The passage
      v14. The prayer is addressed to the Father. A believer has access to the Father through the Spirit of Christ, Eph.2:18.
      v15. God's fatherhood is emphasized by noting that fatherhood takes its shape from the fatherhood of God. God is the archetypal father.
      v16. For his first point Paul prays that believers might be endowed with spiritual power to strengthen them. This power comes out of the "glorious riches" of God, which riches are inexhaustible. It is mediated to us through the Holy Spirit and it infuses the "inner being". This "inner being" is most likely the "God-breathed" or relational centre of our persons. The word "heart" in the Bible carries the same meaning.
      v17a. The first point is restated, but in different words, namely, that the indwelling Christ, through faith, may strengthen his people, enabling them to stand firm in difficult times.
      v17b-19a. The second request begins by defining the ground of the first request in the terms of our being rooted and grounded in God's love. This is followed by the request that the readers might grasp the totality of this love, a wisdom beyond knowing; "it is higher than heaven, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea", Job.11:8-9. It is "the love of Christ," Christ's love for us, a love full of grace. Such love can be observed in Christ's sacrifice for us, Gal.2:20, a love of "surpassing worth", Phil.3:8, yet a love that is beyond understanding.
      v19b. The two prayer points are summarized in a prayer that the readers "attain to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself", NEB. The fullness of deity resides in Christ and so a believer in Christ shares this fullness, Col.2:9-10. Paul prays that we be filled to overflowing with Christ's strengthening presence and his transcendent love.
      v20-21. The prayer ends with a doxology to the God who can do far more than we could ever dare to ask or think. To God be glory, particularly in the church and in Christ.

Knowing God's love
      In the early 1700's, John Wesley, an Anglican clergyman, met a Moravian believer from Europe. The Moravians were fired-up children of the Reformation. They were noted for their simple faith and their simple communal life-style. The English church had slipped into Low-church formalism. Wesley was someone searching for substance in his faith, but following the tendency of his day he saw his Christian life in the terms of a "continued endeavour to keep the whole law, inward and outward, to the utmost of my power". Only by this means was Wesley persuaded that he "should be accepted of" God. Bohler, the Moravian, understood the Christian life "as reliance on the finished work of Christ". Faith for him was still in the terms of the Anglican Homily from the time of the Reformation - "a sure trust and confidence which a man hath in God, through the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven and he reconciled to the favour of God." Bohler, writing to Count Zinzendorf, said "our way of believing is so easy to an Englishmen, that they cannot reconcile themselves to it. If it were a little more artful, they would sooner find their way into it."
      Wesley's meeting with Bohler opened him to the gospel. On attending a Bible study group and hearing Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans in 1738, he came to understand the grace of God. "I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation." From Wesley's conversion a great revival swept England focused on the impossible possibility of a personal relationship with the living God in Christ, apart from our own personal worthiness or unworthiness in God's sight. It was a revival focused on the truth presented in our passage for study - that Christ takes residence in our beings and overwhelms us with his love, by grace through faith.
      In our passage for study, Paul prays that we might be strengthened in our inner being throughout the journey of life and that we might come to know the extent of God's love, of his grace realized in us through Christ. He prays that we might be complete in Christ. The means, of course, is through faith.
      The apostle's prayer for spiritual maturity, in the sense of being filled with God's fullness, identifies for us an important goal in the Christian life. This goal involves our knowing, in the sense of understanding and experiencing, God's amazing grace, a love that transcends all knowledge. The means by which we build this spiritual maturity is faith, faith in the renwing work of Christ. Let us not fail to pray for this spiritual maturity.

v14
      kamptw pres. "I kneel" - bow. The Jewish posture in prayer is to stand with head bowed. Our translators are obviously Anglican or Catholic! "I offer up prayer for you to the Father."

v15
      pasa patria "the whole family of believers" - every family. The word "family" refers to any group with a single ancestor. The NIV is obviously taking the phrase to refer to the church as God's family, but the Greek is "every family". Paul is referring to groups of heavenly beings, eg. angels, and groups on earth, racial or tribal groupings, even different species. "From whom every family in heaven and earth takes its name", NEB.
      onamazetai (onomazw) pres. pas. "derives its name" - is named. Of giving a name to a thing or person, and where named, ascribe rights and authority belonging to that which is named. Naming is not just labeling. God, as the sovereign creator, gives each group its "name" and therefore confers the rights associated with that group.

