God Speaks
I, Paul, the servant of Christ, am here in jail because of you—for preaching that you Gentiles are a part of God’s house. 2-3 No doubt you already know that God has given me this special work of showing God’s favor to you Gentiles, as I briefly mentioned before in one of my letters. God himself showed me this secret plan of his, that the Gentiles, too, are included in his kindness. 4 I say this to explain to you how I know about these things. 5 In olden times God did not share this plan with his people, but now he has revealed it by the Holy Spirit to his apostles and prophets.
6 And this is the secret: that the Gentiles will have their full share with the Jews in all the riches inherited by God’s sons; both are invited to belong to his Church, and all of God’s promises of mighty blessings through Christ apply to them both when they accept the Good News about Christ and what he has done for them. 7 God has given me the wonderful privilege of telling everyone about this plan of his; and he has given me his power and special ability to do it well.
8 Just think! Though I did nothing to deserve it, and though I am the most useless Christian there is, yet I was the one chosen for this special joy of telling the Gentiles the Glad News of the endless treasures available to them in Christ; 9 and to explain to everyone that God is the Savior of the Gentiles too, just as he who made all things had secretly planned from the very beginning.
10 And his reason? To show to all the rulers in heaven how perfectly wise he is when all of his family—Jews and Gentiles alike—are seen to be joined together in his Church 11 in just the way he had always planned it through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Now we can come fearlessly right into God’s presence, assured of his glad welcome when we come with Christ and trust in him.
13 So please don’t lose heart at what they are doing to me here. It is for you I am suffering, and you should feel honored and encouraged.
14-15 When I think of the wisdom and scope of his plan, I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father of all the great family of God—some of them already in heaven and some down here on earth— 16 that out of his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you the mighty inner strengthening of his Holy Spirit. 17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; 18-19 and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself.
20 Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. 21 May he be given glory forever and ever through endless ages because of his master plan of salvation for the Church through Jesus Christ.
Version: The Living Bible BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: For millennia God had a secret. After Saul of Tarsus became the Apostle Paul, God revealed to him what it was: It had forever been God’s plan to save the Gentiles as well as the Jews through the Messiah (the Christ). “Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 3:6 ESV) Paul was writing this letter while imprisoned for preaching this eternal-life-giving message to non-Jews. Paul knew that he was unworthy and incapable on his own to carry out this great task. He had to rely on the God who created all things to adequately preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. This is “so that through the church [all believers, Jew and Gentile alike] the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places [this includes the holy angels, faithful humans, as well as Satan and all of his forces].”
This song is especially meaningful in light of Ephesians 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC-zw0zCCtg
Prayer (Mary’s personalized paraphrase of Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT)
“I fall on my knees to pray to [You, Father God], the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from [Your] glorious, unlimited resources [You] will empower [Your people] with inner strength through [Your] Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in [our] hearts as [we] trust in Him. [Our] roots will grow down into [Your[ love and keep us strong. And may [we] have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep [Your[ love is. May [we] experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then [we] will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from [You alone.] Now all glory to [You, Lord God], who is able, through [Your] mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to [You] in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever!” AMEN
Action (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, which one of these He wants you to work on or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will read this prayer aloud on my knees if physically possible.
- I will pray this prayer for at least one other individual believer or group. Be specific.
- I will thank God for filling me with His great love and look for ways to express it to others. Be specific.
- I will use biblical reference materials to learn more about the Ephesians.
Share
I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.