Far more point and consistency are found in the second form of exegesis, which-. But Christ's love for the Church was a mystery that was hidden from past generations, and yet it was revealed to Paul on our account... so that we might know for certain the incomprehensible love of Christ, which far surpasses all human knowledge.. to the end, that our union with Him entitles and enables us to be filled up to all the fullness of God. The majority of commentators take the phrase here in the same general sense. We are to grow to the stature of Christ; to be perfect as our Father is perfect; to be filled unto the measure of the fullness of God. “The Greek preposition is ‘eis’ which indicates that we are to be filled not ‘with’ so much as ‘unto’ the fullness of God. “Know” in the Greek means to know by experience. 1897. (Ephesians 3:19.) No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author, except as provided by U.S.A. copyright laws. "Stanley Derickson - Notes on Selected Books". "Which passeth knowledge" shows that we can never know that love completely, but we can know it enough to change our lives, to fill us with the fullness of God. This only we know, that the love of Christ surpasses all knowledge. As church leaders we should attempt to help people develop this knowledge of Christ"s love. God is also full to the top, nothing lacking. BibliographyBengel, Johann Albrecht. We are, at the point of salvation, indwelled by the Godhead, but we do not realize all that is within. ‘Fulness,’ or, ‘abundance,’ which God imparts, either in gifts of grace, or more generally. 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. The gift of Christ to man is the measure of God's love; the death of Christ for man is the measure of Christ's love. “Filled” carries the idea of fill to the full. Ephesians 3:19. The more we rest in Him.. the more we find that we are being filled to a measure of all the fullness of God., in Christ Jesus our Lord. And the being “rooted and grounded in love” is the one preparative to know the love of Christ, for love appreciates love, and responds in cordial pulsation. Used by Permission. Suppose a number of vessels, according to the old illustration about degrees of glory in heaven; they are each full, but the quantity that one contains is much less than that which the other may hold. Some explanations may be set aside as paraphrases rather than interpretations; e.g., that πλήρωμα = the Church (Koppe, etc. The simple dative is not employed, nor does εἰς stand for ἐν, as Grotius, Estius, and Whitby imagine, and as it is rendered in the Syriac and English versions. If we believe that, then we can come back to my text and say, ‘The love, which is Thee, can come into me; the light, which is Thee, can pour itself into my darkness; the holiness, which is Thee, can enter into my impurity. This also in opposition to Matthies, who understands the infinite fulness of the—in grace, truth, etc., inexhaustible—essence of God, which has become manifest in Christ. "Commentary on Ephesians 3:19". God’s love is one-way love, regardless of how others feel or what they do. He is working toward sharing the riches of His glory with His entire Family. Compare all, In a succinct form, this passage contains God's spiritual purpose. Oh, what must I be in the sight of the glorious Son of God? Prayer: As we pray and begin to understand that communication with God we will naturally see the love of Christ in the answered prayer, in the fellowship, and in the comfort we feel. Believers are to grasp an experiential knowledge of the love of God so that they can be filled unto the fullness of God. Schleusner has a similar view. In the former case, the sense of the passage would be: ‘That ye may comprehend and know the length and breadth, the depth and height of the love of Christ which passes knowledge.' We know the ocean, yet the ocean immensely exceeds our knowledge. "Mark Dunagan Commentaries on the Bible". γνῶναί τε τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως ἀγάπην τοῦ χριστοῦ—“And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ.” γνῶναι is not dependent on καταλαβέσθαι, but is in unison with, or rather parallel to it, being also a similar exercise of mind. There seems to be a close concatenation of thought. That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/fam/ephesians-3.html. This prayer, that the Ephesians might know the love of Christ, is parallel to the preceding one, and was suggested by it. Ah, brethren! the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge; That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God; Alexander MacLaren's Expositions of Holy Scripture, Justin Edwards' Family Bible New Testament, Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges, John Eadie's Commentary on Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Philippians, γνῶναί τε τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως ἀγάπην τοῦ χριστοῦ, ἵνα πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ, πληροῦσθαι πάσης ἀρετῆς ἧς πλήρης ἐστίν ὁ θεός, "The four words seem intended to indicate, not so much the thoroughness of the comprehension as the vastness of the thing to be comprehended. NASB E-Prime This is God's work and I don't want anyone to profit from it in a material way. Literally, “the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ”. Paul wants us to really know this truth in our own lives and to grasp hold of it with our whole being - so that we may be filled to all the fullness of God, which is ours by grace through faith in Christ Jesus our Saviour. However, we need to experientially apply positional truth to experience (which is the argument of Ephesians). Thus, he speaks of the "fulness" of the Gentiles, Romans 11:25; the "fulness" of time, Galatians 4:4; the fulness of him that filleth all in all, Ephesians 1:23; the "fulness" of Christ, Ephesians 4:13; the "fulness" of the Godhead in Christ, Colossians 1:19; Colossians 2:9. In like manner, though we cannot comprehend, the immensity of the love of Christ, yet we know that he has loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; and we approve of, and acknowledge, him as our only Lord and Savior. “All the fulness of God” is all the fulness which God possesses, or by which He is characterized. "Commentary on Ephesians 3:19". ἵνα πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ—“that ye may be filled up to all the fulness of God.” This clause depicts the grand purpose and result. Uncaused itself, it originated salvation; unresponded to amidst the “contradiction of sinners,” it neither pined nor collapsed. This leads to “the fullness of God.” Knowing the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, directs us to the fullness of God. See Additional Note on πλήρωμα. Two different meanings have been ascribed to the participle-, 1. that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mac/ephesians-3.html. "The four words seem intended to indicate, not so much the thoroughness of the comprehension as the vastness of the thing to be comprehended." We can grasp something of it but not grasp it fully. and grow in your knowledge of the Bible with videos highlighting Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible. Words in boxes are from the Bible. Paul desired that his readers would apprehend the love of Christ fully. Keep yourselves in Christ. Do feel free to make copies for friends that might be interested as long as you do not make profit from the copies. The verb ‘know,’ and the noun ‘knowledge’ correspond, in Greek as in English. Love is the key to love; yet it must be remembered that Christ’s love is in itself infinite, and that even when our love is warmest and purest we have not yet fully measured its extent, That ye may be filled. Indeed it must pass knowledge. "The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge". (1) they were to be "full of God." But because it is what it Isaiah , love so wondrous, so deep, so long, so broad, so high; it is because it is what it Isaiah , that it is so suitable to every want and woe. Bruce comments, “To speak of knowing something that ‘surpasses knowledge’ is to be deliberately paradoxical; but however much one comes to know of the love of Christ, there is always more to know” (p. 329). Now turn, in the next place, to consider briefly the possibility of the accomplishments of this petition. τ. θ. can only state simply that the πληρωθῆναι is to be a full one, consequently πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα must be the totality of that which is communicated by the πληρωθῆναι. There is no way to fully experience the love of Christ; it is too big, too vast, too extensive. The process is described in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory;” its consummation in 1 John 3:2, “When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” (Comp. We have within us the Godhead, the trinity, the entirety of the Godhead that set these decrees, the God that predestined us, the God that brought us to Himself. Kühner, § 539; Bernhardy, p. 169; Vigerus, de Idiotismis, ii. The paradox, "to know ... which passeth knowledge," implies that by "know" he does not mean that we can adequately know: all we know is, that His love exceeds far our knowledge of it; and, with even our fresh accessions of knowledge hereafter, will still exceed them, even as God's power exceeds our thoughts (Ephesians 3:20). C, a more literal translation is the New American Standard Version, which was used by many Bible students throughout the 20th century. II. Spiritual knowledge and fulness are joined together.— εἰς, unto(53)) This is the goal. Knowledge of Christ’s love for us transcends any other kind of love. But then the fulness of God surely cannot include his omniscience, or his omnipresence, so that we become endowed inwardly with the attributes of God? All rights reserved. Read Introduction to Ephesians . We will learn of His activities in the Old Testament and His actions on the part of the Jews, which will illustrate His love for them as well. But if that conviction be a real one, and if whenever a Christian man loses the consciousness of God in his heart, making him blessed, he is obliged to say: ‘It was my own fault and Thou wouldst have stayed if I had chosen,’ then there follows from this, that it is possible, notwithstanding all the imperfection and sin of earth, that we may be ‘filled with all the fulness of God.’. If we believed more in the power of an indwelling Christ He would have more power within us. BibliographyJamieson, Robert, D.D. A perfection far beyond a bare freedom from sin. As I said, it sounds as if it were too much to desire. The incomprehensibility of the love of Christ is not that special element of it which the apostle prayed that the Ephesians might come to the knowledge of, but he asks that they might be strengthened to cherish enlarged conceptions of a love which yet, in its higher aspect and properties, was beyond knowledge. It is infinite; not only because it inheres in an infinite subject but because the condescension and sufferings to which it led, and the blessings which it secures for its objects, are beyond our comprehension. Paul prays that his hearers may comprehend the immensity of that plan of mercy, and know the love of Christ. The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea." It led from Divine immortality to human agonies and dissolution, for the victim was bound to the cross not by the nails of the military executioner, but by the “cords of love.” It loved repulsive unloveliness, and, unnourished by reciprocated attachment, its ardour was unquenched, nay, is unquenchable, for it is changeless as the bosom in which it dwells. ‘That ye may be perfected up to the standard of the perfect fulfilment of God,’ or ‘That all the perfection of God may be perfectly displayed.’ The Ephesians 3:1 preferred by Westcott is attractive by its boldness and as supplying in relation to the perfect manifestation of God through the Universe a thought strictly complementary to the perfecting of the manifestation of the Christ through the Church in Ephesians 1:23.