… being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might …
Summary: To understand this passage we need to stop and take our bearings. Then we can gaze with wonder at the scope of Paul’s request for us.
Paul’s sentences can, at times, seem like tall grass. We can see where we are if we stand upon a stump or a rock, but when we walk through it, we find ourselves lost in grass too high to see through. Perhaps it would be wise to stop and review where we are.
Paul started his sentence in the middle of verse nine. He prays for God to fill us with the “knowledge of his will.” He explains that the Spirit of God provides this knowledge through “wisdom and understanding.”
Why?
Paul wants us to please God and live a life “worthy of the Lord” (vs 10). The sign that we are learning to please God is found in our “fruit.” The Spirit teaches us the knowledge of God that guides us in doing good works.
Perhaps we look at “good works” as reading our Bible or helping our neighbors when they are sick, and those are both good things to do. They honor God and show love to our neighbor. The problem is that they do not generally require “great endurance and patience.”
The kind of “good works” Paul has in mind probably have to do with suffering. Suffering occurs when we are confronted by people who do not put God first and do not love their neighbors as they love themselves.
When Jesus was confronted by suffering, he responded with “great endurance and patience.” Whether being driven into the wilderness without food for forty days (Matthew 4:1-11) or being crucified at the hands of the Pharisees and Romans, Jesus endured by the power of God.
Both of these examples required extraordinary patience and endurance. Paul is asking that we might be strengthened with the same power that Jesus leaned on to accomplish God’s will.
“What kind of power is that?” you ask.
The word Paul uses for “power” is a Greek word that suggests miraculous power. It is a power that humans are not capable of on their own.
When Paul writes that we are to be strengthened “according to [God’s] glorious might,” he uses a word that suggests all the mighty power in all of God’s dominion.*
Imagine that!
Application: Do not rely on your own strength. Practice relying on God.
Food for Thought: Why would God trust us with “all power?”
*”G2904 – kratos – Strong’s Greek Lexicon (niv).” Blue Letter Bible. Web. 6 Oct, 2024. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2904/niv/mgnt/0-1/.
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