Context Matters: Ephesians 3:20
“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…” (Ephesians 3:20)
If you have heard anyone start a lesson on hermeneutics or homiletics (reading/studying and preaching, respectively) you are likely to hear some variation on the three rules of reading the Bible:
Context
Context
Context
Yet for all it is worth it can be one of the most neglected aspects of interpreting the Bible. No verse is to be read in isolation or to be extracted out of its immediate context. Of course that applies to Ephesians 3:20.
How does context help?
It constrains Paul’s point. In verse 14 Paul resumes his prayer he started in verse 1 of chapter 3. His prayer for the Ephesian church is that God would help them to understand the love of Christ. Paul has been labouring to do this in chapter 1, showing the Triune God’s work in salvation, and then in chapter 2 - our new life and new unity that we have being in Christ. His digression in chapter 3 (1-13) is all about the mystery of the Gospel in uniting Jew and Gentile together in one body.
So when Paul says God can do more than we could ever ask or imagine, his point is not that God could drop a Ferrari off in your driveway tomorrow (he could, but he likely will not). What God will do, if you are a believer in Christ, is continue to work in you by the power of the Holy Spirit so that you grow more and more in your faith.
That growing in faith is partly noetic — you understand more. It’s partly doxological - you rejoice more; and it is partly ethical - you respond in an increasingly Christ-like way to various situations in life. Paul is saying that God does more than you can even ask, more than Paul could even ask, to bring about this change in the life of the church, Christ’s body, God’s people!
Secondly context shows us where this is going. God could drop a Ferrari off in your driveway, which would certainly surprise you and your neighbours, but again, God is more likely to continue to transform you like he did the apostle Paul so that you will be ‘trophies of God’s grace’ (2:7). This growing in a knowledge that transforms us, is for the purpose of bringing glory to Jesus Christ. We see that in the church - disparate people joined together under the banner of Christ (3:21). We see it as well as the Church proclaims this gospel of free grace to every generation, by showing forth the transformed lives of its people. God uses the church to show to the spiritual realm his multifaceted and manifold wisdom (3:10) and all to the praise of his glorious grace!
This passage then is one of tremendous hope. Hope that God’s eternal purpose is carried out simply through things like prayer! It offers us hope that salvation has a goal in mind, the glory of God. It offers us hope by reminding us that God delights to give good gifts and does give tremendously good gifts to his children (much greater than a fleeting Ferrari, as fun as that would be to drive one!).
