Verses Eph. 3:2-21 are a parenthesis, and Eph. 4:1 is a continuation of Eph. 3:1. In this parenthetical, beseeching word, the apostle described to the Gentile believers his ministry for them, a ministry that he received in the stewardship of grace through the revelation of the mystery of Christ. Also, he prayed in this parenthesis that the church would experience Christ to the fullest extent.

The apostle Paul considered himself a prisoner of Christ. Apparently, he was confined in prison; actually, he was imprisoned in Christ. On the basis of such a status, the status in which he actually lived, he besought the saints. In releasing in chs. 1 and 2 the revelation of God's mystery concerning the church, Paul assumed his status as an apostle of Christ through the will of God. That status was the basis of the authority of his revelation concerning the church. In beseeching the saints to walk worthily of God's calling, he used his status as a prisoner of the Lord. His status as an apostle of Christ qualified him to release God's revelation, whereas his status as a prisoner of the Lord spoke forth his walk in the Lord, by which he could inspire and beseech the saints to walk in the Lord as he did. If we enjoy Christ as our prison, we too will walk in the Lord for the constituting of the church.

Chapters 1 and 2 cover the revelation of the church, and this chapter covers the constituting of the church. After unveiling in chs. 1 and 2 God's blessings to the church and what the church is and how it is produced, the apostle began, from this chapter, to beseech the saints to walk according to his revelation in a way worthy of God's calling. In order that the church might be constituted and realized in a practical, experiential way, he presented himself as a steward (v. 2), as one who had received grace (v. 2) and revelation (vv. 3, 5) and had become a minister of the high gospel, announcing the riches of Christ as the gospel for the producing of the church.

The apostle announced not doctrines but the riches of Christ. The riches of Christ are what Christ is to us, such as light, life, righteousness, and holiness, what He has for us, and what He accomplished, attained, and obtained for us. These riches of Christ are unsearchable and untraceable.

See note Eph. 1:10^1a and note 1 Tim. 1:4^3d.

God's mystery is His hidden purpose, which is to dispense Himself into His chosen people. Hence, there is the economy of the mystery of God. This mystery was hidden in God throughout the ages, but now the New Testament believers, having been enlightened, are able to see it.

Lit., from.

The angelic rulers and authorities, both good and evil. The passage here refers particularly to the evil ones — Satan and his angels.

This indicates that all the saints can receive the same grace as that given to the apostle Paul. As to the person of Paul, he was the least among the apostles (1 Cor. 15:9); but as to his ministry, he was not behind the super-apostles (2 Cor. 11:5; 12:11). Yet, as to the grace he received, he was less than the least of all saints. This implies that all the saints can receive the grace that he received. This is similar to the receiving of the same lifeblood by all the members of our physical body, however small they may be. But the ability (gift) that comes out of the lifeblood differs among the members. All the members of the Body of Christ can have the same grace of life that Paul had, but their gifts are not the same as Paul's.

The power of the resurrection life (Phil. 3:10), which operated within the apostle and operates within all the believers (Eph. 1:19; 3:20). By such an inward, operating power of life the gift of grace was given to the apostle, that is, produced in him.

The mystery of Christ, the church, was hidden in other generations but has been revealed in the New Testament age.

The mystery of God in Col. 2:2 is Christ; the mystery of Christ here is the church. God is a mystery, and Christ, as the embodiment of God to express Him, is the mystery of God. Christ also is a mystery, and the church, as the Body of Christ to express Him, is the mystery of Christ. This mystery is God's economy, which is to dispense Christ, as the embodiment of God, into God's chosen people in order to produce a Body to be the increase of God's embodiment in Christ, that God may have a corporate expression.

God's hidden purpose is the mystery, and the unveiling of this mystery is revelation. The apostle's ministry was to carry out this revelation for the producing of the church.

Grace refers to the riches of Christ (v. 8), which God has given to us in Christ for us to gain and enjoy. Paul's ministry was to dispense the riches of Christ as grace to the believers for their enjoyment.

In Greek, the same word as economy in v. 9 and in Eph. 1:10. In relation to God, this word denotes God's economy, God's administration; in relation to the apostle, it denotes the stewardship (stewardship is used also in 1 Cor. 9:17). The stewardship of the grace is for the dispensing of the grace of God to His chosen people for the producing and building up of the church. Out of this stewardship comes the ministry of the apostle, who is a steward in God's house, ministering Christ as God's grace to God's household.

Lit., untraceable.

The grace of God is God Himself, especially as life, partaken of and enjoyed by us; the gift of grace is the ability and function produced out of the enjoyment of the grace of God. Grace implies life, and the gift is the ability that comes out of life.

A minister is one who serves. A minister of the gospel serves the gospel to people.

The Gentile believers and the Jewish believers are fellow partakers of God's promise given in the Old Testament, concerning all the blessings of God's New Testament economy.

