Prayer for the Readers

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,^*15from whom every family^* in heaven and on earth takes its name.¹⁶I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit,¹⁷and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.¹⁸I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth,¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine,²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever.

Abraham’s vision of God as three persons

The writer, a disciple of Paul, has his/her own clear vision of the transforming nature of Chrustian faith. Although there is no formal doctrine of Trinity, this passage emphasises God as Father, not only of those who believe but of all human families; Jesus Christ as the new human being dwelling the hearts of individual persons and in the shared life of the church community; and the Holy Spirit as the power which opens people to receive Christ as their future; already they are being rooted and grounded in love; ultimately they will be filled with all the fullness of God. It’s possible that contemporary Greek religious philosophy was speaking of “breadth, length, height and depth” as cosmic powers which coud be controlled or bypassed by a secret wisdom. The writer tells his readers that the love of Christ fills all dimensions of the cosmos. This the true wisdom. We are to revere the Father-otherwise we will worship idols; we are to receive the Son of God, Jesus Christ, into our hearts-otherwise we are like cities without walls; and we can do this because we are rebooted by the Spirit, who gives us a new beginning in love. It’s a challenging vision.