This reflects what Paul wrote to the Corinthians from Ephesus that in the last day, “Then comes the end, when He (Jesus) delivers the kingdom to God the Father,” (1 Corinthians 15:24). As I have noted throughout this study, this points to the wide range of teachings that Paul gave during his two plus years teaching in Ephesus. This period was foundational for the further development of Paul’s theological understanding of the gospel for Jew, Gentile, and for the future of the world.
In Ephesians 3:15 Paul connected “the whole family in heaven and earth” back to our Heavenly Father. There is a play on words in Greek that is difficult to discern in English. In 3:14 the word Father is pater (πατήρ) and the word for family in verse 15 is patria (πατριά). What did Paul mean by this phrase “from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named”? Noel Brooks takes the view that “it refers to the whole church of Jesus Christ, militant on earth and triumphant in heaven, describing it as a great family with God as Father.”[iv] John Stott holds a similar view by focusing, as does Brooks, on Paul’s reference to heaven. Using similar language to Brooks, Stott wrote that this phrase means that “the church militant on earth and the church triumphant in heaven, though separated by death, are nevertheless only two parts of the one great family of God.”[v]
It is also possible to view Paul’s meaning to include God’s Fatherhood as including all humanity through creation.[vi] The limitation of that view is that without careful reflection it can lead to a failure to distinguish the need for the church as the witness of the Father’s love to the lost world; thus, ultimately leading to various forms of universalism.
I interpret Ephesians 3:15 to mean that Paul primarily has in mind the Body of Christ, which includes the Old Testament saints, who are in heaven and on the earth. This does not negate the creation principle that God is Creator and in a sense the Father of all. But his emphasis in Ephesians 3:14-21 is on the manifestation of God’s love in Christ that operates through the Holy Spirit in the lives of those redeemed by grace.
There is one further comment to be made about Ephesians 3:15 and the “families” that are mentioned. That comment goes back to the promises of God to Abram in Genesis 12:3, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The word for “families” in Genesis 12:3 is different from the word Paul used in Ephesians 3:15. The word is phule (φυλή) and is usually translated tribe, as in the Twelve Tribes of Israel, but also is translated as nation, people group (Matthew 24:30; Revelation5:9; 7:9; 11:9;13:7; 14:6).
While the “father” motif is not as evident in Genesis 12:3, the covenant of blessing that God gave Abram was meant for the Jews to live in such a way that the blessings of God would come upon all the peoples of the earth. This is consistent with Paul’s deep understanding of God’s purposes through Abram/Abraham and with Paul’s understanding that the mission of Jesus was for Jew and Gentile to be one body, the one new humanity, in Christ for the sake of the world.[vii]
In Greek Ephesians 3:14-19 is one long sentence. This is something we saw at the beginning of this letter as Ephesians 1:3-14 is one long sentence. The specific content of the prayer in Ephesians 3 begins in verse 16 which we will study in the next essay.
[i] In Greek, toutou charin.
[ii] 1 Kings 8:22, 55; 2 Chronicles 20:5; Matthew 6:5; Luke 18:10, 11.
[iii] 1 Kings 1:13; Ezra 9:5; Isaiah 45:23; Daniel 6:10; 10:10; Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:35; Luke 22:41; Acts 9:40; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10.
[iv] Noel Brooks, op. cit., 113.
[v] John Stott, op. cit., 100
[vi] Notice the similarity of language for Father and family in 3:14, 15. The similarity of sound and meaning is intentional by Paul.
[vii] Paul’s use of Abraham is found in Acts 13:26; Romans 4:1-25; Galatians 3:5-18; 4:21-31; Hebrews 2:16; 6:13; 7:1-10 (even if Paul did not write Hebrews, the Abraham motif was an important part of that letter).
