He also indicates its subjects, which may be entitled thus: the meaning and the power of Christianity (Eph 1:18-19).
Although the productive powers of knowledge already indicate the subjects of this knowledge, the holy Apostle also marks them out separately.
It is not enough, in praising someone, to say that he knows much and is a man of great mind. One must define the subjects of his knowledge and the direction of his mind.
“That the God of our Lord.” After the Resurrection the Savior Himself said to Magdalene, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God” (Jn 20:17).
So also Saint Paul calls God the Father the God of our Lord, having His human nature in view.
Although the Person in the Savior is one, the Person of God the Son incarnate, His humanity must not be swallowed up in our thoughts by the brightness of His divinity.
He Himself was often pleased to speak of Himself as man. The Holy Spirit also inspired the Apostles to do this.
“This is said in a distinguishing sense,” writes Theodoret, “concerning the indivisible God-man, who after the Incarnation could not but know Himself as man, while being at the same time God.”
“The God of our Lord,” Theophylact explains, “that is, of Him as man, like us according to the flesh.” Or, as blessed Jerome says, “the God of the man assumed.”
Proceeding from this thought, some interpret the following words, “the Father of glory,” without turning their thought away from the Lord.
That is, God the Father is so named here as the Father of our Lord according to divinity, since our Lord, as God the Son, is “the radiance of glory and the image of the hypostasis” of the Father (Heb 1:3).
Thus blessed Theodoret says: “The Apostle called one and the same the God and Father of Jesus Christ. He is His God as man, and His Father as God.
For by glory he named the divine nature. So also in the Epistle to the Hebrews he said, ‘Who being the radiance of glory’ (Heb 1:3), that is, of the divine nature.”
Blessed Jerome and Oecumenius understand this in agreement with him.
Theophylact cites the opinion of Saint Gregory the Theologian: “Gregory the Theologian understands by glory the Godhead of the Only-begotten.
Thus one and the same is both God and Father of one and the same Christ. He is God of Christ as man, and Father of His glory, that is, of His Godhead.”
Others, at the words “Father of glory,” turn their thought away from the Lord Jesus Christ and fix their attention on the glory of the Godhead in general.
“Father of glory” is an Eastern expression and means the most glorious One, glory itself.
Together with what precedes, it means: the God of our Lord, the all-glorious, the supremely great, incomprehensible, and ineffable One in His perfections.
For the glory of God is the fullness of divine majesty and of God’s infinite perfections.
In other places God is called the God of glory (Acts 7:2) or the King of glory (Ps 24:7), as the God of all, filled with glory and majesty.
But since we know God chiefly from His works, we ascend to the comprehension of His glory from the knowledge of His glorious works.
In this respect, “Father of glory” means the source of all that is most glorious which we know in God’s works.
He is God, who always does only what is most glorious, most perfect, and best, and who also purposes only what is most glorious for the future.
God is the Father of glory, as He has manifested and manifests His glory to rational creatures in His glorious works.
These are creation, providence, redemption, the ordering of the Kingdom of grace, and the preparation of eternal glory for believers.
Chrysostom says: “The Father of glory means the Father who has granted us great blessings.
He always calls Him the God of glory because of the blessings that come from Him, as when he says, ‘the Father of mercies and God of all comfort’ (2 Cor 1:3).
So also the Prophet said, ‘The Lord is my strength and my refuge’ (Ps 18:2).
‘The Father of glory.’ The Apostle does not find a term by which he could fully portray the blessings prepared by God.
Everywhere he calls them glory, as a word which for us signifies every kind of greatness.”
Oecumenius speaks similarly: “According to the subjects under discussion, the Apostle names God in various ways.
At one time he calls Him the God of mercies, at another the God of peace, at another the God of powers.
Here he calls Him the Father of glory, because He has granted the greatest glory and honor to the human race, and every kind of spiritual blessing.
He calls all these by the common name of glory. He names Him the Father of this glory, as though its Creator and Disposer.”
Therefore, since the Apostle here prays for the gift of knowing God, wondrous and all-glorious both in Himself and in His works, he calls Him the Father of glory.
He is the One who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, and whom no one can know as he ought, except those to whom He wills to reveal Himself.
“That He may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.” The first productive power of Christian wisdom is the Spirit.
This is the gift of wisdom and revelation from the Holy Spirit, placed in the pure hearts of believers.
Wisdom may mean the understanding of Christian truths, whose outline the Apostle has given above. Revelation may mean insight into the mysteries of the faith.
Or revelation signifies how knowledge, or Christian wisdom, is given. A light shines within, and things become clear.
Before this, however much people rack their brains, the fruit is small.
The Spirit of wisdom is the source, the teaching power. Revelation is the manner of communication, the instruction given by the Spirit.
There are moments when it pleases God to reveal to the eyes of the mind one or another mystery of faith.
It may already have been known before in word and in rational conception, but not in the heart’s apprehension, nor in union with the mind.
“In the knowledge of Him,” that is, either of God or of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But since They are indivisible, it means the knowledge of both: God in Himself and in His works, especially in the work of salvation discussed above.
But did the Ephesians not know? They knew, but knowledge has various degrees, and spiritual subjects have various aspects.
Some aspects in them are nearer and more evident to us. Others are more distant and hidden.
The first are grasped at the first instruction in the Gospel. The latter are revealed later, according to progress in Christian life and the purification of the heart.
Even now one can read the beginnings of knowledge from the Gospel and the apostolic writings. Yet true Christian knowledge still has one source: the gracious Spirit of wisdom.
No one can seize for himself what is given only by this Spirit.
Chrysostom says: “‘That He may give you the Spirit of wisdom,’ that is, that He may elevate and give wings to your mind.
Otherwise, it is impossible to know this. For ‘the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him’ (1 Cor 2:14).
Therefore, to understand spiritual things and see what is hidden, spiritual wisdom is needed.
The Spirit reveals everything and makes clear the very mysteries of God.
Knowledge of the mysteries of God belongs to the Spirit alone, who searches even the depths of God (1 Cor 2:10).
Neither angel, nor archangel, nor any other created power will give, that is, will supply, this gift to you.
If this is the fruit of revelation, then all reasonings are superfluous.
For one who has entered deeply into the contemplation of God and has come to know Him will doubt nothing.
He will not say, ‘This is possible, but that is impossible.’ He will not reason about how this or that could have happened.
If we also knew God as we ought, and if we had learned this from the Holy Spirit, from whom one must learn, then we would no longer doubt anything.
One taught the knowledge of God by the Holy Spirit will neither doubt the promises nor show unbelief in what has already been done.
For this reason he also prays that the Spirit of wisdom and revelation be granted to them.”
THEOSIS