Ephesians 3:16-19

that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

-Ephesians 3:16-19

Paul is praying to God.  What does he pray for?  His prayer is "that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being".  His is praying for his readers and his request is for God to strengthen them.  Now, this is somewhat vague.  It's difficult to tell what he means by this.  Moving on to verse 17, we see the reason for this request.  Hopefully, the reason will enlighten us to what Paul really means by his request.

So, what is the purpose?  The purpose is, "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith".  So, the strengthening is for the purpose of Christ dwelling in their hearts.  This is not the only reason.  Paul goes on to say (about his readers), "may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge".  The purpose seems to be that they may know the love of Christ.  I guess this means that God's strengthening is required in order that Christ may dwell in their hearts and that they may know the love of Christ.  This isn't such a simple matter either.  The love of Christ is described as surpassing knowledge.  How are we to know that which surpasses knowledge?  I can think of no other way than by God.  It is only by God that we are able to know that which surpasses knowledge.

What's really cool is how Paul describes this knowing of the love of Christ.  He doesn't just talk about their knowing of the love of Christ.  Paul goes on to pray that they may know the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ.  It's as if the love of Christ is given physical dimensions and to know it is to understand the different physical aspects of it.  Knowing the love of Christ is more complex than we'd think and this picture we are given helps us to understand that there are different aspects of the love of Christ to know and understand.  NLT uses the word "experience", putting it this way: "May you experience the love of Christ".  AMP puts it this way, "and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience]".  AMP and NLT seem to describe the experience of knowing the love of Christ.  I guess this means to say that there is a deeper or more full knowledge of the love of Christ that comes through experience.

There is one last thing that Paul says before he breaks out into his praise to God.  Paul says, "that you may be filled with all the fullness of God".  The purpose of all of this is the filling of all the fullness of God.  NLT puts it this way, "Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God".  I actually really like the way AMP puts it, "that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself]".  There is a goal to all of this and it sounds wonderful.  To have the richest experience of God's presence in our lives and to be completely filled and flooded with God himself sounds amazing.  This seems to be the goal of God's strengthening to enable us to know the love of Christ and have him dwell in our hearts.  It seems as if to say that he himself is ultimately all we need.