v16
      "I pray" - Added for meaning.
      iJna + subj. "that" - that [he may give to you]. Introducing an epexegetic clause defining the content of the prayer.
      krataiwqhnai (krataiow) aor. pas. inf. "he may strengthen you" - to be fortified, strengthened, braced, empowered. Given the context, this empowering from God is a strengthening to stand firm in the face of suffering, 3:13.
      dunamei (iV ewV) dat. "with power". power, strength. Probably best taken as an instrumental dative, as NIV. "To be strengthened by His Spirit with power permeating your inmost being", Weymouth.
      eiV ton esw anqrwpon "in your inner being" - in the inward man. The preposition rendered "in" usually means "into, to", but sometimes takes the sense "in", a local sense rather movement toward. This is most likely the sense here. The meaning of this phrase is probably the same as "heart" (our conscious center) in v17. It is the "center of one's personality, the thoughts, will, emotions and whatever else lies at the center of our being", O'Brien.

v17
      katoikhsai (katoikew) aor. inf. "so that [Christ] may dwell" - that [Christ] might dwell. This second infinitival clause is a restatement of the prayer request v16, not an explanation of "strengthening", and therefore the NIV's purpose or result clause "so that" is misleading. Paul prays that the Father "may grant you inward strength and power through his Spirit, that through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts in love", REB.
      en taiV kardiaiV uJmwn. "in your hearts" - in the hearts of you. Christ is known to us in the all-encompassing word "love". He is the compassionate one - the self-giving, other person centred, caring one. "Christ relates to us (dwells in our heart) in love."
      en agaph/ errizwmenoi teqemeliwmenoi perf. pas. part. "[and I pray that you] being rooted and established in love" - in love having been rooted and having been founded. This phrase is often understood as a second prayer request, the two participles being taken as expressing a wish, cf. Bruce. It is probably better to understand the phrase "[you], being rooted and established in love", as establishing the basis of the first prayer point and so serving as a lead into the second. "With deep roots and firm foundations, may you ....", REB.

v18
      iJna + subj. "[may have power]" - that [you may have power, be strong enough, be able. Introducing an epexegetic clause detailing the second prayer point. The need for "power" indicates the difficulty of achieving what follows.
      katalabesqai (katalambanw) mid. inf. "to grasp" - to grasp, find, understand (in the middle voice). To understand what? Whatever it is, "all the saints" know it, and we are to grasp how wide, long, etc. it is. O'Brien lists the following suggestions from the main commentators, i] the mighty power of God, ii] the mystery of salvation, iii] the manifold wisdom of God, iv] the matchless love of Christ. O'Brien suggests it is "Christ's all encompassing love", and given the context this does seem the best solution. The NIV (following Phillips?) adds the words "is the love of Christ", and although not in the Greek and certainly something more than a dynamic equivalent, the phrase is a reasonable stab at the meaning.
      sun pasin toiV aJgioiV "with all the saints" - "With all the Jewish believers."

v19
      gnwnai (ginwskw) inf. "to know" - to know [the love of Christ surpassing knowledge]. The phrase "to know this (the) love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" serves to further develop the idea of divine love which Paul's readers must "grasp" (understand). This is assuming that it is "love" that we must "gasp".
      thn uperballousan (uperballw) pres. part. "that surpasses" - the excelling, surpassing. The love which surpasses knowledge is not our love of Christ, but Christ's love of us (the ever present problem of the objective or subjective genitive). It is easy to think in terms of a mystical presence of Christ within, but we are probably safer to think in terms of God's grace in Christ for lost humanity. Of course, a personal awareness of God's grace does transcend our knowledge of systematic theology.
      iJna + subj. "that [you may be filled]" - that. Again forming an epexegetic clause. This final phrase sums up Paul's two prayer requests. In Colossians, Paul states that believers are already full, full in their incorporation in Christ, cf. 1:19, 2:9, 10. The New Testament always carries the tension of our being perfect in Christ, along with our need to strive toward perfection. So here, Paul prays that his readers may be filled "to the measure of all the fullness of God", NIV, or better, "filled with all God's fullness", Wallace, Syntax. O'Brien suggests Paul is praying that his readers may "be all that God wants them to be", that is "spiritually mature."

v20
      tw/ dunamenw/ (dunamai) pres. pas. part. "to him who is able to do" - to the one being able. "Now to him who by the action of his power is able to do all", Moffatt.
      uJperekperissou adv. "immeasurably" - superabundantly, exceeding all boundaries, far beyond. The doxology is a short praise to the God who is not only able to do as Paul has prayed, but will do it and do it superabundantly. The doxology expresses Paul's reliance on God's intention to always do as he has promised. "Is able to do so much more", TEV.