Charles Hodge on Ephesians 3:18

V. 18. The construction of the clause, ἐν ἀγάπῃ ἐρριζωμένοι καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι ἵνα, κτλ., is a matter of doubt. By many of the older and later commentators, it is connected with the preceding clause. The sense would then be: ‘That thus Christ may dwell in the hearts of you, ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν, ἐῤῥιζωμένοι, rooted and grounded in love.’ This supposes the grammatical construction to be irregular, as ἐῤῥιζ does not agree with ὑμῶν. The only reason urged for this interpretation is, that as Paul contemplates his readers as regenerated, he could not pray that Christ should dwell in their hearts, for such indwelling is inseparable from the new-birth which they already enjoyed. To pray for the indwelling of Christ would be to pray for their regeneration. The inward sense, therefore, despite the grammatical form of the words, requires such a construction as shall harmonize with that idea. Paul prays, not that Christ may dwell in their hearts, but that he may dwell in their hearts as confirmed in love. It is not, therefore, for the indwelling of Christ, but for their confirmation in love, for which he prays. There does not seem to be much force in this reasoning. The indwelling of Christ, is a thing of degrees. God manifests himself more fully and uniformly in the hearts of his people at one time than at another. Any Christian may pray for the presence of God, and what is his indwelling but the manifestation of his presence? The majority of commentators, therefore, assuming merely a trajection of the particle ἵνα (comp. Acts 19, 4. Gal. 2, 10. 2 Thess. 2, 7), connect the clause in question with what follows; in order that, being rooted and grounded in love, ye may understand, &c. The effect of the inward strengthening by the Spirit, or of the indwelling of Christ, is this confirmation of love; and the effect of the confirmation of love, is ability to comprehend (in our measure) the love of Christ.

The love in which we are to be rooted is not the love of God or of Christ toward us, but either brotherly love or love as a Christian grace without determining its object. It is that love which flows from faith, and of which both God and the brethren are the objects. It is for the increase and ascendency of this grace through the indwelling of Christ, till it sustains and strengthens the whole inner man, so that the believer may stand as a well-rooted tree or as a well-founded building, that the apostle here prays.

ἐξισχύσητε καταλαβέσθαι, may be fully able (as the ἐκ is intensive) to comprehend. Without being strengthened by the Spirit in the inner man, without the indwelling of Christ, without being rooted and grounded in love, it is impossible to have any adequate apprehension of the gospel or of the love of Christ therein revealed. The apostle therefore prays that his readers may be thus strengthened, in order that, with all saints, they may be able to comprehend the truth of which he speaks. The knowledge in question is peculiar to the holy, i. e. the saints. It is a spiritual knowledge, both because of its origin and of its nature. It is derived from the Spirit, and it consists in those views which none but the spiritual can experience. The object of this knowledge is infinite. "It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea?" Job 11, 8. 9. This language is used to express the infinitude of God. The apostle employs a similar mode of representation to indicate the boundless nature of the object of the believer’s knowledge. To know what is infinite, and which therefore passes knowledge, can only mean to have some due appreciation of its nature, and of the fact that it is infinite. It is only thus that we can know space, immensity, eternity or God. Paul therefore would have us understand that the subject of which he speaks has a length and breadth, a depth and height, which pass all understanding. But what is this immeasurable theme? The answers given to this question are too numerous to be detailed. The main point is, whether the additional particular indicated by τέ, in the phrase γνῶναι τε, is to be sought in the difference between καταλαβέσθαι and γνῶναι (between comprehending and knowing), or in the difference of the objects. 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.’ Just as we would say, ‘That ye may know and feel.’ In knowing, according to Scriptural usage, the idea of experimental knowledge, or knowledge united with appropriate feeling, may well be included. This is the simpler explanation and gives a very good sense. According to the other view, the meaning is: ‘That ye may comprehend the length and breadth, the depth and height of—and also know the love of Christ;’ something different from the love of Christ, being the object intended in the first clause. The great body of commentators, who adopt this view, suppose the reference is to the economy of redemption spoken of in v. 9. Paul prays that his hearers may comprehend the immensity of that plan of mercy, and know the love of Christ. Others refer to the manifold wisdom displayed in the salvation of men. Others to the unsearchable riches of Christ. All these subjects are indeed spoken of in the preceding context; but not in the prayer. At v. 14, there is such a change of the subject and in the progress of the discourse, as to make it harsh to go back of that verse to seek for an object. It is more natural to look for it in the following clause, where one is found which makes further search unnecessary. It is the love of Christ, i. e. his love to us which passes 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. This love of Christ, though it surpasses the power of our understanding to comprehend, is still a subject of experimental knowledge. We may know how excellent, how wonderful, how free, how disinterested, how long-suffering, how manifold and constant, it is, and that it is infinite. And this is the highest and most sanctifying of all knowledge. Those who thus know the love of Christ towards them, purify themselves even as he is pure.

That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. The words, εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ Θεοῦ, are not properly translated, with all the fulness of God; but unto the complete fulness of God. That is the standard which is to be reached. Πλήρωμα may have its ordinary signification, ‘that by which any thing is filled,’—or its secondary meaning, abundance, as we would say, ‘the fulness of a stream.' If the latter sense of the word be retained, Θεοῦ is the genitive of the object,—and ‘the fulness of God’ is that fulness, or plenitude which flows from him, and which he communicates. If the former and ordinary sense be adhered to, then Θεοῦ is the genitive of the subject, and the ‘fulness of God’ is that fulness of which God is full. It is the plenitude of the divine perfection, as in Col. 2, 9, where the fulness of the Godhead is said to dwell in Christ bodily. The majority of commentators take the phrase here in the same general sense. The fulness of God is that excellence, says Chrysostom, of which God himself is full. The expression is then parallel to that in Matt. 5, 48, "Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." And the truth presented is the same substantially as that in Eph. 4, 13, "Until we all come—unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;" and 1 Cor. 13, 12, "Then shall I know even as also I am known." Absolute perfection is the standard to which the believer is to attain. He is predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, Rom. 8, 29. He is to be perfect as man, as God is perfect as God; and the perfection of man consists in his being full of God; God dwelling in him so as absolutely to control all his cognitions, feelings, and outward actions. This is expressed in Theodoret’s interpretation of the phrase in question: ἵνα τελείως αὐτὸν ἔνοικον δέξησθε.

