All The Fullness

Hello everyone! Welcome back! We’re continuing our Bible Study with the doctrine of the Trinity. We’re in the Pauline epistles and right now, we’re in the book of Ephesians. Btw, for our intents and purposes, we are treating this book as a Pauline letter even though that is still debated between scholars. Tonight, we’re going to be in Ephesians 3:14-19.

¹⁴For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Something great about Ephesians is all the praise that takes place in it. We really need to learn the act of praise. Too often when I go to pray, I don’t find praise to be what’s common. We can praise God through music in church services, but how often do we praise him with the words of our mouth minus music or just praise him with our minds?

First, Paul talks about the Father from whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth takes its name. Our identity comes from God. Some translations render this as fatherhood. What it is is that we can often say “I am a father and I have a son and I suppose the Trinity is like that.” We should not think like that. The reality is that the Father has a Son and fathers on Earth having sons are kind of like that. He is the archetype. We are merely poor attempts at copying.

It is also the prayer of Paul that we would be strengthened through the Spirit. There we have the third person of the Trinity. What’s the end result? The end result is that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Notice that if this is the case, then both of these persons are being granted omnipresence. How else can it be that Christ and the Holy Spirit would dwell in our hearts unless they were seen to not be limited by time or space. If that is the case, they are deity. Again, keep in mind we have a Trinitarian text here.

Notice also the love that is emphasized in the next passage. It is the love of Christ. What view must Paul have of Christ if he is going to say the love of Christ instead of the love of God? The terminology he uses implies a boundless love. It is a love that cannot be measured.

What is the goal? To be filled with the measure of the fullness of God. What fullness? The preceding verses tell you. You don’t get the nature of God. Instead, you get the love of God. May you ever abound in his love.

To be in the love of God is to be Trinitarian.