To Know the Love of Christ; the Doxology (Ephesians 3:18–21)

Eph. 3:18, 19. That you might be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Here is the fruit of the indwelling of Christ the Lord in hearts—perfect comprehension! Where Christ is, there is the mind of Christ. And as the Apostle says of himself: “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16)—a mind that discerns all things and perceives the mind of the Lord Himself (1 Cor. 2:15)—so likewise a share in the Lord’s mind is granted to everyone in whom the Lord has dwelt, in the measure He wills. There is no other path to comprehending the spiritual realm. “That you might be able,” he says—that is, much strength is needed; and why is this strength needed? To “comprehend” (holy Chrysostom).

The holy Apostle attaches such importance to comprehension in Christianity that he directed the entire epistle toward its unfolding and the indication of the sure path to it. And so it is; for one who does not comprehend is like a blind man—he does not know where or how to go. Yet one cannot help distinguishing degrees of comprehension. Already in the first proclamation of the Gospel, when it is received by hearing alone, a certain comprehension of it is given. One who believes and is baptized enters a higher degree of comprehension. One who walks the path of faith in good deeds and spiritual labor has this comprehension growing ever more. But when, after the purification of the heart, Christ dwells in it, comprehension is raised to the very highest degree. The holy fathers call this degree contemplation and prescribe the way to it as that same path described above—the path of laboring in the fulfillment of the commandments and in the struggle to overcome the passions, for the purpose of purifying the heart and establishing love in it. St. Isaac the Syrian writes of this in detail in his 55th discourse, or epistle to the wonderworker Simeon, in its later sections, from page 373. We will cite a few of his statements on this below.

The words “with all the saints” must not pass without notice. Perhaps the Apostle wished to say simply: with all Christians, since it was his custom to call Christians saints. But since, by the nature of things, Christians are only called to holiness, strive for it, and are equipped with the means toward it—while they become saints properly speaking only by advancing in the life in Christ Jesus, when Christ Himself, the source of all holiness, dwells in them—nothing prevents us from understanding “saints” here as the advanced and perfect Christians. The Apostle desires that the Ephesians, having entered by faith into the community of Christians, should not fall behind others in comprehension, but should be counted worthy to attain such a degree of it as the most perfect Christians possess. He says, as it were: may you be able to comprehend, alongside all the saints, in the manner in which the holy and perfect comprehend.

At the same time it is suggested that, as life, so too comprehension in Christians does not ripen in isolation, separately from others, but matures and appears in its fullness only under the condition of communion with all. Communion in life is love; communion in comprehension is a sharing of understanding—that each person should understand as all do, and not step outside the circle of common understanding. Particular, original views are foreign to the spirit of Christ. The Apostle says, as it were: I desire for you a higher comprehension, but not in such a way that you drift away somewhere, cut off from the saints—rather, that at the height of comprehension you should stand on a level with all the saints, or enter into the strength and circle of their comprehension, for beyond it there is none, and none can be.

What is the object of comprehension? The Apostle does not specify it, but from the flow of the discourse it is clear that what is spoken of here is the mystery of the economy of our salvation in Christ Jesus. All our commentators understand it thus. Holy Chrysostom writes: “That you might be able to comprehend… what is the breadth…” — that is, that you might precisely know the mystery of the economy of our salvation. A general outline of the work of salvation everyone knows without special effort, for it is clearly delineated. But one who has attained the indwelling of Christ, or in whom Christ manifestly reveals His indwelling, actually experiences his salvation, and therefore understands it perfectly—as one who has recovered understands health more perfectly than one who still hopes for health while lying ill and receiving treatment. In such people the economy of salvation itself is seen more clearly, and all its aspects are defined more exactly, for it enters into all spheres of being, extends its power throughout the whole expanse of time, and embraces eternity. Consequently, in it lies the answer to all that exists and all that happens, to all creatures and the course of all events. All this is disclosed to the minds of those most intimately united with the Lord, though it cannot be contained in words and ordinary turns of speech, but is only clearly perceived. As the Apostle, who in heaven heard words and saw things that he could not convey in words, so it is with all Christian contemplatives. By their minds, in the mystery of salvation, much is seen which they have no power to express in words.

