Ephesus and Paul

At the end of his second missionary journey, Paul made a brief visit to Ephesus (Acts 18:19–22) and returned there at the start of his third missionary journey (19:1–21; 20:31). When he was imprisoned (see Ephesians 3:1), probably in Rome, he wrote the letter of Ephesians to encourage the believers to remain strong, telling them that he had persistently prayed for their growth and maturity (1:15–18).

The book of Ephesians contains two prayers. In the first one, which emphasizes knowledge (1:15–23), Paul prays that the church would have “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that [they] may know [God] better,” and “know the hope” to which God had called them (vv. 17–18). In the second prayer, which focuses on love, he prays that “being rooted and established in love” (3:17), they might “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (v. 18).

K. T. Sim