When our class got to talking about the various subjects which the last lesson blew into shape, we drew some conclusions about the importance of God’s word. One of the “various subjects” wafted from a decision of Governor Ralph Northam back in the early 1980s. Following the tenor of his times, he put on blackface. More than three decades later insensitivities he absorbed in that earlier era stand clashing with the clarities of the present one.
I was a teenager during that time, not many years younger than Ralph Northam and the similarly enmeshed Mark Herring. My parents settled strict rules in our family one set of which made many words common among my peers thoroughly off limits. One of the words in that “never use” bucket was the n-word. While I heard it at school and in our neighborhood the culture established by my family prohibited it. The rationale was that words like that were derogatory. Speaking ill of others was not God’s way so it would not be ours. That was a simple explanation, one that worked, and one that protected.
I do not know of the family background in which Dr. Northam and Mr. Herring grew up. Maybe they were taught like I was, but did not heed it. Or, perhaps their families walked in step with the cultural climate. What if there would have been a different grounding? What if they would have said “yes” to those who tried to redirect the basis of their humor, their costumes, their lifestyles?
Grounding grounds
16 [I pray] that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
(Ephesians 3:16–ESV)
So, as you may recall from the last lesson, the riches of God’s glory are things of his character. Humans, voters in Virginia, you and I want consistency in the lives of those who lead us, the lives of those around us. The reality we see is humanity showered with shortcomings.
We falsely hold the idea that people are and have always been of a particular mold. When reality pokes holes in those presumptions crises arise1. As life unfolds we find that people fall short of their own glory. In the Bible, God’s cuts right through our conjectures stating that all of us fall short of his glory. It is as though he comes alongside us and says, “I understand those hopes you have for goodness in others. That’s the way I want it to be, but there is something wrong with the hearts of people. They tend to do things the way they want to, and that causes problems. It has been this way since almost the very beginning.”
We know that the lives of Adam and Eve did not just crumble into death at the moment of their disobedience. God even came to them very shortly after this critical downfall. God has been coming to the human race ever since. Verse 16 can be considered a part of this coming. Our sins were taken care of at the cross, and our hearts are being taken care of by the Holy Spirit.
God chose to put up with human misdeeds with an aim to their correction. They must be corrected in our inner being. That is what Paul is praying for. He prays that the Ephesian Christians would be strengthened with power in their inner being. As these prayed for men and women went through their lives Paul had already gone before God the Father layering prayer upon prayer for their victory over sin. Through prayer, he was daily tapping them in the direction of sanctification. That is the best grounding.
Entwined all through our hearts and thus all through our experiences are unhealthy desires. The Bible even calls them deceptive desires. We are drawn moment after moment unto things which are unhealthy and unhelpful. Because of both our God informed consciences and the Holy Spirit we can see these things. We must respond to these things choosing right, abandoning wrong, doggedly adhering to the beckoning of God to the straight and narrow. Righteous living is necessary and possible.
Grounding prepares the heart
Look now at the 17th verse and you can see the result of this.
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, (Ephesians 3:17–ESV)
Paul prayed, and then wrote Ephesus about it. “I pray that you will be strengthened and steadfast in your hearts,” he said. Next, he tells them why this is crucial. It sets the stage so that the character of Christ may dwell inside of them. Christ-styles become their styles.
Remember how the church is called the body of Christ? Jesus is in heaven, but we are on earth. When our manner of life extends God’s manner of love the impact is tremendous. God’s presence through us convicts of sin and leads to meaningful change in those around us. In the widest scope life like that sets the stage for eternity. When God remakes the world, everyone will be healthy in both mind and body.
So, make a mental note of how prayer strengthens the heart. That improves the ground preparing it for Christ to dwell. All of these pieces happen by faith, but faith is how the fallen relate to God. Someday we will see with clarity.
