Graduate 191: Advent & Ephesians, Day 18
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling,..."
Paul's prayer for the Ephesians continues. First he asked that God would give them a "spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him." Now he prays, "that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling."
Enlightenment. Illumination. John writes, in his gospel, "In Him [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ... With light comes clear perception and understanding. Light enables one to see the world clearly and as it is, whereas darkness obscures and hides. And in this particular case, light enables one to see and to know the hope that is to be found in God's calling.
As we pointed out yesterday, the kind of knowledge that comes with this divine illumination is not purely intellectual. Paul captures this very point explicitly through his prayer that "the eyes of your heart" may be enlightened. Francis Foulkes puts the point this way: "The verse speaks specifically of the eyes of your hearts and we need to remember that in biblical expression the heart is not simply the seat of the emotions, nor the seat of the intellect or 'understanding (AV), but as Masson puts it 'the centre of the personality', to which God speaks, 'the inner man in his entirety' (Barry)." (Foulkes, 69) Paul is not praying that the Ephesians would come to a heady knowledge of God's nature and character. Nor is he praying that they would be seized by a strong emotional fervor. Rather, he is praying that they would come to an apprehension and awareness of God in the very core of their personality--an awareness that would invariably touch every other dimension of their lives.
Many people, unfortunately, don't have this kind of deep awareness of God in mind when they think about what the Christian experience is supposed to involve. They think that what Christianity is about just is a shallow intellectual consent or a succession of moments of intense emotional experience. The consequence: that they don't enjoy all the benefits (blessings) that come with being a child of God--because their not expecting any of them and so not looking for them and so not doing what it takes to access them. How very needful it is that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened. How very needful it is that we would know what is the hope of His calling.
This great hope is just what Paul has been delineating in the first part of chapter one. These are points upon which we need to meditate. It's very easy to read the words, to skim over them, and to miss completely their significance and import. Meditation is required. Reflection is necessary. Dwelling on the text is indispensable. Life transformation always takes time. There's no way around it. And if you desire to be impacted by God's gracious revelation in anything like the way that Paul was, you would do well to spend time thinking about what he says.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
Paul's prayer for the Ephesians continues. First he asked that God would give them a "spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him." Now he prays, "that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling."
Enlightenment. Illumination. John writes, in his gospel, "In Him [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ... With light comes clear perception and understanding. Light enables one to see the world clearly and as it is, whereas darkness obscures and hides. And in this particular case, light enables one to see and to know the hope that is to be found in God's calling.
As we pointed out yesterday, the kind of knowledge that comes with this divine illumination is not purely intellectual. Paul captures this very point explicitly through his prayer that "the eyes of your heart" may be enlightened. Francis Foulkes puts the point this way: "The verse speaks specifically of the eyes of your hearts and we need to remember that in biblical expression the heart is not simply the seat of the emotions, nor the seat of the intellect or 'understanding (AV), but as Masson puts it 'the centre of the personality', to which God speaks, 'the inner man in his entirety' (Barry)." (Foulkes, 69) Paul is not praying that the Ephesians would come to a heady knowledge of God's nature and character. Nor is he praying that they would be seized by a strong emotional fervor. Rather, he is praying that they would come to an apprehension and awareness of God in the very core of their personality--an awareness that would invariably touch every other dimension of their lives.
Many people, unfortunately, don't have this kind of deep awareness of God in mind when they think about what the Christian experience is supposed to involve. They think that what Christianity is about just is a shallow intellectual consent or a succession of moments of intense emotional experience. The consequence: that they don't enjoy all the benefits (blessings) that come with being a child of God--because their not expecting any of them and so not looking for them and so not doing what it takes to access them. How very needful it is that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened. How very needful it is that we would know what is the hope of His calling.
This great hope is just what Paul has been delineating in the first part of chapter one. These are points upon which we need to meditate. It's very easy to read the words, to skim over them, and to miss completely their significance and import. Meditation is required. Reflection is necessary. Dwelling on the text is indispensable. Life transformation always takes time. There's no way around it. And if you desire to be impacted by God's gracious revelation in anything like the way that Paul was, you would do well to spend time thinking about what he says.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 6:48 PM
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