Thoughts on Ephesians 3:14-19

"I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Crist may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-19)

After reading this I had several thoughts on what it means to know the things Paul speaks of here. I have posted some of these thoughts below. Let me know if you agree.

[Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible,

®,

Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963,

1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995

by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.]

The Fullness of God

When we become content with only part of God we find ourselves always thirsty, always hungry, coming to God for food and sustenance but never satisfied with the meal. Feeling God is withholding something from us, we search outside the realm of His provision for fulfillment. Sometimes we do not allow ourselves to see all of God because we do not trust Him with all of us. Yet we cannot know Him fully unless we allow Him to fully know us. And to know God in His fullness we need to make room for Him. We need to get rid of those things which clutter our lives and fill our thoughts so that God can have room to fill us back up with Himself. To be filled with all the fullness of God is to be like Christ in whom “it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness of Himself to dwell.” We need to imitate Christ, relying on the Father for all things, doing and speaking only what we see the Father do and hear the Father say; So that in us all the fullness of Deity can dwell in bodily form.

First-Hand Knowledge

It is one thing to know about the love of Christ, it is another to know it first-hand. The love of Christ is only truly known by faith and through trust. It must be fully received and fully relied upon if it is to be fully known. To say we know the love of Christ without submitting ourselves to it is intellectual dishonesty at best and emotional suicide as worst. The love of Christ is not a passive thing it is an active thing. It is actively seeking the best for us, drawing out the bad behavior, the self-reliance, and the sin that so easily entangles us. It is wooing us to better things, to a higher calling, to a more abundant life. It waters the spiritual fruit in our lives and prunes the dead branches. The love of Christ does not sit on a shelf waiting to be intellectually examined. It examines us. To know the love of Christ is to know and experience the examination of our hearts and our motives and to find ourselves bringing everything into the light of the love of Christ. The love of Christ gets to the heart of the matter. It is, above all, a matter of the heart.

Comprehending the Love of God

If we do not understand how limitless and unrestricted God’s love for us is then we can not assimilate it into our lives and our thinking. If we believe God’s love has limits, that there are some areas of life where God’s love is incapable of reaching, then we can never fully trust Him, never fully commit ourselves to His care. For His love may “run out”. We may go “too far”, may commit “too great” a sin so that God’s love is not able to find us and cleanse us and rescue us, and cover over our multitude of transgressions. But if we understand that there is no place we can go where He cannot find us, then we can rest in His love, count on His care, commit ourselves to His protection and submit ourselves to His guidance. If we can fully comprehend what God is capable of doing through us because of His great love for us, then we can truly “do all things through Christ who strengthens us”

Rooted and Grounded in Love

Love is the foundation upon which all of God’s interactions with man rest. If we do not have a firm foundation of love on which to rest our souls, we will find our foundation shifting. If we are not firmly convinced of God’s love for us then we will not stand firmly upon His foundational love. Paul says that if we do not have love we “have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1). If the love of God toward us is not firmly established in our hearts, not planted deep within the bedrock of our trust in Him, then we may noisily proclaim that God is love but we will never experience the peace that His love brings. We will never experience the rest that comes when the foundation upon which we build our lives remains firm and unmoved despite the trouble life brings our way. We will simply be cymbals clanging forth the proclamation of something which we have heard but do not experience.

Making Room

We need to make room for Christ to make Himself at home within us, not as a house guest but as a permanent resident. It is our faith in what God has already done for us in Christ that allows God to take up residence within us. He knocked, we opened the door and He came in and is dining with us. But if we are to allow God to be more than a dinner guest we must look beyond salvation to the abundant life that God is offering to us. Just as faith was necessary for salvation, faith is also necessary for righteous living. It is through our faith in God’s power, faithfulness and mercy and His unending desire to do good to us that we become comfortable enough to allow Him access to every room in the house. Once He has been granted total access He ceases to be a temporary house guest and becomes a permanent dweller.

This post was sent to me by my friend Kent. He is commenting on my "What Is Worship" blog.

This is what God has done to re-establish worship!

Romans 8:3-4: "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

To observe that "God has done" is to understand that God moves in history and He is active.  He uses participants to accomplish his will.  He himself participates in history and he was willing to give up His son to get involved with us and for us.  Christ  left privilege and power behind to become like us, and then offer himself as an example and an atonement.  He entered "our" system.  

We have a term called, "rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty".  A crude term but  it illustrates the point that God was willing to enter "our system", and get down to where we are in a way that truly demonstrated a commitment and a desire to work things out.  He truly participated in or adopted a "likeness of sinful flesh". If you really want to play with your child then you get way down on the floor and look them in the eye.  To truly relate and be understood you get to the level they are living in and playing on.  

Our misuse of his systems, (the garden etc.), the systems decay (creation etc.), and others interested in destroying what God intended, called for an adjustment on Gods part that establishes new systems of worship where we can again enjoy what we had in the beginning. WE could not re-establish a relationship as in our sin we are "condemned".  Gods salvation meets all "just requirements" in order to establish our new walk/relationship/worship.  Both the OT and NT systems were described, delivered,  (and in a very real sense), demonstrated in a very personal and intimate way.  God  got  down on our level and communicated in terms we  understood.  God fully and lovingly  demonstrated who he was, and what was expected from us in return.  All His systems are hand crafted to benefit those who participate according to the systems inherent intent, and, the "do's and don'ts" are intentional and for our own good.  This very personal, "get down to where we are" or "down to the floor" is what makes Gods request for obedience and worship a fair and reasonable one.  God has come more than half way and the give-and-take of relationships  demand that we be obedient and choose to participate, .....or not!  After all that God has done, and considering the help he has provided, we are expected to walk "according to the Spirit."

K52