The Hope of His Calling

Ephesians 1:18

In verse seventeen we saw that God is the Father of glory and that we ought to not just know about God but know Him intimately. Today we look at verses eighteen where we will see why Paul specifically prayed this for the Ephesians.

Verse eighteen says, “the eyes of you understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” First, Paul is praying for the eyes of the Ephesians to be opened. He prays that they will understand. The Greek word for enlightened is  φωτίζω (phótizó) which means “to shed rays.” We might say that Paul is praying that their understanding and wisdom (that he is praying for them to gain) will shed light on the hope of His calling.

What exactly is the hope of His calling? I believe it is what we have already read thus far in Ephesians, and it will likely be what we read about in the remainder of this book too. If we look back at verse four we can see what we are called to be holy and blameless. That is part of every Christian’s calling the moment we get saved. But as we have seen in the article What is Your Calling? we all have a specific calling. Paul was told his calling very clearly on the road to Damascus (Acts 26; Galatians 1:15-16), Jeremiah was told his calling from birth (Jeremiah 1:5). Paul is now praying that the Ephesian believers would also know what their calling is.

How did Paul state that we can know our calling? By knowing Him. By growing closer to Him and walking with Him every day. That is how we grow in the knowledge of Him. It is God who gives us this wisdom. But we must also put in the work know Him. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). This is how we can know God’s calling for us.

This “hope” is not just an expectation but a concrete confidence. God know what our calling is. He perfectly determined every step of our life from before birth to after death on this earth. It is set in stone what His calling is for us. it is up to us to understand this calling (by drawing near to Him) but it is already established what our calling is.

It is fascinating to think about the sovereignty of God in situations like this. He knows everything. He established everything. He has the infinite knowledge and power that is needed to establish it all. To think through everything, and to make it possible, is incredible. We serve a huge God!

Paul also prays that the Ephesian believers would understand the riches of the glory of our inheritance. This knowledge also only comes through walking with God. We can understand to a certain extent what our future holds, just as I believe we can understand to a certain extent what our calling is, but the closer we get to God the more we grasp what our future holds. Not only that, but we will begin to see more and more just how unworthy we are to serve such a huge God. The wisdom we will gain through knowing Him more will in turn increase our fear of Him (Proverbs 1?) just as we know that our fear of Him increases our wisdom.

Walking with God only gives us benefits. It gives us benefits that we read about today, and other benefits that we couldn’t even imagine. I encourage you to draw near to Him, take that step to know Him more, and He will draw closer to you too. He wants you to want Him because He wants you.

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