Being fellow heirs is related to the blessing of the household of God; being fellow members of the Body, to the blessing of the Body of Christ; and being fellow partakers of the promise, to the blessing of the promise of God, such as in Gen. 3:15; 12:3; 22:18; 28:14 and Isa. 9:6. Both the blessing of God's household and the blessing of Christ's Body are particular, whereas the blessing of God's promise is general, all-inclusive.

The saved Gentiles and the saved Jews are fellow members of the one Body of Christ as His unique expression.

In God's New Testament economy the chosen, redeemed, and regenerated Gentiles and the believing Jews are fellow heirs of God, inheriting God.

The human spirit of the apostles and prophets, a spirit regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. It can be considered the mingled spirit, the human spirit mingled with God's Spirit. Such a mingled spirit is the means by which the New Testament revelation concerning Christ and the church is revealed to the apostles and prophets. We need the same kind of spirit to see such a revelation.

Apostles in Greek means sent ones. The apostles are the ones sent by Christ, representing Him to carry out His commission in God's New Testament economy. The prophets are God's spokesmen, not primarily predicting the future but speaking for God and speaking forth God in the revelation of God's eternal economy.

Chapter 1 speaks of the power of God (Eph. 1:19-20), ch. 2 of the grace of God (Eph. 2:5-8), and this chapter of the wisdom of God.

As revealed in v. 8, the church is produced from the unsearchable riches of Christ. When God's chosen people partake of and enjoy the riches of Christ, they are constituted with those riches to be the church, through which God's multifarious wisdom is made known to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenlies. Hence, the church is God's wise exhibition of all that Christ is.

Lit., the purpose of the ages. The eternal purpose is the eternal plan that God made in eternity past.

Or, carried out, fulfilled, accomplished.

Lit., the Christ, our Lord Jesus. For the Christ, see note Eph. 1:10⁴.

In Christ we have access, entry, not only that we may approach God but also that we may partake of His New Testament economy. Through faith in Christ we have such access — with boldness and in confidence — that we may enjoy God and His eternal plan (economy).

Or, the faith of Him. See note Rom. 3:22¹.

Not God but the Father. Father is used here in a broad sense, signifying not only the Father of the household of the faith (Gal. 6:10) but also the Father of every family in the heavens and on earth (v. 15). The Father is the source not only of us, the regenerated believers, but also of the God-created mankind (Luke 3:38), the God-created Israel (Isa. 63:16; 64:8), and the God-created angels (Job 1:6). The Jews' concept was that God was Father only to them. So the apostle, in keeping with his revelation, prayed to the Father of all the families in the heavens and on earth. In contrast, the Jews, in keeping with the Jewish concept, prayed only to the Father of Israel.

In vv. 16-19 the word that is used four times in the apostle's prayer: the apostle prayed that the Father would grant us to be strengthened; the result of such a strengthening is that Christ makes His home in our hearts; the result of Christ's making His home in our hearts is that we are full of strength to apprehend the dimensions of Christ — the breadth, length, height, and depth — and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ; and the result of this apprehending and this knowing is that we are filled unto all the fullness of God. These steps make up a metabolic process by which the Body of Christ is constituted with the riches of Christ through our enjoyment of those riches.

Glory is the expression of God. All the families in the heavens and on earth express God to some extent. As they express God, there are the riches of His glory. The apostle prayed that the Gentile believers might experience the fullness of God according to the riches of His glory, that He might be expressed thereby.

The apostle's prayer in Eph. 1:15-23 was that the saints would receive revelation concerning the church. Here in vv. 14-21 his prayer is that the saints would experience Christ for the church. This requires us to be strengthened into our spirit.

The power that is referred to in Eph. 1:19-22 and that raised Christ from the dead, seated Christ at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, subjected all things under Christ's feet, and gave Christ to be Head over all things to the church. Such power operates in us (v. 20), and with such power God strengthens us for the church.

The Father strengthens us from within through the indwelling Spirit, who has been with us and in us since our regeneration.

The inner man is our regenerated spirit, which has God's life as its life. In order that we may experience Christ unto all the fullness of God, we need to be strengthened into our inner man. This implies that we need to be strengthened into our spirit through the Holy Spirit.

The Greek word means the lineage from a father, implying a family.

As God is the source of the angelic family in the heavens and of all the human families on earth, so it is of Him that every family is named, just as producers give names to their products and fathers give names to their children.

We are God's cultivated land and God's building (1 Cor. 3:9). As God's cultivated land, we need to be rooted for our growth, and as God's building, we need to be grounded for our building up.

To experience Christ we need faith and love (1 Tim. 1:14). Faith enables us to apprehend Christ, and love enables us to enjoy Him. Neither faith nor love are ours; they are His. His faith becomes our faith, by which we believe in Him, and His love becomes our love, by which we love Him. When we are rooted and grounded in His love, we grow and are built up in His life.

Or, grasp, lay hold of intensively.

