The Request for Godly Wisdom
1: 15-18b
The request for Godly wisdom DIG: How does Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers compare to most prayers today? How might prayer habits change if the main focus were on spiritual growth? Is there a difference between Yeshua as Savior and Lord? Why? Why not? Paul prayed for the Ephesians to know ADONAI better? How well do you know Him?
REFLECT: What practical steps could believers take in their daily routines that would help them increase their focus on others for the purpose of praying for them? What part of your life are you not allowing Yeshua to be Lord over? What is hope? How is it related to your calling? What does it look like for you to live with hope rather than hopelessness?
Paul’s request went beyond intellectual knowledge or worldly wisdom.
Paul addressed ADONAI in 1:3-14, now he turned his attention to the recipients of his letter. Two things characterized those believers in Ephesus: (1) their trust in the Lord Yeshua, and (2) their love for all believers. But in addition, Paul prayed for their wisdom. In Galatians, Paul described the life of a believer as faith working through love (5:6). Yeshua had also taught the same truth – that love was evidence of true faith (John 13:35). We shouldn’t read into Paul’s words any insinuation that the Ephesian believers had mastered these two crucial virtues. Though they loved one another, Paul would encourage them to continue working on their unity and to bear with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2-3).
The apostle’s prayer for the Ephesian church was characterized by two important qualities: persistence and gratitude. The consistent practice of prayer will never result solely from a sense of obligation, but only out of a deep sense of thankfulness for all that God has done. The same is true of a regular ministry of intercessory prayer. While we are commanded to pray for one another (Ephesians 6:18), obedience to this mandate will not flow out of a begrudging spirit. It isn’t so much that we have to pray for others, but rather that we get to do so. To pray for others is to remember them. To remember someone in prayer involves specific prayer. Paul’s prayer was both persistent and specific. As we keep others in mind, rather than just thinking about ourselves, we will be more faithful in intercessory prayer.81
Praise for their trust: Ever since I heard about your trust in the Lord Yeshua . . . (1:15a). Paul pauses at this point of the letter to reflect on some of the amazing blessings from God. This would naturally include the obvious point of the opening paragraph, such as the plan of the Father (to see link click Ao – Chosen in Messiah), the provision of Messiah (see Ap – Redeemed in Messiah), and the power of the Spirit (see Aq – Sealed with the Ruach). But the apostle was especially thankful that this group of Jews and Gentiles actually trusted in this Great Plan and appropriated its riches! The message is the Good News of God, yet that Good News only becomes effective as a person puts their faith to work in the Redeemer.82
The emphasis here is on true saving faith, with the lordship of Yeshua as the object of that belief. This cannot be overstated. Some today would like to accept the term Lord only as a reference to deity, not sovereignty. But such a separation is artificial, because deity implies sovereignty. The One who alone is God rules alone. The B’rit Chadashah doesn’t separate Yeshua as Savior and Yeshua as sovereign Lord. He is both, or He is neither. Rabbi Sha’ul declares: If you confess with your mouth Yeshua as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved (Romans 10:9; Acts 16:31). Yeshua becomes Savior when He is accepted as Lord. To this end, Paul explains later in Romans, Messiah died and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living (Romans 14:9). Believers say, in fact, only believers can say: Yeshua is Lord, because they possess the Ruach Ha’Kodeah (First Corinthians 12:3), who was given to them when they were saved (Romans 8:9). To receive Yeshua as Savior, but not as Lord would divide His nature in two. When we receive Him, we receive Him wholly as He is.
Praise for their love: . . . and your love for all God’s people (1:15b). This kind of love is indiscriminate; it doesn’t pick and choose which believers it will love. Messiah loves all believers; and they are precious to Him. By definition, then, our love should extend to all believers. Paul calls on believers to maintain a common love (Philippians 2:2b), which is to love all believers the same. True salvation produces true love, and true love does not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth (First John 3:18). When the Lord had washed the feet of the proud, self-seeking apostles, He told them that what He had done for them was an example of how they were to love each other (John 13:34). John emphasizes the same truth: The way that we have come to know love is through his having laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers! If someone has worldly possessions and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how can he be loving God? Children, let us love not with words and talk, but with actions and in reality (First John 3:16-18)! That was the sort of love the Ephesians initially had for all God’s people. Sadly, however, their love did not last. In His letter to the seven churches of Asia Minor the Lord said to the church at Ephesus: I have this against you, you have left your first love (Rev 2:2-4). They had lost the great love for Messiah and their fellow believers for which only a few decades earlier Paul had so warmly praised them.83
In my prayers I have not stopped giving thanks for you, petitioning the God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the glorious Father (1:16-17a). Sha’ul distinguishes God the Father from Yeshua without contradicting his view that in the Lord, bodily, lives the fullness of all that God is (Colossians 2:9). Aside from that, two features of the apostle’s prayer life can be seen in this verse. First, we see steadfastness. Paul urged others to pray constantly (First Thessalonians 5:17; Ephesians 6:18; Romans 12:12; Colossians 4:2). And from all his letters we can form a clear impression of his earnest, unwavering prayer for all the churches. Secondly, we see the place of giving thanks in his prayer. He taught others that praise should always accompany intercession (Ephesians 5:19-20; Philippians 4:6; Colossians 3:15-17; First Thessalonians 5:18), and this we also see from the prayers in his letters.84
Praise for a spirit of wisdom: I keep asking God to give you a spirit (Greek: pneuma) of wisdom and revelation (1:17b). The spirit of wisdom is given through the Ruach Ha’Kodesh. But this spirit does not refer to the Spirit of God Himself, as some interpreters suggest, meaning that it has no Greek definite article before it. In such cases it is usually translated as a spirit. Believers already possess the Ruach Ha’Kodesh (see the commentary on Romans Ch – The Indwelling of the Ruach), for whom their bodies are temples (First Corinthians 6;19). How could YHVH give us something we already have? Nor does it seem that Paul was speaking of the human spirit, which every person already possesses: For who knows the inner workings of a person except the person’s own spirit inside of him (First Corinthians 2:11a)?
