There are passages of Scripture that speak to us in different seasons of life. They comfort, encourage, and guide us. Their impact may last a short day, a season, or a lifetime. Ephesians 3:16-19 is one of those passages that has impacted my life for much of my adult ministry. That impact is not only from the words themselves, but from the person who prayed those words over me. My father.
In 1994 I was elected superintendent of the Georgia Conference.[1] The next year at the camp meeting morning service, Barbara and Bane James led the morning sessions. At that time, they directed the denominations intercessory prayer ministry from denominational offices in Oklahoma City. After introducing them, Bane asked my father, Rev. A.D. Beacham, Sr., to come and pray for me as a relatively new conference superintendent.[2] As part of that prayer, my father laid his hands on my head and closed the prayer quoting Ephesians 3:16-21. From that day the Apostle Paul’s words have been a special source of encouragement.
In the previous essay on Ephesians 3:14, 15, the Apostle Paul set the stage for this prayer by referring “to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” and His divine, creative, naming authority over “the whole family in heaven and earth.”[3]
The prayer petitions that follow in 3:16-19 are some of the most memorable and significant in the Bible. John Stott quoted evangelical Anglican Bishop Handley Moule, “Who has not read and re-read the closing verses of the third chapter of the Ephesians with the feeling of one permitted to look through parted curtains into the Holiest Place of the Christian life?”[4] Stott described verses 16-19 “as a staircase by which he (Paul) climbs higher and higher in his ambition for his readers.”[5]
As we examine these verses, I draw your attention to the three-fold use of a Greek connecting word, hina (ἵνα) found in verses 16, 18, 19.[6] This word essentially means “in final sense to denote purpose, aim, or goal in order that, that.”[7] It is important to keep this in mind as we follow the flow of Paul’s prayer.
Referring to the opening lines of Ephesians 3:1, 14, “For this reason,” Paul explained that “I bow my knees to the Father” for the purpose of the contents of verse 16, “in order that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.” Paul’s prayerful posture and content of his prayer, all based on the revelation of God’s divine character and purpose in Jesus Christ expressed from the beginning of this letter, is that God would “grant, or give” the Ephesians the goals expressed in the prayer. That God “gives, grants” us things is an expression of His grace. We do not earn these benefits but rather God freely and lovingly gives them as a loving, faithful father does to his children. To further emphasize the depth of His grace, what God is giving us is “according to the riches of His glory.” This is the sixth and final use of “rich, riches” in Ephesians.[8] In an earlier essay I pointed out that God’s glory includes the establishment and revelation of His will.[9] As we have previously seen, God’s riches and glory are limitless! What God can grant to us “according to the riches of His glory” sets the stage for the poetic language in 3:18 of “width, length, depth, and height” of God’s love in Christ.
Out of the unlimited riches of God’s limitless glory, Paul called for the Ephesians to experience what he himself experienced, “to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” (3:16b, NKJV). Noel Brooks referred to “strengthened with might” with these words, “The Greek word rendered might is the well-known word dynamis, meaning ‘potential power.’ To be ‘strengthened’ describes the result of the impartation of the power-potential by the Holy Spirit.”[10]
Paul’s use in verse 16 of dynamis with the verb krataioomai, meaning strengthened, deserves a closer look. The verb strengthened is used in Luke 1:80 referring to John the Baptist growing and becoming “strong in spirit,” and in Luke 2:40 referring to Jesus. Marcus Barth connected this spiritual power through the Spirit as “necessary to comprehend the dimensions of God’s wisdom” stated in verse 18.[11]
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us with might through Himself. How does this occur? Three avenues immediately come to mind: 1) Scripture. The Bible is the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God that speaks to every generation, every culture; 2) Prayer. I did not mention prayer first because prayer needs a source of knowledge and object; that is, a real relationship. Scripture provides the divine content and context for prayer. This is not to delegate prayer to a lesser place but simply to remind us that prayer has a subject and object; 3) Fellow believers. We are part of the Body of Christ with one another. We learn from those who have gone before us through their writings and testimonies. We learn from one another through experience and as gifts of wisdom and knowledge are shared among us.
The focus of this Holy Spirit inspired action in the human heart is in the “inner man.” The word “man” is anthropos, every human male or female. Many commentators remark that Paul refers to the Holy Spirit doing something into the inner person. The “inner person” is our inner self, the place of inner thoughts, will, identity, purpose. The born-again life brings provides the way that our entire being of body, soul, mind, spirit, are healed and unified to the glory of God.[12]
So, referring to the first hina at the beginning of verse 16, we see the purposes of God being worked out by the Spirit in our inner being. This continues in verse 17 with the next clauses a continuation of the hina of verse 16. What God is granting us is first expressed in verse 16 and continues in verse 17, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love.”
