huper....huh? The Purpose of this Blog

The title of this blog is named after a word found in Ephesians 3:20 "Now unto Him who is able to do huperekperissou above all that we ask or think." The beauty of this word lies in its complete redundancy. Try it out...the sentence makes complete sense without it. And that's what is so great about it.

Let's back up to get a running start at the verse. Paul has just spent three chapters explaining to his readers God’s purpose in creating this entity called the “church.” Because He is rich in mercy, God saved individuals who were happily obeying Satan, happily following the world, and happily obeying themselves. In love God mercifully chose, redeemed, regenerated, and reconciled some of these rebels to Himself. Reconciliation to God, however, was only step one. Step two was reconciling these hostile little rebels to each other—thus creating the church. The purpose of the church is to display God’s wisdom to the universe—unbelievers, but specifically angelic and demonic forces who personally never are able to experience reconciliation.

At the end of chapter three Paul offers up his second prayer. The first was at the end of chapter one and was a prayer for insight. Specifically, he requested that God open his reader’s eyes to understand (1) the hope of their calling, (2) the glorious riches of their inheritance, and (3) the powerful working of God’s enormous power. This second prayer is again for insight. This time, however, he wants his readers to understand something else about Christ—His love for them. And this is where it gets tricky. Grasping Christ’s love? Understanding it? Paul himself describes it as “surpassing knowledge” (v. 19). Actually, his exact words are “to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge.” He is asking that we know something that is beyond knowing, to grasp something that is not graspable, to understand something that no creature is able to understand. What kind of prayer request is that??

Enter verse 20: "Now unto Him who is able to answer exceedingly over any measure imaginable (huperekperissou) above all that we ask or think." We can’t out-pray God’s ability to answer. We can’t even think of something that we might ask God that He would not be able to answer. Paul asks that God would let us grasp something that no one is able to grasp. So what? God acts in accordance with the power at work in us (i.e. all the stuff he already covered in chapters 1, 2, and 3). Paul isn’t crazy. He just knows his God. This blog is designed to get to know that God through exegesis and sound reasoning.

“Now unto Him who is able to do huperekperissou above all that we ask or think, according to the power at work in us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen!”