This is what the Apostle indicates here with the words “the breadth and length and depth and height.” These signify either the greatness of the work of salvation and the fullness of God’s love for us manifested in it, or the various aspects of this economy. Blessed Theodoret writes: “By faith and love it is possible for us to attain the spiritual grace—of its action and manifest working—and through it to know the greatness of the accomplished economy. For the Apostle depicted greatness by breadth, length, depth, and height, since these dimensions signify magnitude.” Holy Chrysostom says: “By breadth and length, depth and height, he names the knowledge of the riches of God’s love—that is, how it spread everywhere. He describes it in bodily terms, accommodating himself to human notions; hence he says that it embraced what is above and below and on every side. We have said, he declares, that not our words but the Holy Spirit can teach this.” Blessed Theophylact notes that holy Gregory of Nyssa sees in these features the depiction of the mystery of the Lord’s Cross, which is the center of the economy of salvation. And Oecumenius cites a detailed explanation of these features made by Patriarch Photius. “Of what is this the breadth and length, depth and height? — Either of the mystery of salvation, or of the knowledge of Christ itself. The knowledge of Christ is the clear representation of the economy He accomplished. The knowledge of Christ is the understanding of how and why this wondrous work of salvation was accomplished by Him and not by another, and the acknowledgment that He Himself is the Bestower of this understanding and that only by this path do we truly know Christ. This is what constitutes the knowledge of Christ. Its length is the knowledge that the economy of salvation was foreordained from eternity. Its breadth—that its beneficence extends to all: to those who lived before the Law, those under the Law, and those after the Law; to the living and the dead; to Jews and Greeks; to barbarians and all peoples; to heavenly and earthly things. For Christ made peace for all of them, whereas before, Angels and humans had been at variance with one another. The Apostle prays that they might comprehend all this, and not only this, but also the depth and height of it—the depth, being that its ineffable power and beneficence descended to the very depths of hades, shattering and despoiling hades, and redeeming and freeing those whom it had held captive; and the height, being that He who descended is the same as He who ascended, who raised our first-fruits above the heavens, above every Principality and Power, Might and Dominion. Do you see the ineffable height of the economy of Christ and of its knowledge? — The Apostle prays that they might comprehend and understand all this.”

“And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” Along with the disclosure before their consciousness of the work of salvation in such fullness, the love of Christ will also be disclosed in its fullness. For all this it produced. The love of Christ is incomprehensible to the mind; but when Christ dwells in a person, that person feels in his heart the greatness of this love and contemplates it with his mind, even though it remains inexpressible and inexplicable. Holy Chrysostom says: “Although the love of Christ surpasses all human knowledge, yet you will know it if Christ dwells in you.” Or the Apostle wishes to say that you will comprehend not the extent of the love of Christ, “but the very fact that it surpasses all understanding” (Theophylact). As long as the love of Christ has not been felt, one can still suppose that one understands it at least somewhat. But once felt, one knows at the same time that there is no measure to its greatness, and that the mind is not given to comprehend it. “Holy Paul does not search out the measure of love and does not wish to measure it—and how could he? But he says that a distinguished and great thing is to know the riches of love. Let us strive then, beloved, to know the love of Christ. This is of great importance to us: nothing else brings us so much benefit, nothing so much exalts us. The knowledge of this love can act upon the soul more powerfully than the fear of gehenna” (holy Chrysostom). Being strengthened in the inner man by the grace of the Spirit prepares a house in the heart for the indwelling of Christ; the indwelling of Christ brings knowledge of the economy of salvation and knowledge of the love of Christ; and this knowledge in turn acts back upon the strengthening in the inner man. Thus proceeds the circling movement of the spiritual life, through which it becomes inexhaustible.

“That you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” “There are two ways of understanding this: either that you may know that God is worshipped in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—for the fullness of God is the Trinity; or that you may be filled with every virtue with which God is filled. Better, it seems to me, to understand it thus: that you may be perfect in every perfection that is according to God, knowing all that belongs to God, so far as that is possible” (Theophylact). There is a norm for Christian perfection. The Apostle desires the Ephesians to rise to its measure. I desire for you, he says, that on account of faith and love Christ would dwell in you, and that through this you would know all the economy and all the love of Christ, so that in this way you would be filled with everything with which God intended to fill Christians. When you have received all that is prescribed, you will lack nothing and will be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jas. 1:4). For when Christ is in you, then with Him is all. What more could be desired? — Blessed Theodoret even paraphrases this text thus: “That you may have Him dwelling perfectly in you.”

