Him From Whom Every Family Derives Its Name

In Ephesians 3, the Apostle Paul begins his prayer for the faith and spiritual strength of believers saying: “I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name” (v. 14,15).

Ephesians emphasizes that Jews and Gentiles alike have obtained the same standing before God by faith in Christ. The Jews had previously enjoyed a privileged spiritual position and made sure the Gentiles knew it. The Gentiles had been “called ‘Uncircumcision’ by the so-called ‘Circumcision’…and were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:11,12).

Part of the Jews’ glory was that God had called their father Abraham and they had their blessings through Him. They had the best lineage and were proud of it. But for Gentiles, many of whom came from very dubious earthly lineages and families and tribes from which they had much to be ashamed, Paul reminds us that we all our have our ultimate parentage in God. 

Physically, the Father in heaven is the Father of us all. We all share the same ancestors from Noah back. But spiritually, He is much more intimately our father. So “do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven” (Matt. 23:9). This is true of Jew and Gentile alike as Paul taught the pagan philosophers in Athens. “He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’ Being then the offspring of God…” (Acts 17:27-29).

So in Athen Paul taught the pagans about God based on the nature of man. Then Paul taught the Christians in Ephesus about their value based on the nature and provision of God. 

The more we come to appreciate God and the great things He has done for us all, the more we, like Paul should be driven to worship and praise saying, “I bow my knees before the Father” (v. 14).