City Life Starter

Written by Nate Warren

The Word

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Ephesians 1:17

Analysis

In our journey through the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, let’s take a close look at verse 17, attempting to extract the full intent of Paul’s words.

The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory – A few decades prior, as depicted in the gospels, Jesus called God His Father, much to the chagrin of the Jewish authorities in His day. (John 8) He taught his disciples to do the same, addressing the Father in prayer. (Matthew 6:9)

Spirit of Wisdom – The spirit of wisdom is a title given to the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:2) All three persons of the Trinity are invoked in this verse.

Revelation – The word in the original greek language, transliterated apokalupsis, is related to our english words apocalypse and apocalyptic. Literally meaning “unveiling” or “uncovering”, a biblical apocalypse refers to a point in time where God reveals new aspects of His nature and plans to persons (Genesis 35:6-7, Isaiah 6, Daniel 1-7). Paul experienced apocalypse when he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). This kind of revelation dramatically deconstructs and alters the subject’s worldview, just as it did to Paul. He wants the Ephesian believers to be awakened and reawakened to the fullness of who Jesus is, what Jesus has done in the cosmic landscape, and how His followers are part of His glorious plan. We’ll see Paul’s description of this in detail as we continue through the letter.

Knowledge of [Jesus] – When we say we know someone, what are we implying? Knowledge of a person is more than rote facts, though facts are crucial. Knowing Jesus requires that we have pertinent information, to know about Him. However, it also requires interactive experience as His earnest disciple. Paul seems to suggest that God can give apocalypse, a revelation, that creates this intimate knowledge of Him in a divine encounter.

Application

Like Paul for the Ephesians, I too want God to give to you all the Spirit of Wisdom and apocalypse of the knowledge of Messiah Jesus. I want this for my family, friends, myself. What are we to do to get this?

The reality is we can only achieve revelation by God’s action — by His grace. It’s not what you or I can do, but what God can accomplish in us. We are the clay, He is the potter. Grace is opposed to our earning. 

However grace is not opposed to our effort. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.” (Matthew 7:7) James writes, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5) Jesus promised that our heavenly Father would give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:13), and that Spirit will “lead [us] into all truth” (John 16:13). We study the scriptures. We pray. We fast. We participate in our church community. As we lean into the various ways that we have been graced, seeking to know God more and more, we have a divine guarantee that He will reveal Himself to us.

Prayer

God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may You give us the Spirit of Wisdom and dramatically unveil to us the knowledge of our Messiah, Jesus. May we continually marvel at the beauty of What we behold, and may we never look back on our old, busted paradigms. We ask by the power of the name of King Jesus. Amen.