Welcome to another edition of the Pastor’s CUT, where we dig a little deeper into the passage we explored this past Sunday. Ephesians 1:15–23 contains several fascinating details that are easy to miss on a first reading. But once you see them, they add even more depth and richness to Paul’s prayer. Let’s take a closer look.
1. Paul doesn’t pray that the Ephesians would receive more power. Paul prays that they would know the power already at work among them, and then he immediately defines that power by pointing to the resurrection. The power available to God’s people is the power by which God raised Jesus from the dead. Therefore, Christian growth isn’t about trying harder or acquiring something we lack. It is learning to live in the reality God has already created through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s more about noticing and less about receiving.
2. Paul is introducing us to the “powers”—which he’ll come back to at the end of the letter. When Paul says Jesus has been seated “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion,” (1:21) he’s not referring to seats of cultural or political power. Like many in the ancient world, Paul sees the world as inhabited by spiritual powers that stand behind and work through broken structures. This reference would have resonated pretty strongly with the Ephesians, as Ephesus was a city known for magic and a fascination with spiritual power (I’d encourage you to read Acts 19 to understand this better–it’s a remarkable chapter that explores the religious, spiritual, and even legal culture of Ephesus). But Paul’s point is not to make Christians afraid of them. It is exactly the opposite. Christ has been raised above them.
Paul returns to this language in Ephesians 6, when he reminds Christians that their struggle is “not against flesh and blood,” but against the rulers, authorities, and spiritual forces of evil (6:12). Paul introduces the powers in chapter 1 so that when we meet them again in chapter 6, we already know the ending. Jesus has defeated them.
3. The “inheritance” may actually be us. Paul prays that we would know “the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people” (1:18). We often assume Paul means our inheritance—what Christians receive from God. But notice the wording–it’s his inheritance.
There are different ways of interpreting this phrase, but Paul may be drawing on an Old Testament theme in which God’s people are God’s inheritance—his treasured possession (which now includes Gentiles!). In the context of Ephesians, there may be an even richer dimension to it; through the cross and resurrection, Christ has defeated the powers and reclaimed a people for God. The church is, in that sense, part of the spoils of Christ’s victory—a people chosen and rescued from the dominion of the powers and brought under the reign of Jesus.
I look forward to continuing our All Things Together series with you!
Pastor Ben
Brockport Free Methodist Church
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