Paul's Prayer: Knowing the Love of Christ

Introduction

It's cold this morning. The snow that fell overnight still covers the roof and the parking lot. Some braved the slippery roads to come to the service, others joined online from home, in Yokohama, in Numazu, elsewhere. The sick, people who are alone, young people facing entrance exams: everyone has a reason to turn to God. And it's precisely on a morning like this that Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus takes on a particular color.

Paul is on his knees. He isn't asking for things first. He's asking that believers be strengthened in their inner being, that Christ dwell in their hearts, that they grasp the width, the length, the height, the depth of the love of Christ. Then he closes with these breathtaking words: "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus."

Today, you're invited into that prayer. Not as a distant text, but as a word that concerns you, right where you are this week.

Article Outline

1. Why Paul Loved the Ephesian Church So Much

Before meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul (then called Saul) was a Pharisee devoted to the law. He was waiting for a glorious Messiah, one with military power, capable of overthrowing Rome. A crucified, weak Messiah, put to death: that was impossible for him to accept. So he persecuted Christians. He's the one present at the stoning of Stephen, the first Greek-speaking martyr, a central figure of the early church (Acts 7-8).

Then Jesus met him. Saul repented. He became Paul, apostle to the nations. The book of Acts credits him with three missionary journeys. The third, roughly between 53 and 57 AD, from Acts 18:23 to 21:18, brings him to Ephesus. He stays there nearly three years (Acts 19-20). By far the longest stay of all his journeys. Corinth was shorter, Thessalonica lasted three weeks, Philippi even less. Three years in the same place: Paul plowed, sowed, loved that church. That's why the letter to the Ephesians doesn't have the dryness of a treatise; it has the warmth of a pastor's heart.

2. A Prayer That Begins with Grace

To understand the prayer in chapter 3, you have to remember what Paul wrote two chapters earlier. Ephesians 2:4-10: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved... For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Hold on to that text. Reopen it when you're worn down, hurt, sick, sad, when the future worries you, when you're in despair. Reread it twenty times if you have to, and say it out loud to yourself. John Wesley, that eighteenth century English preacher used to spark a revival that may well have spared England the bloody upheavals France went through, is said to have preached on Ephesians 2:8 several hundred times. A pastor's son, trained at Oxford, he knew Jesus in his head without having the assurance of salvation, until that evening in May 1738 when, in a small room on Aldersgate Street in London, someone was reading Luther's preface to the epistle to the Romans. His heart was "strangely warmed." From then on, he preached to miners, outdoors, from morning to night, against the current of an England that believed the Word should only be proclaimed from a pulpit.

Why tell you all this? Because grace isn't an abstraction. It transformed real lives, and it's transforming yours. You are God's workmanship, not an accident, not a problem to manage. He created you to walk in the good works he prepared beforehand for you.

3. "Far More Abundantly Than All We Ask or Think"

Holding on to that grace, come back to Ephesians 3:20-21. Paul writes: "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus."

Two things not to miss here.

First, the love of Christ goes beyond anything your mind can measure. Never shrink God down to the size of your own head. Don't lock him inside what seems reasonable to you. "I won't make it," you might say. That's exactly where God steps in. That's exactly why you pray. You don't have to carry the weight in his place; you hand it over to him.

Second, this glory shines "in the church and in Christ Jesus." Being united to Jesus means being united to his church. Ephesians 1:22-23 says it clearly: "And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."

The church isn't just a building, an organization, a social gathering. It's a living communion centered on God. Two or three gathered in his name, praying, worshiping: there, the Lord is present, alive and at work. Don't dismiss that communion. It is the body of Christ, it carries his life.

Key Takeaways

• Paul prays first for the inside. He doesn't ask first that circumstances change, but that Christ dwell in your heart through faith and that you be rooted in love.
• You are saved by grace, not by your performance. Ephesians 2:4-10 is a text to reopen every time shame, discouragement, or anxiety overwhelm you.
• You are God's workmanship. He has prepared good works for you in advance, in your home, your neighborhood, your work, your school, your church. Your place has meaning.
• God works infinitely beyond your prayers. Don't confine his possibilities to the small measure of your own thinking. Pray big.
• Being united to Christ means being united to his church. Don't treat church life as ordinary. That's where Christ manifests his life.

Personal Application

Take a few minutes this week to ask yourself these questions:

1. In what situation, right now, are you tempted to say "I won't make it"? Can you hand it over concretely to the Lord, remembering that he works beyond what you ask?
2. When did you last open Ephesians 2:4-10 to remind yourself that your salvation is a gift, not a performance? Can you reread it tonight, out loud?
3. Where has God placed you this week (family, school, work, neighborhood)? What good works might be the ones he has "prepared beforehand" for you in those places?
4. How do you treat your local church? As a leisure option, or as the living body of Christ of which you're a member?
5. Is your prayer too timid, scaled down to what you think is possible? What would happen if you prayed it according to the measure of God's power instead?

Verses Cited

• Ephesians 3:14-21 (LSG)
• Ephesians 2:4-10 (LSG)
• Ephesians 1:22-23 (LSG)
• Acts 9 · Paul's conversion (LSG)
• Acts 19-20 · Paul at Ephesus (LSG)

FAQ

What does "being strengthened in the inner being" mean?
It doesn't mean becoming stoic or hardened. It means letting the Spirit of God strengthen your deepest self (your faith, your hope, your capacity to love), so that Christ truly dwells in your heart, and not just in your head.

Why does Paul place so much emphasis on the church in this prayer?
Because he spent three years at Ephesus watching God build a community out of very different people. For him, the power of God shows itself "in the church and in Christ Jesus": the two are inseparable. You don't follow Christ alone in your own corner.

How do you pray "far more abundantly" without slipping into wishful thinking?
The key is in the phrase: "according to the power at work within us." It isn't about asking for whatever you want on a whim, but about trusting the power of God already at work in you, and letting it carry your prayers further than your own imagination.