The basic meaning of the word pneuma (from which we get such English words as pneumatic and pneumonia) is breath or air. But like our English word spirit, pneuma sometimes is used of a disposition, influence, or attitude, as in “He’s in high spirits today.” Yeshua used the word in that same sense in the first beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3). He was not referring to the Ruach Ha’Kodesh or to the human spirit, but to the spirit, or attitude, of humility. What Paul was praying for is that God might so work in the lives of the Ephesian believers that they would have the spiritual wisdom and revelation (used as a synonym for wisdom here) from Him that is a result of the Holy Spirit’s work of energizing their human spirit. That they would be characterized by a spiritual outlook.
This spiritual wisdom and revelation was given so that the Ephesians would have a fuller, deeper knowledge of Him (1:17c). The Greek word knowledge is epignosis, meaning knowledge that is true, accurate, thorough and full. It was the knowledge of God Himself. Paul was praying in effect, “God, give them a keen, deep, rich, strong understanding of their inheritance in Messiah.” The apostle prayed that the Ruach Ha’Kodesh would give their spirits the right spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they would have a fuller, deeper knowledge of Him. This knowledge goes beyond intellectual knowledge or worldly wisdom (see the commentary on First Corinthians An – The Foolishness of Worldly Wisdom). It is far richer, and Paul desired that the Ephesian believers, like those in Colossae, would keep seeking the things above, where Messiah is sitting at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1).
I pray that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened (1:18a). This is not a new sentence in the Greek, it is a continuation of the previous verse. These words are a perfect participle in the Greek text, referring to a past complete act having present results. It was the Rabbi’s way of saying that while most things are observed with the physical eyes, there is another realm of the Ruach much deeper and not naturally observable. In most modern cultures, the heart is thought of as the seat of emotions and feelings. But most ancients – Jews, Greeks, and many others – considered the heart to be the center of knowledge, understanding, thinking, and wisdom. So, Paul prayed for ADONAI to enlighten the Ephesian believers about the wonderful truths of election, predestination, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, wisdom, insight, inheritance, and the sealing of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh as a downpayment on their eternal home with YHVH, about which he had just been teaching them (see An – The Basis of Spiritual Blessing in Messiah).85
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You for Your gracious loving heart that has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah (Ephesians 1:3). We so thank You that the blessings are not given out by the first come get the most, nor by who is prettiest, nor who sings best; rather all Your blessings are offered “in Messiah.” As in Your beautiful allegory of the vine and the branches, You want me to be constantly connected to You, drawing from You so I can grow strong in Your wisdom and being conformed to Your likeness. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing (John 15:5). As a baby is born and then grows to act and think like his father, so you desire your children to abide in you, “in Messiah” and so grow to bear fruit by acting like you.
To act and think like You means that we also need to have a passionate heart to share Your great love so that all may hear of how wonderful You are and come to accept You as their Savior. As Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers to keep others in mind, rather than just thinking about themselves, so we will rejoice in faithfully interceding for family and friends who do not yet know You. May You open the eyes of the hearts of those I am thinking of right now, neighbors, family, and friends that they may move beyond knowing “about you,” into a connected relationship like the vine and its branches. They think they can live for themselves and you will still take them and everyone else into heaven. How wrong and selfish is their selfish thought of all going to heaven. You desire all to enter heaven but you are a Holy God and only those who come with a repentant heart that has turned away from sin to follow You in love, are welcomed into heaven. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some consider slowness. Rather, He is being patient toward you – not wanting anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance (Second Peter 3:9).
Messiah Yeshua graciously offers for all to come to Him for eternal rest. Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). What a wonderful offer! Yoked together with Messiah means spending time with You, giving You control of all we do, say and think. What a joy to trust our all to You for You always guide Your children in what is the very best. May these family, friends and neighbors that I have brought before you, find the greatest of joys by trusting you as their Lord and Savior and placing their lives in your loving hands. In Messiah Yeshua’s Holy Name and power of His resurrection. Amen
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