Gathering up all that the Apostle has said, we will see that the fullness of Christian perfection, according to him, is the state of contemplation. This state belongs to one who, having freed himself from all attachment to anything, enters the realm of God and sees all things there as we see all that surrounds us. Contemplation seems to be only a work of the mind; but for it to open in the mind, one must enter through labor and toil into the state required for it. We cite below the words of holy Isaac the Syrian on this, as we promised.

“From the beginning our nature received renewal in the Incarnation of Christ… and then, after renewal… became capable of receiving the new and perfect commandments” (p. 374). (From the Ascetic Discourses of our holy father Abba Isaac the Syrian, ascetic and hermit, who was bishop of the Christ-loving city of Nineveh. Moscow, 1854.)

“…the new and spiritual commandments which the soul keeps, with an eye to the fear of God, renew and sanctify the soul and secretly heal all its members. It is plain to all what passion each commandment silently heals in the soul, and their effect is perceptible both to the one healing and to the one being healed, as it was with the woman who had a flow of blood” (ibid.).

“If the passionate part of the soul is not healed… the soul will not acquire health… This healing is accomplished by the practice of the commandments and the laborious works—struggles—of the true life. One who has acquired the health of the soul, has cut off the former disposition and been reborn, has become visible in the realm of the spirit, and he has been received into himself by the new, simple world” (p. 375).

“When the mind is renewed and the heart sanctified, then all the concepts arising within it are aroused in accordance with the nature of that world into which it has entered. His mind perceives the spiritual knowledge of creatures, and the contemplation of the mysteries of the Holy Trinity dawns in it, as also the mysteries of the economy accomplished for us and worthy of all worship” (ibid.).

“If the passions are removed from the soul, the mind is illumined and set in the pure place of its nature, and has no need of questions; for it sees clearly the good things found in their proper place. As the external senses do not perceive things by means of instruction… in a similar manner conceive of spiritual contemplation. For the mind that looks into the hidden mysteries of the spirit, if it is in its natural health, fully contemplates the glory of Christ and does not inquire and does not learn, but enjoys the mysteries of the new world, above the freedom of the will” (p. 376).

“To desire to know such mysteries by means of inquiry and questioning is foolishness of soul. For even the blessed Paul did not say that he saw and heard the mysteries and ‘unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter’ (2 Cor. 12:4) by learning or by any material means, but was caught up by rapture into the spiritual realm and saw the revelation of mysteries” (p. 378).

“If you desire that your heart become a dwelling of the mysteries of the new world, first enrich yourself with bodily works—fasting, vigil, service, ascetic labor, patience, the casting down of thoughts, and the rest. Bind your mind with the reading of the Scriptures and deep meditation upon them, and write the commandments before your eyes. By ceaseless communion in prayer, root out from your heart every image of things and every likeness previously received into it. Train your mind always to penetrate the mysteries of the economy of the Saviour, continuing the practice of the commandments and the labors in the acquisition of purity. Ask of the Lord in prayer, inflamed as with fire, for all-encompassing care—that it may flow into your heart and that you may be counted worthy of the life of the mind. The beginning, middle, and end of this life consist in the following: the cutting off of all things through union with Christ” (p. 379).

“Words that are incomprehensible to the understanding are made intelligible to us by faith, and knowledge of them we receive in contemplation, which comes through purification. For the spiritual mysteries that surpass understanding and are perceived neither by the bodily senses nor by the rational power of the mind, God has given us faith, by which we know only that these mysteries exist—for they are known in another manner, as has already been said. And from this faith there is born in us hope concerning them—to attain their contemplation. By faith we confess that God is Lord, Ruler, Creator and Maker of all things; and by reason we determine that we must keep His commandments out of love. And this leads to blessed contemplation. ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter’ (Jn. 14:15, 16), said the Lord. By the coming of the Comforter He signifies the gifts of the revelation of spiritual mysteries; therefore in the receiving of the Spirit which the Apostles received lies all the perfection of spiritual knowledge. And the Lord promised, having prayed to His Father, to give them the Comforter, so that He might abide with them forever while they practice the commandments and purify themselves. Do you see that for the keeping of the commandments out of love, the mind is counted worthy of the grace of mystical contemplation and revelations of spiritual knowledge?” (pp. 381–382).