If, however, the other view be adopted the result is nearly the same. "The fulness of God," is then the abundance of gifts and grace which flows from God; and the meaning of the whole clause is: ‘That ye may be filled until the whole plenitude of the divine beneficence has passed over to you.’ The end contemplated is the reception of the donorum plenitudo, or the donorum Dei perfectio. "He who has Christ," says Calvin, "’ has every thing that is required to our perfection in God, for this is what is meant by the fulness of God."

In favour, however, of the former view is the ordinary meaning of the word πλήρωμα, the meaning of the phrase fulness of God, in other passages, the analogy of Scripture as exhibited in the parallel passages above quoted, and the simplicity of the interpretation, no paraphrase being necessary to bring out the 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 fulness of God. When we are thus filled the distance between us and God will still be infinite. This is the culminating point of the apostle’s prayer. He prays that they may be strengthened in order to comprehend the infinite love of Christ; and that they might comprehend the love of Christ, in order that they might be filled unto the measure of God’s fulness.

Vs. 20, 21. Paul’s prayer had apparently reached a height beyond which neither faith, nor hope, nor even imagination could go, and yet he is not satisfied. An immensity still lay beyond. God was able to do not only what he had asked, but infinitely more than he knew how either to ask or think. Having exhausted all the forms of prayer, he casts himself on the infinitude of God, in full confidence that he can and will do all that omnipotence itself can effect. His power, not our prayers nor our highest conceptions, is the measure of the apostle’s anticipations and desires. This idea he weaves into a doxology, which has in it more of heaven than of earth.

There are two forms of expression here united; Paul says, τῷ ὑπὲρ πάντα ποιῆσαι δύναμένῳ, to him who is able to do more than, all things; and as though this were not enough, he adds, ὑπερ εκπερισσοῦ ὧν αἰτούμεθα ἢ νοοῦμεν, exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. God is not only unlimited in himself, but is unrestricted by our prayers or knowledge. No definite bounds, therefore, can be set to what they may expect in whom, Christ dwells, and who are the objects of his infinite love.

Κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν τὴν ἐνεργουμένην ἐν ἡμῖν, according to the power that worketh in us. The infinite power of God from which so much may be expected, is the same of which we are now the subjects. It is that power which wrought in Christ when it raised him from the dead, and set him at the right hand of God, ch. 1, 19-20; and which has wrought an analogous change in the believer in raising him from the death of sin, and making him to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and which still sustains and carries on the work of salvation in the soul. The past is a foretaste and pledge of the future. Those who have been raised from the dead, who have been transformed by the renewing of their minds, translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, and in whom God himself dwells by his Spirit, having already experienced a change which nothing but omnipotence could effect, may well join in the doxology to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think.

The glory; ἡ δόξα is either the glory that is due, or the glory which God has. To give glory to God, is either to praise him, or to reveal his glory, i. e. cause it to be seen and acknowledged. Thus the doxology, To Him be glory—may mean either, ‘Let Him be praised;’ or, ‘Let His glory be acknowledged.’

In the church by Christ Jesus.The Text here varies considerably. The Uncial MSS., A and C, several of the later ones, the Coptic and Vulgate, Jerome and Pelagius read, ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ καὶ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ; D, F, G invert the order and read, ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ. The majority of editors retain the common Text. The original is, ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ καὶ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, which Luther renders, in the church which is in Christ, i. e. the Christian church. This interpretation is adopted by several modern commentators. But in that case the article τῇ before ἐν Χριστῷ. ought not to be omitted. Besides, as the Christian church is the only church which could be thought of, the addition of the words in Christ would be unnecessary. The ordinary interpretation, therefore, is to be preferred. Glory is to be rendered to God in the church, and in and through Christ Jesus, as her head and representative. The church is the company of the redeemed here and in heaven; which constitutes one body through which God is to manifest his manifold wisdom, and which is through all ages to ascribe unto him glory, honour, and dominion.

The idea of eternity or of endless duration is variously expressed in Scripture. Sometimes eternity is conceived of as one, and the singular αἴων is used; sometimes as an endless succession of periods or ages, and then the plural αἰῶνες is used. Thus εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, to eternity, and εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, or εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, to the ages indefinitely, i. e. endless ages, alike mean, for ever. So βασιλεὺς τοῦ αἰῶνος, king of eternity, and βασιλεὺς τῶν αἰώνων, king of endless ages, both mean the king eternal. The peculiarity of the case before us is, that the apostle combines these two forms: εἰς πάσας τὰς γενεὰς τοῦ αἰῶνος τῶν αἰώνων, to all the generations of an eternity of ages. This is in keeping with the cumulative character of the whole context. Finding no ordinary forms of expression suited to his demands, the apostle heaps together terms of the largest import to give some vent to thoughts and aspirations which he felt to be unutterable. These things belong to the στεναγμοὶ ἀλαλήτοι of which he speaks in Rom. 8, 26.