As I’ve mentioned before, it is important to remember that “Christ” is the Messiah, the Anointed One of Israel. The Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, crucified, dead and buried, risen from the dead, dwells in us by the Holy Spirit through faith. God is granting, giving to us, the presence of Jesus in and among us in our inner person.[13] There is no distinction here between the Spirit and Christ. There is unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working the divine will in the lives of the redeemed.
Paul prayed that the Messiah “may dwell in your hearts through faith.” The word translated dwell is katoikeo and means a permanent dwelling.[14] The redeemed life, lived by the power of the Holy Spirit, means that Jesus has a permanent home in us. This is a call for us to intentionally engage in giving the Holy Spirit access to every known and unknown life dimension. For us to live fragmented lives where we choose to keep Jesus from a part of our lives is to fail to live in the fullness of what God has given us in the riches of His glory. This means that Jesus has not only come to reign in the entirety of our lives, it also means that Jesus has come to conquer every place of rebellion, disobedience, and confusion in us. This corresponds to Paul’s comments to the Corinthians that “every thought” be brought into “captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).[15]
All of this is brought about “through faith.” We cannot earn it. But it is not faith without our participation. Our involvement is that of working out our salvation “with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). It’s the “fearful” work of exposing every part of our lives to God’s redeeming Word and His life-giving Spirit.
Paul uses two metaphors to describe God’s ultimate intentions that are in His loving character: rooted (agriculture) and grounded (architecture). The Jerusalem Bible captures these metaphors with this translation, “planted in love and built on love.”[16] While the metaphors are important, the most important word is love, agape.
Significantly, the closing portion of 3:17 leads directly to the second hina which introduces verse 18: “in order that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height. . . .” Being rooted and grounded in love has as its purpose our ability to comprehend something with all the saints. Notice that this is not an individual in isolation. It’s personal but not private. Our growth in love is based on Christian community. It’s based on life lived with love and manifested in all our relationships.
This focus on love is vividly described in one of my most cherished books, Clowning in Rome: Reflections on Solitude, Celibacy, Prayer, and Contemplation by the late Henri J.M. Nouwen. I cherish it for the content and because on November 24, 1982, he signed it for me after I met him at a conference in Athens, Georgia. The first part of the book focused on three ways the Christian community witnesses to the world: “See how they love one another. See how they serve their neighbor. See how they pray to their Lord.”[17]
It is agape, divine love towards and in us, that gives us the full strength to mentally comprehend, grasp, what is occurring in God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ.[18] The dimensions of this love were expressed as four points covering physical and spiritual limits: width, length, depth, height.
The early church fathers wrote about these dimensions and their meaning. Gregory of Nyssa expressed it in terms of the cross of Christ: “The divine mind of the apostle did not imagine this fourfold figure of the cross to no purpose. He knew that this figure, which is divided into four segments from the common center, represents the power and providence of the one displayed upon it.” Gregory of Elvira wrote, “The height is the measure of the majesty of the Lord . . .. The length is the passion of the Lord’s cross, by which believers are sealed. The breadth is seen in Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is coming down upon all believers.”[19]
These early church writers making connection with the cross is consistent with John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son . . ..” It is also consistent with Paul’s letter to the church at Rome that “in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, no things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).
Notice that the love theme runs through Ephesians but gains momentum in verses 17, 18, leading to the conclusion in verse 19. The purpose of Paul’s prayerful explanation of love in 17 and 18 is to lead the Ephesians and us, “to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.” There are dimensions of the Messiah’s love that we cannot fully comprehend this side of eternity. Brooks noticed the paradox of knowing a love that is beyond knowledge.[20] This paradox recognizes the power of the Holy Spirit in continually revealing the “width, length, depth, height” of God’s love.
The final hina is in the second clause of verse 19, “in order that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” The words “filled” and “fullness” are a play on Greek verbal and noun forms of pleroma.[21] In the New Testament this word is first used in John 1:16, “and of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” This Incarnational language in John 1 indicates that this theological concept was known in early Christianity.[22] Otherwise it is used exclusively by the Apostle Paul.[23] In reference to God and Christ, Paul used “fullness” in Romans 15:29, Ephesians 1:10, 23; 3:19; 4:13, and Colossians 1:19 and 2:9.[24]
What does Paul mean by this use of fullness (pleroma)? Brooks, quoting several authors including John Wesley, thinks of fullness in this phrase, “This, then is the climax of Paul’s great prayer ‘for all saints’ – that each of them may be filled with grace upon grace until their entire being reflects and radiates ‘all the fullness of God.’”[25]
John Stott connects the fullness of Christ with these sentences, “we shall attain the fullness of love, of which Paul has just spoken in his prayer. Then Jesus’ own prayer will be fulfilled: ‘that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.’”[26]
From the standpoint of sanctification and holiness, Brooks noted that several of the verbs in this section of Ephesians are in the aorist tense, indicating a “once-for-all” experience of divine transforming grace in the human heart. While not as staunchly held as in earlier holiness writers, many older holiness writers saw in the Greek aorist tense an “instantaneous” work of holy grace in the life of a born-again believer. It did not mean that God’s work was completed at that time, but rather a definite change had occurred that continues to grow throughout our lives till we enter heaven.[27]
[1] It now goes by the dba, “LifePoint Ministries.”
