Ephesians 1:15-23 | God’s Glorious Inheritance

15For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers

• Paul’s focus and priority is for the faith and love of people. He is thankful for the spiritual things in others lives, not the practical things in his own life, which is what we often focus our prayers on
• We should pray for each other and other Christians more regularly and specifically pray and thank God for their faith and love

17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

• We should ask for a spirit of wisdom and revelation for ourselves and others. We should never take our current understanding of God for granted
• Paul’s primary care, concern and prayer for the Ephesians is for their growth in God, to know Him better.
• We should not settle for a mediocre Christian experience but strive to know God more and more, for that is where our true identity and being is found.

18I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

• “eyes of your heart enlightened” – that we may have sight and feeling, knowledge and love. To have the eyes of our hearts/understanding enlightened is for these truths to become daily realities and deep convictions in our hearts.
• Paul wants us to know 3 things:
  1. “hope to which he has called you” – our hope is ultimately in Christ and the spiritual blessings laid out in Ephesians 1:1-14. We need to become more convicted and sure of our calling from God and that our hope would become more sure and central in our lives
  2. “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” – we are both heirs (Eph 1:11) and an inheritance. We will inherit/be heirs of the new creation along with Christ, but God inherits us as his treasured possession. We are God’s rich and treasured inherited possession.
  3. ” his incomparably great power for us who believe” – we might think ‘how could God consider me a rich inheritance?”. Well if God can raise Christ from the dead and seat him high above all rule and authority then that same power (as explained next) can turn a wretch like me into a rich inheritance/treasured possession.

That power is the same as the mighty strength 20he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

• The power displayed in Christ in raising him from the dead and exalting him is the same power that will be displayed in us, not just in likeness but also in effect. We will also be spiritually raised from the dead and seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.
• God’s power is one that turns things from death to life, and life in all abundance.

22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

• We are united with Christ but he is also our head. We will rule and reign with Christ but he still has overall dominion
• “the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” – God is working through the Church to reveal himself to the world and will set up his rule and reign through the church (his body) in the new Kingdom. The church is central and intrinsic to what God is doing in this world

Summary

The church is God’s glorious inheritance and God desires that the eyes of our hearts may be opened through wisdom and revelation to this reality and that we might fully embrace and claim all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ.