Read & explore together
Spiritual Wisdom
These verses are a prayer of thanks and request. The writer gives thanks for the readers’ faith and love, then asks God to help them know him better and understand Christ’s great power and authority.
Understanding the passage
The setting of these words
This passage comes as thanksgiving and prayer within a letter. The writer says he has heard about the readers’ faith in the Lord Jesus and their love for all the saints. From there, the prayer asks for wisdom, understanding, and deeper knowledge of what God has done in Christ.
Ephesians 1:15–23Main takeaway
This prayer asks God to help believers know him more clearly through hope, inheritance, and the power he worked in Christ.
Follow the letter’s teaching
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Thanksgiving for faith and loveThe prayer begins with what the writer has heard: faith in the Lord Jesus and love toward all the saints.
Explanation
The prayer begins with what the writer has heard: faith in the Lord Jesus and love toward all the saints. Because of this, he says he does not cease giving thanks and making mention of them in his prayers. These verses join gratitude and prayer closely together.
02A request for wisdom and revelationThe writer asks the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, to give a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
Explanation
The writer asks the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, to give a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The request is aimed at knowing God more truly. Wisdom and revelation are connected here with growing knowledge of him.
03Hearts enlightened to know hope and inheritanceThe prayer speaks of the eyes of your hearts being enlightened. This describes deeper understanding.
Explanation
The prayer speaks of the eyes of your hearts being enlightened. This describes deeper understanding. The purpose is that the readers may know the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. The emphasis stays on hope, inheritance, and glory.
04God’s power shown in Christ above allThe prayer also points to the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward believers. That power is shown in Christ, whom God raised from the dead and seated at his right hand in the heavenly places, above every rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name.
Explanation
The prayer also points to the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward believers. That power is shown in Christ, whom God raised from the dead and seated at his right hand in the heavenly places, above every rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name. Christ is head over all things for the assembly, which is his body.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What had the writer heard about the readers, and what did he keep doing because of it?
Look for the two qualities named in the readers and the two prayer actions named in response.
02What does the prayer ask God to give, and what is it connected to?
Read the request in verse 17 carefully and notice that wisdom and revelation are linked with the knowledge of him.
03How does this passage describe Christ’s place and role in relation to all things and to the assembly?
Notice the words about being raised, seated at God’s right hand, above every power, and given as head over all things for the assembly.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Ephesians 1:15–23
15For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you and the love which you have toward all the saints,
16don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,
17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,
18having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might
20which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,
21far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
22He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,
23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.