Christ is the grounding that counts
Paul’s lesson continues to unfold. There is a point to Christ dwelling in our hearts: a grounding, a rooting. When we anchor our roots in the character of Christ, we bring godly nutrients up from the soil and out into the world. These flow through the stem, out to the leaves and generate blossoms which are beautiful all by themselves.
The blossom is love. This is not love as the world terms it, but love as God demonstrates it. It keeps no record of wrongs; it holds genuine interest for the needs of others; it is patient and kind; it is different in unmistakable ways.
When Christ dwells in our hearts that is the style that comes forth. Christ is the grounding that counts.
Grounding that improves
Verse 18 almost surprises me as it turns the improvement toward the church. It is easy to take verses like the 17th and declare them as expressions to help the unsaved. Look at the 18th, though, and note who Paul builds up.
18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
(Ephesians 3:18–NIV) 2
What do you take note of there? Is Paul seeking the goodness of the Ephesians that they may evangelize others? Surely, that is a part of his interest, but that is not what he writes here.
He wants the Ephesian Christians, together with the wider church, to grasp some things. Paul writes here of individual maturity. Christians are but those taken from the world. Like was said above the Christian heart is converted, but broken components can be found all over the place. To properly live we need to understand the ways of Christ.
We improve as we learn of Christ’s love.
“Mad Grandma”
Let me pose a question to you. When the carelessness or stupidity of others put a lot more work on your agenda does that make you happy? Are you just so pleased to mop the floor after someone spilled Koolaide on it, but only sort of cleaned it up? What if you are a cleenie, but your sister, or your spouse isn’t? That goes on with a couple of my kids.
Once in our Montgomery home on Baldwin Brook Drive, I did something that my parents figured should not have been done. One of them was meting out some variety of punishment, but they were doing it in the kitchen. My dad’s stepmom, whom I only knew as Grandma, was washing dishes, but she was not looking at the plate she was scrubbing or drying. She was watching my punishment. I know that because I was embarrassed to be under parental judgment near Grandma. I was less attuned to the discipline and more attuned to Grandma. What was she thinking of me? The only thing I remember about that scene is her. Maybe she was not heaping up judgment on me in her heart, but my young heart could see it no other way. I was more attuned to her thoughts than my dad’s punishment.3
I think that I will carry that image, false or not, to my grave. My mind painted it as “mad grandma.” At least she was not having to clean up after me.
“Mad Christ”
When a youngster assimilates things like “mad grandma” at home what do you think happens when they head off to church? What is the diet there? It is sins, hell, and a man who had to die in some unimaginable way to clean up the screw-ups. Oh, and of course, he did it because of love. It clangs more than rings, but the terror of hell is enough to make one cling.
In case you figure that is not a relevant approach shift gears a tiny bit and let me pose a couple more ques
Of course, God loved us so much that he sent his son…How would you like to be that son? Maybe you can fit this together as an adult, but it can be tricky. I still have problems trying to settle it all in
I think Paul recognized the struggles that some have over this whole business. His upbringing was surely filled with “mad grandmas” though they were probably pursed-lipped priests. He had clawed his way to the top of the goodness hierarchy. Was love part of that spectrum? Probably in some places and probably not in others.
Christ is not mad
Paul jumps with both feet into this mental mud. Could we say he hoped to splash away the mud? How did he try to make a splash? He did it with the love of Christ. Look at the weird way he bundles four words: wide, long, high, and deep. When I read it my brain says, “Oh, a cube!” Then it almost gets distracted by 3-dimensional thoughts.
Oddly enough, one can image that cube growing and growing. It is a wide and long cube. It is a high and deep cube. Does it fill the world? Does it sink in the ocean? Where does it stop. Almost automatically the imagination will expand it to tremendous proportions.
Then something else snaps into place. “Paul is talking about love? Christ’s love? Huh. That’s odd.” If we let it stay right there in our imagination or as a doctrine it is no good. If we apply that concept to things like Christ dying for our sins, though, it is too good.
It likely is too good to be accepted. That being said rush right back to the 18th verse and see what Paul wrote.