“The lawful door that leads into this is love. If we acquire love, it leads us into this. ‘I am the door,’ said the Lord. Through Me a man will enter into life and ‘will find pasture’ for his spiritual life. Then at all the ascents of revelations of knowledge and mystical divine contemplations, divine love leads him in and leads him out, as it does for those who possess the freedom of Christ” (pp. 383–384).

“As according to the measure of natural age the soul receives new and ever new knowledge within itself, perceives what exists in the world, and from day to day is more and more instructed in this—so also in the spiritual life, a man receives within himself spiritual contemplation and divine perception, and is instructed in this to the degree that the mind grows in the life of reason and advances forward. But when he comes into the realm of love, then he contemplates what is spiritual in its proper place. Yet as long as a man uses effort to make the spiritual descend to him, it does not submit. And if he presumptuously imagines and raises his gaze toward what is spiritual, and approaches it by understanding at an untimely moment, his vision quickly grows dim, and instead of reality he perceives phantoms and images” (p. 385).

“If the mind is not purified by the practice of the commandments, does not acquire love in its perfection, does not advance in maturity in the renewal of Christ… it will not be able to become a true beholder of divine contemplation. And all likenesses of what is spiritual which the mind thinks to form for itself are called phantoms, and not reality” (p. 387).

In the excerpts offered above all the teaching on true contemplation is contained. In keeping with the greatness of the subject, the excerpt is lengthy. But as there was no reluctance in making it, let there be no reluctance in reading it and pondering it. This subject is of the first importance, although our scholarship pays it little attention.

Eph. 3:20, 21. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the Church in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, age after age. Amen.

“The Apostle closes his doctrinal discourse with a doxology” (Theodoret). “I pray, he says, but He, even without my prayer, will do more than our petitions—and not simply more or more abundantly, but ‘exceedingly abundantly’—an expression that shows the particular greatness of the gift” (holy Chrysostom). “I praise Him because He both can and wills and grants more than we ask” (Theodoret).

It was St. Paul’s custom, in the midst of his discourse, to be caught up into prayer and doxology. For he lived by what he wrote: all of it he bore in his heart; and from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks its praise. Just before this, the Apostle had expressed the desire that the Ephesians be filled “with all the fullness of God.” This fullness of God—or fullness of the good things descending to us from God through Christ Jesus—was partly depicted by the Apostle in the epistle, partly expressed in this prayer, and partly known and understood by the Ephesians themselves. The Apostle now says: what I wrote to you about, what I have prayed and do pray for, what you yourselves perceive and seek—all this is great, but it by no means exhausts the treasury of good things given to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. They are incomparably greater than what we can perceive or ask for. And all of them the Lord is able to pour out upon anyone it is His good pleasure to favor. What has already been poured out, you experience yourselves, you see in me, you hear of as accomplished in the other Apostles. You see how it works—power comes in an unknown manner and shows its action: either in the soul alone, illumining and purifying, or also outwardly, working miracles. This is not from us: it is God’s gift. And no measure can be set to it. If one were to measure it by our capacity, a measure might still be defined. But since the measure of it is God’s boundless goodness and all-efficacious power, who can set it a measure and boundary? God’s treasury is without measure, and He is ready to empty the whole of it upon us. With such a thought, could the Apostle not cry out: “To Him be glory!”

“Above all”—one should say: above everything—which together with “exceedingly abundantly” expresses: incomparably more than all that we ask or understand. “According to the power that works in us”—this states the ground on which the Apostle speaks thus. He is as it were answering the question: “But how is this evident—that God can do this for us? — From the power, he says, working in us, for we never asked or expected this” (holy Chrysostom). In us—in whom? — Either primarily in the Apostles, or in all believers in the Church, so as to say: Christianity—faith in Christ—has given and continues to give much to all, and what it can still give has no measure. In another place the Apostle says: all things are yours (1 Cor. 3:21, 22).

