Before We Get Started
As I’m looking over the verses to see what our next passage is, I keep coming back to this request of Paul to “not lose heart.” In his context, the government made decisions for him about what he could say and where. He was being told how to live his life. Since that was contrary to what God had told him, he is now suffering for obeying God rather than man.
By way of implication, does this sound at all familiar? Is there a government today that you know of that has handed out decrees about how citizens should live their lives, it is fundamentally contrary to God’s Word, and it results in suffering?
Losing Heart
Knowing that there are people in the world around him who love him and have concern for him in mind, he asks them not to lose heart. In Ephesians 3, people aren’t thinking about what they will eat or drink or what they will wear for themselves, but they might lose heart over what Paul is going through.
I feel the boat they are in. Even though his job has asked him to come into work, I have one son in Texas that is afraid to leave his apartment. Another son is faced with the quandary of do I work a little and make less money or do I sit on my butt and take unemployment? Plus, he works for a locally owned restaurant so will there even BE a job when the government decides to release us from our homes? And then my daughter has discovered she’s just fine having no job, listening to music all night, sleeping all day, and “meeting” with people online while watching Netflix. That is a disaster waiting to happen.
Mental health is real and I’m losing heart over just what I see of the suffering of government decisions in my own family. I’m not sure I could bear the weight of what might be happening in other people’s families.
What is Paul’s tact when he asks the recipients not to lose heart? Does he tell them not to worry? Does he quote Jesus to them? Does he tell them to buck up little camper and it’ll be okay? Where does his focus go?
Let’s find our next passage and dig into it to answer these questions.
Determining Our Passage
Ordinarily we would scour the verses, looking for turns in thought, subject, what have you. This time I see the option as straightforward. Paul begins in Ephesians 3:14 to describe himself as praying: “I bow my knees” and ends at Ephesians 3:21 with “Amen.”
Our passage looks like the content of a prayer and that is what we will take as our passage. Let’s read it together.
The Passage
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power
through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—
that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,
according to the power at work within us,
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Amen.1
Walking through Sentence Diagramming
I declare I have never seen so many prepositional phrases within 8 verses. Good grief. Remember how I’ve told you that I’m not always consistent in technique sentence diagram to sentence diagram? Yep. Same as usual. Our objective is to get some tangible time with the text. We want to see relationships between phrases, subjects, predicates, etc. Don’t get hung up on details.
I’m telling myself as much as I’m telling you.
An Observation About Technique
Main, over-arching theme of diagramming this passage that I noticed is that I tried to have the subject on one line. On the same line, I decided to have the modifier, and then drop a line so the verb could be read along with the subject. Like this gloriously neon green sticky:
I have the option to read the content with the modifier or I can stick to the main idea and simply read the unmodified sentence.
This is not the only construction Paul writes in this passage, but I did notice it a few times so I thought I’d tell you about it.
Getting into the Text
Diagramming Ephesians 3:14-15
To start, Paul has that “because” sort of phrase the English translators translate into for this reason. I scoot that over a smidge, drop a line and have I bow my knees lined up on the left margin. The question of where? is answered by before the Father which I left on the same line, just tabbed over a few spaces.
Next is a prepositional phrase that modifies the Father. From whom every family got dropped one line and is tucked under the Father. What families are answered by the phrases in heaven, on earth so I tabbed over and lined those up together near the word family. The verb that goes with every family needs to be addressed next. It is the idea that I shared up above with the sticky about wiper fluid. Dropping down a line, I have is named under family so that I can read it with the modifiers or I can see the bare bones sentence.
This is where we are currently.
Diagramming Ephesians 3:16
Unsure what that according to the riches of his glory should line up with, I decided I would line it up with from. My reasoning for it is that I think it makes sense to be able to read I bow my knees before the Father…that according to the riches of his glory… Of note, I scooted according over a few spaces because when I continue on in the text, the phrase starting with according seems to modify something else about God. The he may grant you seems like the main thought and I want to be able to follow that main thought through the diagram.
Next up is the prepositional phrase to be strengthened which answers the question what does Paul want God to grant? Immediately following are prepositional phrases that answer how? I lined to be strengthened up under the word grant to demonstrate their connection and then I tabbed over on the same line and lined the three phrases up in list-fashion.
Is this kind of what you had written down? Making sense?
Diagramming Ephesians 3:17-18
In our next couple of verses, we have words that indicate result or reason. So that in verse 17 and that in verse 18. When I read the text, I see that Paul wants there to be impact from the strength God is being asked to grant. Answering why? Why does Paul want God to act? So that.
