Homily III. Chapter I. Verses 15–20 “For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which is among you, and which ye show toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: having the eyes of your heart enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.” Never was anything equal to the yearnings of the Apostle, never anything like the sym- pathy and the affectionateness of the blessed Paul, who made his every prayer in behalf of whole cities and peoples, and writes the same to all,197 “I thank my God for you, making mention of you in my prayers.” Think how many he had in his mind, whom it were a labor so much as to remember; how many he made mention of in his prayers, giving thanks to God for them all as though he himself had received the greatest blessing. “Wherefore,” he says, i.e., because of what is to come,198 because of the good things that are laid up in store for them who rightly believe and live. And it is meet then to give thanks to God both for all the things which mankind have received at His hands, both heretofore and hereafter; and meet to give Him thanks also for the faith of them that believe. “Having heard,” saith he, “of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and which ye show199 toward all the saints.” He on all occasions knits together and combines faith and love, a glorious pair; nor does he mention the saints of that country only, but all. 60 “I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.” What is thy prayer, and what thy entreaty? It is “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation.”200 Two things he requires them to understand, as it is their duty 197 [Rom. i. 9; 1 Cor. i. 4; Philip. i. 3, 4; Col. i. 3; 1 Thes. i. 2.—G.A.] 198 [“On the contrary this ‘wherefore,’ διὰ τοῦτο, refers to what precedes ver. 13, 14, ‘because this is the case that ye too are in Christ and have been sealed with the Spirit.’ So Theophylact.”—Meyer.—G.A.] 199 [The word ‘love,’ ἀγάπην, which gets into the Auth. Ver. from some inferior mss., is omitted by Aleph. A. B. W. and H. Rev. Vers. cf. Col. i. 4.—G.A.] 200 [Chrysostom’s hasty and superficial treatment of this great passage would seem to justify the language of Dr. Newman in his preface to the Oxford translation of these homilies on Ephesians. There are “imperfections in their composition which in the opinion of some critics argued the absence of that comparative leisure which he enjoyed at Antioch.” Schaff also says: “His life in Constantinople was too much disturbed to leave him quiet leisure for preparation.” This, however, in referring to his Homilies on Acts. Prolegomena p. 19.—G.A. Ephesians 1:15-20 115 Ephesians 1:15-20