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Ephesians 1:15-23 - The Eyes of the Heart

15 min read

Paul has just named the blessings given in Christ: adoption, redemption, forgiveness, inheritance, and the seal of the Holy Spirit. Then he hears that the Ephesians are living in faith and love. Yet he still prays for them. They have received the gift; now they need eyes to see what the gift means.

That distinction reaches into ordinary Christian life. A person can confess the Creed, serve faithfully, and know the right words while fear still governs the heart. Paul does not answer this condition with novelty. He asks the Father to give the Church inward sight, so that hope, inheritance, resurrection power, and union with Christ become realities from which she actually lives.

Thanksgiving Becomes Intercession (Ephesians 1:15-16)

15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:

“Therefore” joins this prayer to everything Paul has proclaimed in Ephesians 1:3-14. The Father has blessed in Christ, the Son has redeemed by His blood, and the Spirit has sealed the promise. When Paul hears of faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints, he recognizes the visible fruit of that grace.

Faith and love belong together. Faith has a Person and a confession: “the Lord Jesus.” Love has a concrete communion: “all the saints.” Christian faith cannot be reduced to private conviction, and Christian love cannot be reduced to general goodwill. Life in Christ teaches the believer to receive other members of His Church, including those who are difficult, unimpressive, or unlike us.

Paul’s first response is thanksgiving. He sees grace before he looks for deficiencies. This is apostolic vision applied to pastoral care. A parent, servant, priest, teacher, or friend may see much that still needs healing, but prayer begins by acknowledging what God has already done. Thanksgiving protects care from becoming control.

Paul then carries the Ephesians before God “without ceasing.” His words do not describe endless speech, but faithful remembrance. He refuses the habit of speaking about people more than he prays for them. St John Chrysostom hears the force of this love and writes, “Never was anything equal to the yearnings of the Apostle.”1 Paul’s concern is neither surveillance nor anxious management. It is love made intercession.

The Eyes of the Heart Enlightened (Ephesians 1:17-19)

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power

Paul addresses “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.” He is speaking within the saving work of the incarnate Son, who truly became man and prays to the Father. The phrase must not be isolated and used to deny the Son’s divinity. The same passage places Christ above every created power and joins the Church to Him as His Body. Paul’s prayer is Trinitarian in shape: he asks the Father for wisdom and revelation associated with the Spirit, so that the saints may know the mystery given in Christ.

The phrase “the spirit of wisdom and revelation” should be handled with humility. Interpreters differ on whether Paul refers directly to the Holy Spirit, to a disposition given by the Spirit, or to both senses held together. The grammar alone does not settle the question. The direction of the phrase is clear, however: wisdom and revelation lead “in the knowledge of Him.” Paul is asking for God-given understanding of the apostolic mystery, not private secrets or spiritual novelty.2

“The eyes of your understanding” translates a striking Greek phrase. The underlying noun is kardia, “heart,” so the image is “the eyes of the heart having been enlightened.”3 Paul is not setting feeling against thought. In Scripture, the heart is the inward center of attention, desire, judgment, and will. The whole inner person needs light. Facts about Christ can remain outside us while our choices are still governed by resentment, fear, vanity, or despair.

The form translated “being enlightened” describes illumination whose effect continues. It does not prove a complete doctrine from one verb form, but it does show that spiritual sight is received rather than manufactured. The believer attends, studies, repents, and prays, yet the light is God’s gift. This is why Paul intercedes instead of merely giving the Ephesians more information.

Paul’s sentence then repeats “what” three times. The enlightened heart is to know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.4 These are not three attractive religious words. They form the content of Christian sight.

The hope of His calling looks forward without becoming vague optimism. In the first part of the chapter, God calls the saints into adoption, holiness, love, redemption, and the gathering of all things in Christ. Hope is the future of that calling already breaking into the present. When circumstances become narrow, hope remembers that God’s purpose is larger than the present hour.

“His inheritance in the saints” carries a deliberate richness. The phrase may emphasize the inheritance God gives among the saints, the saints as His treasured inheritance, or both. The grammar does not require one meaning to erase the other.4 In either case, the inheritance is ecclesial. Paul does not picture an isolated believer possessing a private spiritual fortune. God’s glory is disclosed among a sanctified people who belong to Him and to one another.

