Text -- Ephesians 3:14-21 (NET)

Prayer for Strengthened Love

3:14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 3:15 from whom every family in heaven and on the earth is named. 3:16 I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, 3:18 you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 3:19 and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 3:20 Now to him who by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think, 3:21 to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Eph 3:14

¹ sn For this reason resumes the point begun in v. 1, after a long parenthesis.

² tn Grk “I bend my knees.”

³ tc Most Western and Byzantine witnesses, along with a few others (א² D F G Ψ 0278 1881 Ï lat sy), have “of our Lord Jesus Christ” after “Father,” but such an edifying phrase cannot explain the rise of the reading that lacks it, especially when the shorter reading is attested by early and important witnesses such as Ì⁴⁶ א* A B C P 6 33 81 365 1175 1739 co Or Hier.

NET Notes: Eph 3:15

¹ tn Or “by.”

² tn Or “the whole family.”

NET Notes: Eph 3:16

¹ tn Grk “that.” In Greek v. 16 is a subordinate clause to vv. 14-15.

NET Notes: Eph 3:18

¹ sn The object of these dimensions is not stated in the text. Interpreters have suggested a variety of referents for this unstated object, including the cross of Christ, the heavenly Jerusalem (which is then sometimes linked to the Church), God’s power, the fullness of salvation given in Christ, the Wisdom of God, and the love of Christ. Of these interpretations, the last two are the most plausible. Associations from Wisdom literature favor the Wisdom of God, but the immediate context favors the love of Christ. For detailed discussion of these interpretive options, see A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians (WBC), 207-13, who ultimately favors the love of Christ.

NET Notes: Eph 3:19

¹ tn Or “with.”

NET Notes: Eph 3:20

¹ sn On the power that is working within us see 1:19-20.

² tn Or “infinitely beyond,” “far more abundantly than.”