18 may have power…to grasp…
(Ephesians 3:18–NIV)
I have cut that verse down to but five words. It could be cut down to three: “power to grasp.” Paul, knowing that these things will be ever so hard for some to grasp knows that power is needed. That power is for the inside. It comes from God.
Remember what Paul is doing in this section. He is telling them how he prays for them. He prays for their strength so that they may be grounded in Christ that they may be able to understand the motives of God. He does not want them to be mired in their mental mud believing falsely about the love of Christ. He wants to cure the clang and comfort the cling. (Compare this to the last sentence in the first paragraph under “Mad Christ”.)
Almost still unbelievable
As you might imagine Paul goes on.
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19–ESV)
As each of these pieces is grounded in love Paul uses that word again. This time he indicates that he wants the Ephesian Christians to know the love of Christ. Power to comprehend is but part of it. Comprehension is not the same thing as assimilation. We may grasp a concept, but unless we take action the advantages not accrue to us.
We may grasp how a medicine helps a certain problem, but until the lotion is applied or the pill swallowed the problem will remain. I cannot count the times I have told patients how to address their dry eye complaints only to have them return with the same complaint.
The love that God has for us is the same way. Power to grasp brings people to points of decision, but until the offer is accepted there is no advantage. We must accept that God really does love us and that Christ harbors no ill will toward us. This is faith-based, but it works…one toe at a time.
A little acceptance of God’s love gives a taste of its experience. You get a bit of the sweetness of experience. Paul prays for this type of thing to happen.
Surpassing knowledge
Look, now, at how Paul juxtaposes the words knowledge in verse 19. He prays that they will know Christ’s love while simultaneously pointing out its surpassing nature. There is no contradiction here. We can know bits and pieces, but not everything. The same water comes from a garden hose and a fire hose. Both will take care of our thirst, but in each case, there is more than enough.
Agnosticism is no way out
There are some who will say that God cannot be known. The category applied to such people is agnostic. They admit the reality of God but deny the knowability of him. It is like their spiritual knowledge comes to a point of grasping, but goes no further. They do not say yes and wade into the waters of knowledge but turn around and head back into the jungle.
Paul does not say God cannot be known. It is quite the opposite.
Filled with fullness
Paul found that the “Yes God” life is the fullest life. Look again through our passage and see how it assembles to fullness.
- Strength to deny our deceitful desires comes from God.
- Life in obedience sets the stage for Christ to dwell in us.
- The character of Christ’s love is a grounding.
- Roots grounded in the soil of Christ’s ways open our eyes to grasp the bigness of God’s love.
- By saying yes to the God-given inklings knowledge of God becomes part of our experience.
- Final result: we are filled with God’s fulness.
God has made the world so well. Plants and butterflies, trees and bees, oceans, rivers, and streams all just work. We are supposed to tend them and manage them, but all the fullness they need to fulfill their design is part of them.
There are all kinds of relationships between things in our environment. The fulness that people need to fulfill their design included relationship with God. That was lost to us. God knew it would be and planned for the restoration. Restoration to the right way of life could be considered the fulness of God. It is available. God found Paul. Paul found fulness. God and Paul tell us of that.
Act like Paul
We have studied some doctrinal things. This section teaches us goodness about God. I think many who will be in my class on Sunday and hopefully many who may read this will already be developing little bits of fullness here and there.
For those of us who have come to this place can we take up Paul’s example? Pray for our Christian brothers and sisters to be strengthened in their inner being, that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith, leading to comprehension and acceptance of God’s love that they may be filled with God’s intended fullness.
Benedictions
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21–ESV)
More, more, more. That could be another theme. The love of Christ is knowable but surpasses knowledge. The power of God to do is more abundant than we can conceive. Life this way is full and the result is his glory. It lives in this life, crosses from generation to generation, and will be the final mode of existence: forever in Christ.
Submitted and on board with this Paul stamps it with the word Amen: “So be it.”