Our heart is composed of all the parts of our soul — mind, emotion, and will — plus our conscience, the main part of our spirit. These parts are the inward parts of our being. Through regeneration Christ came into our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). After this, we should allow Him to spread into every part of our heart. Since our heart is the totality of all our inward parts and the center of our inward being, when Christ makes His home in our heart, He controls our entire inward being and supplies and strengthens every inward part with Himself.

Faith is the substantiation of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). Christ's indwelling is mysterious and abstract. We apprehend it not by our physical senses but by the sense of faith.

To apprehend the dimensions of Christ, we need all the saints, not individually but corporately.

The breadth, length, height, and depth are the dimensions of Christ. In our experience of Christ, we first experience the breadth of what He is, and then the length. This is horizontal. When we advance in Christ, we experience the height and depth of His riches. This is vertical. Our experience of Christ must become three-dimensional, like a cube, and must not be one-dimensional, like a line. In our experience of Christ we must go back and forth and up and down, that eventually our experience of Him may be a solid "cube." When our experience is like this, we cannot fall or be broken.

The love of Christ is Christ Himself. Just as Christ is immeasurable, so also is His love; hence, it is knowledge-surpassing. Yet, we can know it by experiencing it.

When Christ makes His home in our hearts, and when we are full of strength to apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of Christ and to know by experience His knowledge-surpassing love, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God, which is the church, the corporate expression of God for the fulfillment of His intention.

The fullness of God implies that the riches of all that God is have become His expression. When the riches of God are in God Himself, they are His riches. But when the riches of God are expressed, they become His fullness (John 1:16). All the fullness of God dwells in Christ (Col. 1:19; 2:9). Through His indwelling, Christ imparts the fullness of God into our being that we may be filled even unto the fullness of God to be the practical manifestation of the church, in which God may be glorified in His expression (v. 21).

In the New Testament the fullness is the expression through the completeness of the riches. This is the reason that in v. 8 Paul speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ and that in Eph. 1:23 and then in Eph. 4:13 he speaks of the fullness of Christ. The riches of Christ are all that Christ is and has and all that He has accomplished, attained, and obtained. The fullness of Christ is the result and issue of our enjoyment of these riches. When the riches of Christ are assimilated into our being metabolically, they constitute us to be the fullness of Christ, the Body of Christ, the church, as His expression. First, in Eph. 1:23 this expression is the fullness of Christ, and then in this verse it is the fullness of God, for the fullness of Christ, the embodiment of God, is the very fullness of the Triune God.

The Father (v. 14) answers and fulfills the apostle's prayer through the Spirit (v. 16) that Christ, the Son (v. 17), may make His home in our hearts. Thus we are filled unto the fullness of God — the Triune God. This is the issue of the dispensing of the Triune God into our entire being.

Strictly, ask or think here is in regard to the spiritual things related to the church, not in regard to material things. Concerning these spiritual things, we need to think as well as to ask. We might think more than we ask. God fulfills not only what we ask for the church but also what we think concerning the church, and God is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that operates in us.

The inward power, referred to in Eph. 1:19-20, is God's resurrection power, not His creating power. God's creating power produces the material things in our environment (Rom. 8:28), whereas God's resurrection power accomplishes within our inward being the spiritual things for the church.

See note Eph. 1:6^2b. We are being strengthened into our inner man according to the riches of God's glory (v. 16). This glory comes to us with God and, after being worked into us, will return to God with us. By means of this two-way traffic the church, as the firstfruits in the universe (James 1:18), takes the lead to give glory to God. All the other families both in heaven and on earth will follow the church to glorify Him.

God's glory is wrought into the church, and He is expressed in the church. Hence, to God is the glory in the church; that is, God is glorified in the church.

God is glorified not only in the church but also in Christ. The word and is used here to stress this point emphatically.

Verses 16-19 are the apostle's prayer. The word but makes vv. 20-21 a doxology. In his prayer the apostle prayed that the Father would strengthen the saints according to the riches of His glory. This implies that the glory of God can be wrought into the saints. In the doxology he said, "To Him be the glory" (v. 21), implying that the glory of God, which has been wrought into the saints, returns to God. First, the glory of God is wrought into us; then it returns to God for His glorification. Isaac's wealth was first given to Rebekah for her beautification; then all the wealth came back to Isaac, with Rebekah, for his glorification (Gen. 24:47, 53, 61-67). The apostle prayed that God would strengthen the saints according to His glory, "but" eventually God's glory, after being wrought into them, returns to Him along with the strengthened saints. This is the way in which God is glorified in the church.

In the church the sphere of God's glorification is narrow, being limited to the household of the faith. But in Christ the sphere is much broader because Christ is the Head of all the families in the heavens and on earth (Eph. 1:22; 3:15). Hence, God's glorification in Christ is in the realm of all the families created by God, not only on earth but also in the heavens. This is in accord with unto all the generations forever and ever, which means for eternity.

All the generations forever and ever constitute eternity. God's glorification in the church is mainly in this age, whereas God's glorification in Christ is for eternity.