With this thought in mind, the Apostle is caught up in a doxology, saying: “To Him be glory!” “The Apostle did well to conclude his discourse with prayer and a doxology, for one ought to glorify and bless the One who has granted us such good things” (holy Chrysostom). Glory to God! — an exclamation that arises of itself from the heart when the mind begins to enter even a small and initial comprehension of the divine attributes and actions, and especially of God’s beneficent relations toward us. Glory and thanksgiving converge together, and beneath them ripens—or warms into life—petition as well. In this lies the whole essence of our relationship to God, which is always expressed in every prayer when it proceeds in the right manner.

The same occurs in natural religion. The distinctive feature of this manifestation of the spiritual life in Christianity is that here it takes place “in the Church and in Christ Jesus.” “In the Church:” for all blessings are received through her, are recognized and defined through her, and are communicated by her to all her members. From her goes up the one voice of glory to God. As the Apostle showed above—in the words “to comprehend with all the saints”—that the solitary individual in knowing is not acceptable before God, so now he shows that the solitary individual in prayer and praise is likewise not acceptable before Him. Praise God with the voice of the Church, or together with the whole Church, even when you pray alone. We express this by drawing near to God with the prayers of the Most Holy Mother of God, the assembly of Angels, and all the saints. “In Christ Jesus:” for all that we have and can have, we have and can have only through the Lord Jesus Christ, through faith in Him and through living union with Him, by which everything that is His descends upon us. Through Him in return the doxology must also ascend to God. Only in this form is it pleasing to God, as we ourselves are pleasing to Him only for His sake, by virtue of our being clothed in Him. He is the head, and the lips by which one can offer praise are found in the head. Holy Chrysostom observes: “It is also worthy of wonder that for the gifts received by us from God, the Apostle praises God in Christ Jesus.” Theophylact adds: “He does not simply say ‘To Him be glory,’ but also ‘in’ ‘Christ Jesus,’ that is, through Christ Jesus. For indeed no one can worthily praise God except by the grace and power of Christ. He both awakens us to praise and teaches us how to perform it as it ought to be performed.”

The words “throughout all generations, age after age” express the unbroken continuity of the doxology. Generation after generation will succeed one another in the course of time, age after age will pass—but that great work of God accomplished in Christ Jesus, represented and maintained by the Church, will remain unchanged, enriching our race with ever greater heavenly gifts, and will always move lips to praise. Glory to God is unceasingly offered in the Church. She alone can offer it with the continuity the Apostle specifies. — To Him be glory throughout all generations—either let it be, or it shall be. By the first, an obligation is laid upon us to praise God for the work of salvation (Theodoret); by the second, it is declared that if glory to God will always be in the Church, then the Church will always endure—or: the Church will always endure, and glory to God will always be offered. Holy Chrysostom says: “It is very fitting that this too is said—‘glory in the Church,’ for it is known that the Church will exist forever; and since she always abides, the Apostle desires that we too glorify God until the end of the world, which he made clear by saying ‘throughout all generations of the age.’”

The two final verses of the dogmatic section of the epistle are finely paraphrased by blessed Jerome. We cite his words. “By this the Apostle shows that in his petition he is confined to human measure and asks for what he finds beneficial to the Ephesians; but in reality God is able to grant more than is asked of Him, and to surpass our hopes with His beneficences. We ourselves do not know what and how to pray, and we often ask for what is not beneficial to us. A fornicator, for example, prays for health, whereas it is far more beneficial for him to be ill and weakened by infirmity, so that he may lack the strength to make the temple of Christ into members of a harlot. God is able to grant not only more than we ask, but more than we understand. It happens sometimes that we do not express our thoughts in words, but in silent reflection, with inexpressible groanings—as the same Apostle says—we ask for what we cannot express. God grants even this; He grants more than this too, and all ‘according to the power that works in us.’ As now, not according to our deeds and beyond our expectation, He grants us much of what we would not dare to ask, so also He can grant us much else of a kind the mind cannot conceive and the tongue cannot express. So to the good God be glory: first, in the Church, which is pure, without spot or blemish, and which alone can receive the glory of God, because she is the body of Christ; second, in Christ Jesus, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and whose members are all who believe in Him. This glory is not limited to the present time and the ages to come, but extends to all generations, and through ages of ages it abides, grows, and multiplies, and fills all boundless eternity.”