The Breadth, Length, Height, and Depth

Verse 14 resumes the formula “for this reason” from verse 1 and introduces a prayer directed to the Father. The phrase “from whom every patria in heaven and on earth is named” may be translated “every family” or “the whole family,” depending on how the noun is understood. The prayer asks that believers be strengthened with power through God’s Spirit “in the inner person,” so that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith.

The prayer then shifts to spatial imagery. Being “rooted and grounded in love,” believers are to comprehend “the breadth and length and height and depth” and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Scholars disagree over what the four dimensions describe: the love of Christ, the mystery of salvation, the cosmic scope of God’s plan, or an intentionally undefined totality. The immediate syntax leaves the object unstated before verse 19 explicitly introduces Christ’s love.

The climactic petition is that believers be “filled unto all the fullness of God,” language that does not imply becoming divine in essence but participation in the fullness of life and presence God grants through Christ. The doxology in verses 20-21 celebrates God as able to do beyond all that is asked or imagined, according to power already operative in believers. Glory is ascribed to God “in the church and in Christ Jesus,” binding ecclesiology and christology together in the chapter’s closing vision.

Ephesians 3 develops the implications of the Jew-Gentile reconciliation described in 2:11-22. Verses 1-13 explain Paul’s role in making known the “mystery” that Gentiles are now fellow heirs, fellow members of the same body, and fellow participants in the promise in Christ. His ministry is presented as a divine stewardship given by grace, while the church itself displays God’s manifold wisdom to the heavenly powers.

Verses 14-21 resume the prayer begun in verse 1 and interrupted by Paul’s explanation of his ministry. The prayer moves from strengthening through the Spirit, to Christ dwelling in believers’ hearts, to comprehension of the immeasurable dimensions of divine love, and finally to being filled with God’s fullness. The chapter closes with a doxology celebrating God’s power at work within the church and locating divine glory in both the church and Christ throughout all generations.