The Apostle’s Hidden Ministry

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father....” Verse 14.

What else could he do? It was impossible for him, in spite of the insight that he had and the manifold wisdom he possessed, to get them to comprehend how greatly he loved them with such a fullness of love. Their carnality was a hindrance and kept them from understanding this Apostle who was so rich and mighty in God. Paul wanted so much to embrace them with all his fullness of the love of God, but the love in their response was nowhere near as rich and full. On the contrary, he encountered a considerable lack of love, as well as conceit and arrogance. This brought him into great sufferings, and it was in these sufferings that he bowed his knees before Him from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

“...that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man....” Verse 16.

This was the Apostle’s fervent prayer for the Ephesians. The riches of glory are found in God. But now Paul was praying that these tremendous riches might, by the Spirit, be transmitted to the church, just as they had been transmitted to him. If the Apostle himself had not been in possession of these precious treasures, he could not possibly have asked God to bestow them upon the others, since he would have been unaware that anything so glorious existed.

These “riches of his glory” that the Ephesians were ignorant of become, through the Spirit, a tremendous source of strength for our inner man, and they are obtained in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. If these were obtainable without sufferings or tribulations, then everyone would march right up to God and demand of Him all of these glorious things. But in His wisdom God has ordained that the way to the glorious things of Christ is through the veil—the flesh, and everyone must obtain them as best he can.

The Apostle’s light over this brought him into a deep and hidden ministry for the sake of the local assemblies and the church at large.