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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Ephesians 3:16 - 3:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
16. κατὰ τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ. ‘According to the riches of His glory.’ We have the remission of sius ‘according to the riches of His grace’ (Eph 1:7), for the power to live the new life we draw on the riches of His glory—the spiritual force inherent in His revealed and realized presence with His people, filling His new temple. See Additional Note on ὁ πατὴρ τῆς δόξης.
δυνάμει κραταιωθῆναι. ‘To be strengthened with power.’ The thought of glory is linked with the thought of power Eph 1:19, Col 1:11.
κραταιωθῆναι. The fundamental need of these Gentile Christians, as St Paul sees it, is not quickening or conversion. In spite of the presence of grievous moral evil to which he is to call attention later on, he assumes that their hearts are right with God. But they are immature. They need strengthening in mind and heart and will. So he opens their eyes to a power not their own by which their need can be supplied. Cf. ἐνδυναμοῦσθαι in Eph 6:10; 2Ti 2:1. Notice that ἐκραταιοῦτο is used both of the Baptist and of our Lord in the early stages of their development (Luk 1:80; Luk 2:40).
διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ. The Spirit is characteristically the source of power. See esp. Act 1:8.
εἰς. Pregnant construction: ‘sent into and working in.’
τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον. Cf. Rom 7:22; 2Co 4:16; 1Pe 3:4. Here it is virtually identical with ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν (Eph 3:17).