The Praise of His Glory

The Reading is from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 1:7-17

BRETHREN, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory, In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.

St. Paul is always so hard for me to read. Whether it’s his long, involved sentences (coming out of the Greek), or his preoccupation with the problems of Jews and Gentiles, or his own unique place as a different sort of Apostle (not one of the Twelve), or his theology (so often in my mind connected with Protestantism), Paul’s letters always present a special challenge. Take this passage above. Now what is he talking about?

The bottom line (literally) is that Paul gives thanks for the Brethren, and prays that God will give them a special spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. How does he get to this thanksgiving and prayer?

There is a 3-part framework, borrowed from philosophy, which I often use to understand things. It helps me in this case, too, so I’ll try to explain. I don’t really know if one ends up with the right interpretation, but I’ll take all the help I can get! The three parts are to look at ontology or metaphysics, then epistemology, then ethics. So first we say what IS, then we say something about how or what we KNOW, then we say something about what we can or should DO. (It’s not always necessary to follow this order. Sometimes we DO in order to KNOW what IS. Or, we might want to KNOW what IS so that we can DO accordingly.)

The sentences in the passage above map onto these three concerns.

What IS (ontology, metaphysics):

BRETHREN, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us.

We have redemption and forgiveness through blood and grace. That’s the way it IS. Next, what about knowledge?

For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

God’s plan (will, purpose) has been made known to us “in all wisdom and insight” (how we know). What do we know? We know that God’s plan is to unite all things (on earth and in heaven) in Christ in the fulness of time. So we know there’s Something Going On. A mysterious happening has been revealed (uncovered).

Next, knowing this, what are we supposed to do? What to do seems to be divided into two parts: “we who first hoped” and “you also”.

In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory,

St. Paul and his compatriots are “destined and appointed” to live for the praise of His glory. That’s what they’re supposed to do. Live. Live for the praise of God’s (Christ’s) glory.

In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

The readers of Paul’s letter, who have heard the gospel, who have believed, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (chrismated) as a guarantee until they acquire (full) possession of it (their inheritance, the Holy Spirit) — again, all to the praise of His glory.

So to LIVE, to live for the praise of God’s glory, IS to acquire full possession of the Holy Spirit, given our forgiveness and given what has been revealed to us to know. Does that follow? May we draw that conclusion?

For all these reasons, and for the faith and love of the brethren, St. Paul thanks God and prays for his readers — and for all of us who follow in their footsteps — that God will give the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Him.

Enabled by God, and knowing what we need to know, will we acquire the Spirit and live this way?