[2] My father was born in Greenville, SC, attended Holmes Bible College, Emmanuel College, and the University of Richmond (Virginia). He served as pastor of the South Norfolk Pentecostal Holiness Church and from 1961-1985 as General Treasurer and General Secretary-Treasurer of the IPHC. He retired in 1985 to Franklin Springs, Georgia and passed away in 1996.
[3] https://iphc.org/gso/2025/07/07/ephesians-314-15-lets-try-this-again/
[4] John Stott, The Message of Ephesians, 98. The Moule quote is from Moule’s Veni Creator, 228. Moule was a noted New Testament scholar in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was the Bishop of Durham from 1901-1920 and was part of the Higher Life renewal movement in the Church of England.
[5] Stott, 100.
[6] Pronounced “hee-naa” with the accent on the first syllable. I am grateful to IPHC minister, Dr. Chuck Crocker, a biblical Greek scholar, for his valuable insights of this essay that improved my original draft.
[7] Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 377.
[8] Rich, Ephesians 2:4; riches, Ephesians 1:7, 18; 2:7; 3:8, 16.
[9] https://iphc.org/gso/2025/02/12/this-is-my-prayer-wisdom-and-knowledge-of-god-ephesians-115-17/
[10]Brooks, Ephesians Outlined and Unfolded, 117. Bold type is by Brooks.
[11] Barth, 369.
[12] Barth’s commentary on Ephesians, which I have used extensively in this study, offers a unique but ultimately unsatisfying position about the “inner man.” He suggests that the “inner man” Paul is referencing is Jesus, the Christ. His view is that the Spirit is strengthening Jesus as He dwells in the church. This view does not have strong Scriptural support in Paul’s use of “inner man.” See pages 369, 370 of Volume 1, Ephesians 1-3, The Anchor Bible.
[13] It is always important to remember that while Jesus abides in us individually, He abides in and among us as His body, whether a local congregation or the whole body of Christ across generations, cultures, and geography.
[14] See Barth, 370; Brooks 119; Stott, 101, 102. They draw the distinction between Paul’s use of paroiko in Ephesians 2:19 referring to a foreigner, and katoikeo in Ephesians 3:17.
[15] The reality of Christ dwelling permanently in us is similar to Paul’s opening words in Ephesians 1:3-12 where he mentions predestination. This means at least two things for us: 1) Jesus will never abandon His church on earth; 2) Individually, we can be assured that Jesus will never abandon us though we may choose to deny, reject, or abandon Him. This is not a back doorway of expressing a “once saved, always saved” theology. Rather, it affirms the confidence we can have in God’s faithfulness and live with assurance of our salvation, an assurance that overcomes Satan’s attacks in our mind and spirit that God does not love us.
[16] Paul uses love, loved, loves, 19 times in Ephesians.
[17] Nouwen, Clowning in Rome, 25.
[18] Cleon L. Rogers, Jr. and Cleon L. Rogers, III, The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament, 439, 440.
[19] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament VIII: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, ed. By Mark J. Edwards (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 1999) 155, 156.
[20][20] Brooks, 125, 126.
[21] πλήρωμα, the noun form.
[22] The Gospel of John is usually considered to be written in the latter part of the First Century. But it is interesting to observe that the Apostle John’s later life centered around Ephesus (notice Revelation 2, 3) and tradition holds that the Virgin Mary lived her later years in Ephesus.
[23] Romans 11:12, 25; 15:29; 1 Corinthians 10:26, 28; Galatians 4:4; Ephesians 1:10, 23; 3:19; 4:13; Colossians 1:19; 2:9.
[24] It should not surprise us the similarity of words, phrases, and concepts between Ephesians and Colossians. As has been previously discussed in these essays, it is likely that people from across western Turkey (Asia Minor) attended Paul’s school in Ephesus. His letters to these churches, including a letter to Laodicea which has not been preserved, would naturally have similar themes (Colossians 4:13, 16).
[25] Brooks, 128.
[26] Stott, 105. This prayer from John 17:26 is Jesus referring to the love He has with the Father. Jesus desires us to have that same love.
[27] Brooks, 128. It is important to note that this interpretation of the aorist tense, so popular with older holiness writers, todays biblical Greek authorities are not as committed to this older interpretation.
