We are reminded of the thanksgiving for the Roman Church, "that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world."[63] The success of the gospel in Asia gave encouragement to believers in Christ everywhere. St Paul loves in this way to link Church to Church, to knit the bonds of faith between land and land: in this letter most of all; for it is his catholic epistle, the epistle of the Church oecumenical.
In verse 16 we pass from praise to prayer. God is invoked by a double title peculiar to this passage, as "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory." The former expression is in no way difficult. The apostle often speaks, as in verse 3, of "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ": intending to qualify the Divine Fatherhood by another epithet, he writes for once simply of "_the God_ of our Lord Jesus Christ." This reminds us of the dependence of the Lord Jesus upon the eternal Father, and accentuates the Divine sovereignty so conspicuous in the foregoing Act of Praise. Christ's constant attitude towards the Father was that of His cry of anguish on the cross, "My God, my God!" Yet He never speaks to men of _our_ God. To us God is "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ," as He was to the men of old time "the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob."
The key to the designation _Father of glory_ is in Romans vi. 4: "Christ was raised from the dead through _the glory of the Father_." In the light of this august manifestation of God's power to save His lost sons in Christ, we are called to see light (vv. 19, 20). Its glory shines already about God's blessed name of Father, thrice glorified in the apostle's praise (vv. 3-14). The title is the counterpart of "the Father of compassions" in 2 Corinthians i. 3.
And now, what has the apostle to ask of the Father of men under these glorious appellations? He asks "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full-knowledge[64] of Him,--the eyes of your heart enlightened, in order that you may know," etc. This recalls the emphasis with which in verses 8 and 9 he set "wisdom and intelligence" amongst the first blessings bestowed by Divine grace upon the Church. It was the gift which the Asian Churches at the present juncture most needed; this is just now the burden of the apostle's prayers for his people.