Life Ministries

The “Eyes of the Heart”
Ephesians - 1:15-18

    The phrase, "For this reason," looks back upon the great passage that we covered last time, from Verse 3 through Verse 14, in which Paul has been outlining the great, fundamental facts about our faith. 

    He is writing to “the faithful in Christ Jesus” according to verse 1 of chapter one…And, he is convinced that they are Christians because of two things which have come to his attention -- their faith, and their love. That should be very insightful to us. A while back, we looked at how God measures a church, as well as how He measures our faith and growth as a Christian. It comes from this scripture - He has heard of the fact that they have confessed Christ and have great faith; But the thing that proves that their faith was true was the evidence of their love -- If our faith has not resulted in our becoming a more loving person, or at least growing in this direction, then it is not genuine faith.  It is merely an intellectual acceptance, which means nothing. Both James and John stress this very fact in ( James 2:14-17  & 1^st.John 3:11-23 ) Read it.  
    Paul agrees. He has heard of their love, and so he is aware that their faith is genuine…In other words their faith has made a noticeable difference in their lives and their attitudes and their actions. And notice that it is love toward ALL the saints, not just toward some of them. Some saints are easy to love. Some are beautiful people, joyful and happy, and everybody likes to be around them. But Paul is struck by the fact that these Christians love all the saints, and, therefore, their love is not based upon people's personalities, their looks, nor upon their wealth; or anything else, rather, it is based upon the fact that they are Christians; They belong to the Lord Jesus; they are part of the family of God. This is something every Christian must learn. This is a truth of scripture; the knowledge of doctrine is never enough to enable one to grow up as a Christian. You can learn all that there is in the Bible, and be able to write a very profound and scholarly theological thesis on it, but if it hasn't reached the heart it is absolutely worthless.  
    A Truth known never changes anybody; it is truth done, truth which has flowed through the emotions and gripped the heart and thus motivated the will that makes a difference. Thus this passage beautifully takes into consideration the way God has made us. He has made us so that truth hits the mind first of all. We are exposed to the facts, to the truth, but that is never enough. There are some people who think that if you merely study your Bible and take the right courses and learn all these great facts, learn the doctrine, and the truth of the Scriptures, that is all you need. But just that much will never change anybody. But truth must somehow move from the head down to the heart. It must grip "the eyes of the heart," to use the beautiful figure that Paul employs, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened”…Truth alone can be dull and academic and deadly. Your heart also must be stirred in order to motivate the will!  Like the two disciples whom Jesus met on the road to Emmaus who said, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?" (Luke 24:32 )
    Paul then prays "...[that he] may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation so that you may know Him better.” Why does he say that? Because it’s all about relationship, not just knowledge.  
    Notice that he doesn't take it for granted that this is going to happen. This is not an automatic feature of the Christian life…He prays for it!
    He goes on to pray; "having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know Him better ... and the HOPE…"  Then he tells us what the “hope” is; - “the riches of his glorious inheritance” and “his incomparably great power for us who believe”.   They have lost their sense of hope. They know it as a doctrine, but they have lost the experience of it…the emotions of it, the expectancy of it.
   So Paul prays that God will enlighten their hearts so that they may know the hope of God's calling. Hope always concerns the future. These people obviously had lost their sense that anything happening now will affect the future. This happens to many of us. We all say we are waiting for the coming of the Lord, but it doesn't really turn us on very much. We know it as doctrine, but it isn't very exciting – right here, right now. How would it affect us if we knew Jesus was coming tomorrow? Yet scripture tells us that He could come any moment…”in the twinkling of an eye!”
    There is one final element in Paul's request here -- that you may know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe” - (Ephesians 1:19) Paul prays that Christians will get their eyes open, in a practical way, to the power available in them -- "that you may know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us (not up in heaven somewhere) – but in us who believe." The only place this kind of power is ever going to be manifested is in you and me; in the church!  So, this is what God is telling us. He has come to give us hope, and riches, and power -- power to be what he wants us to be, and power to do what He, wants us to do.