The third object receives the longest explanation: “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.” Paul gathers several overlapping words for power, working, might, and strength. He is intensifying the claim, not describing four secret levels of spiritual force.5 Most importantly, he does not leave power undefined. The next words identify it with what the Father worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.

That definition judges our desires. Religious power can be imagined as influence, certainty, visibility, control, or the ability to make others comply. Paul points to a crucified Lord raised from death. Resurrection power gives life, defeats corruption, and brings creation under Christ. It cannot be used to baptize coercive leadership, personality cults, or the need to win every contest.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

St Cyril of Alexandria explicitly cites this passage while explaining the Holy Spirit’s work of revelation. He writes, “The perfect knowledge then is begotten in the Saints by the Spirit,” and connects that illumination to seeing “the deep meaning of the Incarnation and the power of the hidden mystery.”6 Cyril does not turn revelation into curiosity about hidden things. The Spirit opens the heart to Christ and His saving work.

Chrysostom makes the same pastoral point from Paul’s prayer. These mysteries, he says, cannot be understood except “by being partakers of the Holy Ghost, and by receiving abundant grace.”7 Study remains necessary, but study becomes sight only by grace. The fitting response is therefore prayerful attention, not intellectual pride.

Christ Raised and Given to the Church (Ephesians 1:20-23)

20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Now the power has a face and a history. God raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand. The language echoes the royal enthronement of Psalm 110:1, while “all things under His feet” recalls Psalm 8:6.8 Jesus is not one spiritual power among rivals. The crucified and risen Lord reigns above every rule, authority, power, dominion, and name in this age and the age to come.

This claim would have carried particular weight in the world associated with Ephesus. The city was a major center of Roman Asia, marked by civic power, the cult of Artemis, imperial religion, and other religious claims.9 Acts 19 also presents a city where devotion, commerce, and fear of spiritual power could reinforce one another. Paul does not answer that environment with a catalog of invisible beings. He turns the Church’s attention to Christ above them all.

The passage therefore gives confidence without feeding obsession. Christians need not build elaborate theories about every “principality” or live in panic before spiritual forces. Christ’s lordship is the center. His victory does not authorize contempt for human opponents either. No neighbor, political rival, wounded parishioner, or family member becomes the enemy simply because Christ is “far above.” His supremacy calls the Church to worship, truth, peace, and fearless fidelity.

The sentence reaches its ecclesial climax in verse 22. The Father “gave Him to be head over all things to the church.” Christ does not seize the Church as a platform for power; He is given to her as Head. His cosmic lordship becomes the ground of her life and hope. The Church can endure because the One joined to her is Lord over every power.

Head, Body, and fullness belong to one image. The Greek words kephalē (head), sōma (body), and plērōma (fullness) appear in close sequence.10 The Church is more than an association built around Jesus’ memory. She receives life from the living Christ and exists in communion with Him. Her members cannot dismiss one another as expendable without wounding the truth Paul is proclaiming.

“Fullness” must be spoken with doctrinal care. The eternal Son lacks nothing in His divinity. The Church does not complete a deficiency in Christ. Paul magnifies the grace by which Christ joins the Church to Himself, fills her with His life, and makes her His Body. Her dignity is entirely received. This leaves no room for institutional vanity or for leaders who use Christ’s headship to demand unchecked human control.

Chrysostom asks the reader to behold Christ “not as supreme Ruler only, but as Head of a body.”11 That “not only” matters. The passage certainly proclaims supremacy, but it ends in communion. The Lord above every power gives Himself to the Church. Christian confidence rests not merely in being under a victorious ruler, but in belonging to the Body whose Head is the risen Christ.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Coptic lectionary includes Ephesians 1:15 within a larger Pauline reading for Thursday of the first week of the Holy Fifty Days, and the printed range continues into Ephesians 2:1-3. The exact end of the first chapter segment is not printed clearly enough to claim that Ephesians 1:15-23 stands alone as the assigned reading.

