Ephesians 1:17
17 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. Paul’s prayer is that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.”, which is similar to verse three, where he said “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” we see similar phrases in Rom 15:6 6 so that with one purpose and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ; 2 Cor 1:3 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort 11:31; Col 1:3; 1 Pet 1:3, etc. From these phrases we see this subordination of Himself to God the Father that Jesus practiced Himself as our model, taught to us continually in His earthly ministry by calling God His Father and praying to him, and continues to teach us today through the Holy Spirit as we read God’s Word.
Our Lord Jesus Christ–The phrase Our Lord Jesus Christ shows us His personal relationship with us, since we call Him “our Lord”. His name “Jesus” identifies Him, but also describes His mission, since it means God is our salvation”. It describes his Lordship (“Jesus is Lord” was an early confession of the church).
the Father of glory–God is called the Father of Glory. The word doxa, glory, has the idea of something that is “weighty” in a person and hence the idea of “significance” or “importance.” Substantial. This personal “weightiness” makes an impact on others. It has to do with a sense of “reputation” and “power” and further it also expresses the “divine mode of being” referring to divine honor, splendor, power, and radiance. It has the idea of the reflection of the essence of one’s being, the summation of all of one’s attributes, as being praiseworthy. Glory is the reflection of the essence of God’s being, because of who He is. It is the power, the might, the splendor resulting from who God is, His Divine character.
[God] may give to you the spirit of insight and revelation–Paul is praying that God may give to them, the Ephesian believers the spirit of insight and revelation. The word here for God’s insight is Sophia “wisdom,” which is applied knowledge, or uniting theoretical knowledge with practice. And there is a difference between human and divine wisdom. As 1 Cor 18, and 20-25 tell us. 18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…. 20 Where is the wise person? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? …24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than mankind, and the weakness of God is stronger than mankind. There’s nothing in human wisdom by which we can transform save ourselves. Paul also prays that God will apokalypsis reveal, unveil, or disclose what they don’t yet know about Him. This will be done by the power of the Holy Spirit, through Spiritual insight, disclosing things about God that they could never discover by investigating themselves. A great biblical example of this is in Matthew 16:15-17 when Jesus asks the disciples whether they agreed with those who were saying that he was John the Baptist, or Elijah, or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets, 15 He said to them, “But who do you yourselves say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. This is the kind of revelation that Paul is praying that God will give the Ephesians. And Paul specifies just how God is going to do this. Through the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation. Twice in Ephesians (1:17 ; 3:3) where Paul testifies of the Holy Spirit’s work in his life, saying 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before briefly. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to mankind, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit The Holy Spirit revealed things which were hidden in God and unknown to humans, but now is revealed to Paul and other believes by the power of the Holy Spirit. In scripture, and in our own lives we see that the primary work of the Holy Spirit is in revealing God to us more fully, whether by inspiring the Word of God to be written down, or in His ministry personally to us, in our own lives. The Holy Spirit’s teaching and revealing role was most emphasized by Jesus John 14:26 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you. And specifically, that the Holy Spirit would reveal Jesus to us. John 15:26 26 When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, namely, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, He will testify about Me, And is unveiling or revealing of the mysteries of God role of the Holy Spirit was emphasized by Jesus in John 16:13-15 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; this is why I said that He takes from Mine and will disclose it to you. The working of the spirit is not primarily seen in visible acts of supernatural power, but in giving us power to prioritize God in our lives instead of ourselves, to know and be receptive to God’s works in our lives, like having the faith to believe in the first place, and desiring to get closer in our relationship with God, giving us spiritual understanding, and making us receptive to God’s plan for our lives.
The Spirit is searches the truth of all things, even the deep things of God. In 1 Cor 2:9-10 we read 9 but just as it is written: “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the human heart, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. The word here means rigorous research or exhaustive examination. The Holy Spirit searches out Truth continually, which means that He is the Spirit of Truth, and knows everything, even the mind of God. As Paul continues 11 For who among people knows the thoughts of a person except the spirit of the person that is in him? So also the thoughts of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God knows all things because he is God.
may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him–So when Paul prays that God may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, it’s pretty clear that he’s not talking about thinking really hard and coming up with our own ideas about God—that leads to idolatry and false teaching—Human wisdom and rational knowledge. God’s ways are beyond ours, and He doesn’t need our help figuring out what to do. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. Since God is the perfect Guide and Shepherd, it’s probably best that we let Him lead! And that means that we must follow! He will give us His wisdom if we will ask with a spirit of wanting to follow the direction that He gives. Like a Good father, He loves it when His children ask for His advice and direction. James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. He has all the wisdom and knowledge and understanding that we need. Our faith is in God Himself, not our ideas about Him. And that means when He allows something into our lives that we don’t understand, or it feels like He doesn’t see what’s happening in our lives, or we are disappointed with how He is taking care of us, we fall back on knowing that He loves us, and that His ways may not always make sense to us at the time, but when we get to heaven, we will know as we are known, and we will understand that it was all a part of His plan. The holy spirit helps us to understand God’s purpose in our lives, so that we will accept and understand the Truthfulness and Faithfulness of God, even when He doesn’t make sense to us. 1 Cor 2:12 “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” Trust in God and lean not on our own understanding. We learn about God from the Word of God, as the Holy Spirit gives us insight, and we learn to know God personally as we walk with Him in our daily lives, walking spiritually through the power of the Holy Spirit. In end, philosophy says “Know yourself” but Christianity says “Know your God, through the Holy Spirit.”