14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Prayer does not have to be on our knees – it would be difficult to achieve I Thessalonians 5:17 if it was – but Paul sets a precedent for such reverent positioning here. Likewise, we should note that Paul prays specifically to the Father, although prayer to Christ as our High Priest is also established in Hebrews 4:14-16. Verse fifteen returns to the ideas from 2:11-19 and 3:6 that saved Gentiles are now part of the family of God, which is currently both in heaven (saints who have died) and on earth (saints who yet live in fleshly bodies).
Verses 16-19 present us with a scriptural pattern of prayer. Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers is four-fold:
That they be strengthened in the inner man by His spirit
That Christ would dwell in their hearts by faith
That they would be so rooted and grounded in love that they would fully understand (see Romans 8:39)
That they would know the love of Christ, which is greater than knowledge, that they might have all the fulness of God
Notice how doctrine-filled this prayer is, referencing the inner man (Romans 7, II Corinthians 4:16, Colossians 3:10), being rooted (Luke 8:4-15, Colossians 2:7), and love being greater than knowledge (I Corinthians 8:1, I Corinthians 1:19-21, I Corinthians 13). I confess my lack of understanding when it comes to Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, however. Elsewhere in Scripture we see the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9-11, I Corinthians 3:16, II Timothy 1:14). That leaves me to wonder: is the indwelling of the Spirit and the indwelling of Christ one and the same, or are they separate issues? It seems that they must be separate, because the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is connected to salvation, and so it would be pointless for Paul to pray such a thing for people who are already saved. At this time I have no answer.
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