The Paschal setting still clarifies the Church’s reception of the passage. During the Holy Fifty Days, Paul prays for enlightened hearts and points to Christ raised above every power. The reading then crosses into the next chapter, where those dead in trespasses are made alive with Christ. The sequence is the Church’s Paschal confession: the power that raised the Head is already at work in His Body.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Pray for sight, not only changed circumstances. Some problems truly need resolution: illness, conflict, unemployment, exhaustion, and danger should be brought plainly before God. Paul also teaches us to ask for something deeper. When fear has narrowed the heart to one outcome, pray, “Father of glory, enlighten the eyes of my heart.” Ask to see the hope, inheritance, and resurrection power already given in Christ, then face the circumstance from that light.

Let thanksgiving correct the urge to manage people. Parents, servants, and leaders can become so focused on what is missing that another person starts to feel like a problem to solve. Paul first thanks God for the Ephesians’ faith and love. Before correcting someone this week, name before God one grace already present in that person, and intercede for deeper knowledge of Christ. Thanksgiving does not ignore harm or cancel necessary boundaries. It purifies care from impatience and control.

Bring hidden hopelessness under the resurrection. Discouragement often speaks as if the present condition were final: “This habit will never change. This grief will define me. This parish wound has destroyed every possibility of trust. This prayer will remain dry.” Paul measures God’s power by the raising of Christ. Christian hope does not deny the wound; it refuses to grant the wound the last word. Choose one place where despair has become a conclusion, and pray verses 19-20 over it each day.

Repent of counterfeit power. The desire to be noticed, to dominate a conversation, to secure obedience through fear, or to treat religious authority as personal importance has no shelter in this text. Divine power is revealed in the crucified Christ raised to give life. Where authority has been entrusted to us, its resurrection shape will be seen in truthful service, protection of the vulnerable, patience, courage, and willingness to bear cost rather than transfer it to others.

Receive the Church as Christ’s Body without making an idol of the institution. Paul leaves no room for casual contempt toward the saints, but neither does he permit institutional pride or silence about harm. The Church’s holiness and fullness come from Christ her Head. Love for His Body means praying for her, serving without building a personal platform, seeking reconciliation where it is safe and truthful, and refusing to use “headship” as cover for unchecked control.

A focused practice for this week is to pray Ephesians 1:17-19 by name for one person and then for yourself. Keep the three objects of Paul’s prayer together: hope, inheritance, and power. Notice which one your heart resists believing, and bring that resistance honestly before Christ.

Footnotes

  1. John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 1:15-16, New Advent. ↩

  2. Ephesians 1:17 Greek interlinear, for πνεῦμα σοφίας καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως; the grammatical referent remains disputed, while Cyril reads the passage through the Holy Spirit’s revelatory work. ↩

  3. Ephesians 1:18 Greek interlinear, with lexical entries for καρδία and φωτίζω. ↩

  4. Ephesians 1:18-19 Greek interlinear, for the repeated τίς and the phrase κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις. The guide preserves the phrase’s interpretive range rather than asserting one exclusive resolution. ↩ ↩2

  5. Ephesians 1:19 and Ephesians 1:20, for δύναμις, ἐνέργεια, κράτος, ἰσχύς, and ἐνήργηκεν. ↩

  6. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, Book 10, Chapter 3, on the Spirit’s revelatory work, explicitly citing Ephesians 1:15-23, Tertullian.org. ↩

  7. John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 1:17-23 and illumination by the Holy Spirit, New Advent. ↩

  8. Psalm 110:1 and Psalm 8:6, the royal and creation texts echoed in Ephesians 1:20-22. ↩

  9. Sarah F. Porter, “Ephesus,” Bible Odyssey, on the city’s place in Roman Asia and its religious setting; Acts 19 supplies canonical narrative context. ↩

  10. Ephesians 1:22 and Ephesians 1:23, for κεφαλή, ἐκκλησία, σῶμα, πλήρωμα, and πληρουμένου. The syntax of the fullness clause remains debated, so the guide does not claim that grammar makes Christ dependent on the Church. ↩

  11. John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on Ephesians, on Christ as Head and the Church as His Body, New Advent. ↩

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