Ephesians 1

Some doctrinal praying

15 Because of this, having heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I really do not stop giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,*To be the ‘Father’ of glory is to be the Source of all true glory. may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation*Revelation provides us with true information, and wisdom shows us what to do with it. in the real knowledge*I finally settled on ‘real knowledge’ as the best way to render επιγνωσις, the heightened form of γνωσις, ‘knowledge’. Real knowledge is more than mere intellectual knowledge, or even true theoretical knowledge—it involves experience. The Text goes on to say, "the eyes of your heart having been enlightened". Real knowledge changes your ‘heart’, who you are. of Himself, 18 the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know*Paul wants us to know three things, that I have indicated with a number before ‘what’. 1) what is the hope of His[F] calling,*His calling gives us true hope. and 2) what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,*We normally concentrate on ‘our’ inheritance, what we are going to get. More important is God’s inheritance, what He is going to get. 19 and 3) what the exceeding greatness of His power into*"Into us"—that is what the Text says. Note that ‘believing’ is in the present tense. Please see the note at 3:20 below. us who are believing, according to the demonstration of the extent of His might 20 which He exercised in the Christ when He raised Him[S] from among the dead and seated Him at His[F] right, in the heavenly realms, 21 far above every ruler and authority and power and dominion*It is generally understood that the reference is to the angelic hierarchy. The two thirds that remained faithful to God were never a problem, so presumably the special point is that Christ defeated Satan, with his one third, and is now (as the God/man, the second Adam) seated ‘far above’ that enemy. Please see the note at 2:6 below.—even every name that can be named, not only in this age but also in the next. 22 In short, He[F] placed everything under His[S] feet, and appointed Him to be Head over everything in the Church,*Would it not be wonderful if the Church recognized that Headship in practice! Where εκκλησια refers to the whole body of Christ, as here, I render ‘Church’; where it refers to a local assembly I render ‘congregation’. 23 which is His body, the complement*Just as a wife complements her husband (when things are like they are supposed to be), God’s purpose is that the Bride complement the Groom (even if we don’t understand why Someone who "fills everything in every way" needs complementing). of Him who fills everything in every way.