I line up so that Christ may dwell under strengthened. After that come a couple of prepositional phrases again, modifying the word dwell. Staying on the same line for the first one, I tab over and stack up in your hearts and through faith. Moving back over under the so that phrase, I line up the that you underneath.
Now there is a participle up next (don’t worry about the technical terms, really-we simply want to see how the phrases connect with each other). Being rooted and grounded in love modifies you, the audience. This is their current state. It isn’t what Paul is hoping to have happen or what he’s praying about; it already is. I tabbed over and left the phrase on the same line as that you and then let the sentence continue its flow with the may have strength by dropping down and having may be under you.
That is just like my green sticky example above with Jeremy and my wiper fluid. Go back and see what I mean if you’ve forgotten. I completely understand…I forget stuff too. I’ll wait right here.
Diagramming Ephesians 3:18-19
We briefly touched on verse 18 in the last section. Remember how we talked about Stephanus (that brief account can be found in this article) riding a horse while doing verse divisions? I think we have a small goofy example of a break here. The division happens with a subject in one verse and the associated verb in the next. No, I don’t have a better solution for the verse division, but in my humble opinion it is goofy to start a sentence and then not have its verb with it within the verse. But really, what was the guy supposed to do? The horse probably jumped a fence or something.
…anyway….
In verses 18 and 19, there are two infinitives that we are going to make sure stack up. There is a bunch of other stuff between them that we will organize, but do you see the two instances where it says to comprehend and to know? We want to remind ourselves that those are related in our diagram. Let’s keep that in mind as we proceed.
I tabbed a few spaces over for to comprehend and then did another few spaces for with all the saints. It seems right to leave both on the same line for flow as well as the fact that there aren’t any other phrases that go together with them. However, there is now a list in front of us. Do you see it?
What is the… and then Paul covers all the directions.
Side note: As we continue diagramming, can you rustle around in the back of your mind to remember what literary device this is? We'll talk about it later, but being able to identify is both fun and useful. Back to the topic at hand.
Continuing to Diagram Ephesians 3:18-19
So we are discussing the list starting with the phrase what is the… After dropping a line, I lined up what under comprehend. What is the breadth with the subsequent and tabbed over since it is a mere connecting word. Then I lined up all the descriptions: length, height, depth. And, all of the ands lined up to the right.
Then the next infinitive to know gets lined up under to comprehend. Now in our cursory examination of the text, I don’t think the next two phrases which start with that go together. I see the phrase that surpasses knowledge is associated with the idea of the love of Christ. The phrase that you may be filled, in my head goes with the to know aspect of the phrase. Perhaps after further observation and interpretation, I will come to a different conclusion. Right now that is where I land.
Do you see how I connected the that surpasses knowledge with the love of Christ? Also the infinitive to know with that you may be filled?
There isn’t another prepositional phrase to make a list with the with all the fullness so I left it on the same line for ease of reading.
Ok. I’m turning you loose. There are just a couple more verses to diagram on your own. See what you come up with before you look at the diagram I leave for you at the end of our time together. There will be a link at the bottom.
Reflection
So we’ve done a cursory observation of Ephesians 3:14-21 by way of sentence diagramming. I see Paul going from Ephesians 3:13 and asking his audience to not lose heart to immediately praying for their hearts and their minds. Not just for the physical condition of their hearts and minds to be strong, but also that they would learn and grow.
As of right now, if I notice someone losing heart, this is the example I’m going to follow. If I think someone on my prayer list is losing heart, Paul’s prayer is going to be my outline. Not only that, all I will ask of them is that they not lose heart. This audience of Paul’s cares about him and stopping the care is not the solution. In opposition to losing heart, maybe we could call it “keeping heart.” How does Paul want them to “keep heart?”
This is the main question we are going to try to answer as we seek to understand Paul’s meaning in Ephesians 3:14-21.
Wrap Up
Our Bible Study Bite for today is that we want to study scripture with the surroundings of our passage in mind. Since we are ever trying to understand what the author meant when he wrote these words, keeping the context in mind will help illuminate his train of thought.
I think it’s pretty nifty that we get to be in a section of scripture right now that is once again so pertinent. Is there anyone around you who might be losing heart? We get to learn how Paul loved those in his world who were losing heart. This is where the rubber of study meets the road of life. Study is not some esoteric activity but it is the nuts and bolts of real life.
Especially as I continue to listen to the Sproul lecture series on the Early Church apologists. Someone once said the most important thing about us is what we think about God. Or something like that. No matter what the philosophers of any age decide, there is only one source of truth. One supreme being from where we get our lives, our existence. Why wouldn’t we engage with the text that the Holy Spirit uses to inform us of him?
I’m thankful for you, dear fellow student of the Word, that you and I can come together to study and discuss this great and awesome God.
