Prayer to be Filled

I enjoy both cooking and baking. I have many sizes of measuring cups and multiple sets of measuring spoons. When baking, I measure out the amount of flour I need from my ten pound bag. Depending on the measuring cup I use and the amount of flour I need, I may or may not fill the measuring cup. Even if I do fill the measuring cup, I have utilized only a small portion of the whole bag of flour.

In Paul’s third request, he petitions God for the Ephesian believers to be filled with all the fullness of God. Not that I would want a whole bag of flour in whatever I am baking, but if my goal was to fill a measuring cup with all the fullness of my flour bag, then I would pour the whole bag into the measuring cup. Thankfully, Paul’s request is infinitely better and life-altering than the full measure of a ten pound bag of flour.

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.^[1]

Ephesians 3:14-21 (emphasis added)

Paul prayed that the Ephesian believers would be filled. The word filled means to be filled full, liberally supplied, abounding, complete.

Paul prayed that they would be filled with something. With (eis in the Greek) often indicates the goal rather than the content, but in this context, Paul uses with to merge goal and content together, so the goal may also imply the content. The goal is what follows with: “all the fullness of God.” Merkle summarized, “They are to be filled up to the fullness of God with the fullness of God.”^[2]

But what does Paul mean by “the fullness of God”? The Greek word for fullness (plēroō) carries the idea of making full or fill something to the full. In my baking illustration, I could have left off at filling my measuring cup to the top, but I think there is more to what Paul is saying. To be filled with the fullness of God is to be emptied of ourselves and filled to the full with all of God. It’s not just a portion of my flour but the whole ten pounds.

There is a recent song with the lyrics: “A little more like Jesus, a little less like me.” The artist was probably trying to make the words flow better in phrasing it this way, but I think it falls far short of Paul’s petition. Too often, we want just a little of Jesus and sacrificing just a little of ourselves. We want to keep holding on to our sin, idols, and comfort (sometimes with clenched fists). We don’t want to rock the boat of our lives too dramatically.

Paul previously used the expression of fullness in relation to the church (vs 1:23). In Colossians, he used it in relation to Christ’s deity (Colossians 1:19; 2:9). Later in Ephesians, Paul instructs believers to “be filled with the Spirit.”

Commentators explained the fullness of God in different ways. Benjamin L. Merkle expressed it as being filled with God’s perfections (His moral excellence), especially His love given the context of comprehending the love of Christ. R.C. Sproul defined it as reaching full stature for which we first need to be filled with the love of Christ. Sinclair Ferguson connected the fullness of God to being so indwelt by Christ as to result in being filled to capacity by the Holy Spirit, hence, with His love.

John MacArthur described the fullness of God in terms of all that God is and all that God does in relation to what we call His communicable attributes – attributes God shares in some degree with people.

Because all people are made in the image of God, there will be things we hold in common with our Creator. However, believers particularly “have the capacity to reflect the character of the Lord and His attributes in who they are and what they do (Eph. 5:1).”^[3]

God’s communicable attributes refer primarily to His moral attributes that we can reflect like His love, kindness, mercy, goodness, wisdom, justice, patience, truthfulness, and even holiness.^[4] We cannot be completely like God in these attributes because God is infinite which extends to all of His attributes. We are finite, and we still struggle with sin that mars our reflection of God’s attributes. God is God alone and we are not. But, as Ephesians 5:1 commands, we should be imitators of God, imitators of His attributes as He has revealed them in Scripture not as defined by anyone else.

As we are filled with the fullness of God, our lives will be controlled progressively more by the Holy Spirit. We will bear the fruit of the Spirit which reflects God’s communicable attributes. Others will see less and less of us and more and more of God in us.

MacArthur summed up Paul’s third request in this way: “His supreme goal in bringing us to Himself is to make us like Himself by filling us with Himself, with all that He is and has.^[5]

Can we say with David: “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:15, emphasis added)? Do we desire to be emptied of ourselves and filled to the full with all of God? Do we glimpse the magnitude of Paul’s third petition – being filled with all the fullness of God?

We aren’t quite finished with Paul’s second prayer, but he has bolstered us in prayer and saturated us in magnificent truths, so that we will be ready, willing, and joyful to obey the coming commands such as walking worthy of the calling to which we’ve been called (vs 4:1-3) and walking in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us (vs 5:2).

Reflection

1.    What things in your life have you been willing to have a little less? What little more of God have you been content to have?

2.    Where might you need to have a lot less of you – a sin you don’t want to forsake, an idol you want to still grasp, or a comfort you don’t want to give up? Take time to confess to God and surrender to God what needs to be a lot less in your life.

3.    What is one specific area you want to reflect more of God? What are practical steps to grow in this? What Scripture can you meditate on and memorize? What songs can you sing or listen to that extol God for that attribute you want to reflect? What are actions you can take towards others or in circumstances?

4.    Paul’s third request is staggering. As you think on the magnitude of this request, what thoughts come to mind? What is your response?

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 3:14–21.

^[2] Merkle, Benjamin L. Expository Commentary, Vol. XI: Ephesians – Philemon. Wheaton, Crossway, 2018.

^[3] “God’s Communicable Attributes | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.Org.” God’s Communicable Attributes, Ligonier Ministries, 3 Sept. 2014, learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/gods-communicable-attributes.

^[4] This is not an exhaustive list.

^[5] John F. MacArthur Jr., Ephesians, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 111.