Paul’s incarcerations placed a lot of time on his hands time he filled with prayer. Those prayers were not passive activities but togetherness with God during which Paul received infusions of things like the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. He knew God better from those times and expanded that knowledge into building blocks of prayer for the First Century congregations. That is, he learned about God from time in prayer and then turned that learning into specific prayers. Letters like this one to the Ephesian church give us glimpses into these scenes.
18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, (Ephesians 1:18-19a–ESV)
Good Spirits: Building blocks of wisdom and revelation
In the lead up to this 18th verse1, Paul wrote of how he implored God to give the Ephesian Christians the dual spirits of wisdom and revelation. Paul wanted those believers to perceive the way God looks at circumstances. That perception, that viewpoint comes by revelation. Paul was praying like this, “God, please give the Ephesians a Spirit of revelation that they might know you.”
God speaks, they hear, they know.
It must not stop with perception. Perceptions must unfold all the way out to the point reactions to life change. That second spirit that Paul asked God for was that of wisdom. Wisdom is not just a way of thinking but a way of responding. It is thinking-style + reacting, thinking-style + living. So for the Ephesians appropriate questions would be: How do they act? What types of responses do they give when life rattles their cage? They needed God to reveal his perspective, but they also needed a spirit of application.
So Paul prayed these things that maturity might invest the hearts of the congregants. Think back to the time in Jesus’ ministry when the Pharisees collided with him over the matter of ceremonial washing. Jewish custom disallowed eating until one had washed up, but there were strict protocols for the manner of that washing. Jesus did not follow those things, and neither did he suggest its importance. In his reply to the Pharisees, he said that it is not what goes into a person which makes them unclean, but what comes out. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Getting beyond the rituals of life requires wisdom especially if those rituals are tightly connected to religious considerations. It mattered not whether the Ephesian recipients of Paul’s letter had Jewish or Gentile heritage most would have had some religious background. Rites and customs are never easily discarded. God could help. God would help. Paul was all too aware of the mental gymnastics necessary to move from the old to the new. A real God can rework beliefs no matter how real the false ones seem. That is the lead in for this 18th verse.
Leave a Reply