Far More Abundantly Beyond All

For your Sunday worship, how about considering a passage like this.

¹⁴ I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. ²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, ²¹ to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen (Eph 3:14-21).

Here's Paul's prayer for the church at Ephesus. His request? He asked God to grant them strength. This isn't normal strength. It is the strength of the Spirit. It is the strength required for Christ to dwell in your heart.

His second request is actually a bit confusing. He asks that, rooted and grounded in love, believers would be able to comprehend "what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ." So, what's so confusing? Well, his prayer is that would have a comprehensive knowledge of the vast love of Christ "which surpasses knowledge". His prayer is that we would know the unknowable. I get a picture of a man in a row boat in the middle of Lake Superior. Give him a cup and tell him, "Here, dip this into Lake Superior and have a taste. Do you understand Lake Superior now?" Yes ... and clearly no.

So Paul is asking the clearly impossible. That's why we end up where this chapter ends up. It is an adoration of Him who is able to do more. If you read the text, you can see that Paul is having trouble with words. God, Paul asserts, is able to do more than you could ask or think. But that's not what he says. He says that God is able to do "far more abundantly beyond all" that you could ask or even think. In Greek it's huper ek perissos huper -- above and beyond superabundance above -- because, after all, one huper isn't enough. "Do you think God can do a lot? He can do above and beyond superabundantly beyond what you can even imagine!" That's what Paul said.

This God can supply the superior power required to allow Christ to dwell in you. This God can give the ability to know the unknowable love of God in all its vast dimensions. This God ... well, this God can do far more abundantly beyond all you could ask ... or even imagine.

But here's the question: Why? Why do this? Paul says it is "according to the riches of His glory" (Eph 3:16) and redounds to His glory (Eph 3:21). Or, in other words, God is carrying through on that which we are commanded: "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31). To the God who can do far more abundantly beyond all you can even imagine, to Him be all glory! Amen!