These qualities--heat and moisture--are indicated to us by certain instruments; and here is an instrument, the soul of man, existing in the power of a true regenerated love; and this is that which detects the presence, and is inspired by the touch, of the Divine nature, and bears witness to it. Павел же хочет, чтобы она полностью утвердилась в наших душах, была бы прочно водруженной постройкой и глубоким насаждением. Here is the sum and substance of Christianity: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” It is the whole of Christianity; that is to say, it is the whole of it in the same way that an acorn is the whole of a tree. Conviction is a personal exercise of trust. Christ dwells in others in spite of much that seems to be at variance with His presence. So that the apparent confusion, arising from what in other places are regarded as identical, being here conceived as cause and effect, is no confusion at all, but is explained and vindicated by the deep truth that nothing but the indwelling of the Christ can fit for the indwelling of the Christ. We know merely that they are there, and what they are. It refers to a permanent, as opposed to a temporary, abode. (H. W. Brooks.). [Such is the rich abundance of the apostolic spirit.—V. It is the result of faith as realizing His presence. “That Christ may take up residence in your hearts” (Bruce p. 327). The “root” needs continual supply--the “foundation” rests in its completeness, and is alway. on the Trinity, ch. The highest ends, they will all agree, are to be true to ourself, to do our duty to our fellow-men, to follow the highest ideals it is possible for us to conceive. Ephesians 3:17. : that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . Ephesians 3:17. Stott points out that of the various Greek words used to mean "dwell", God had Paul write a word which meant to "settle down somewhere”. xxvi., p. 94; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 238; Preacher's Monthly, vol. (E. H. Chapin, D. D.). This clause also depends on that you may be able. Ephesians 3:17 New International Version (NIV) 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Now the victor has overcome its adversaries, and makes a show of them openly. The whole science of human government? κ. So learn for yourselves an original, active, earnest faith that comes out of every man’s soul, Which he struggles and wrestles for as Jacob wrestled in the night with the angel. 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, () being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints () what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled () with all the fullness of God. The expression, all things, includes τὰς ἀρχὰς, κ. τ. λ., principalities, etc. ), We must have love to be the root and to be the ground. He humbles the heart (Acts 9:5-6; Ephesians 3:8). Not just an object of faith (thank God for that), not just a simple doctrine that Christ lives in us, but Paul wants us to have the full realization that our body is the temple of the Spirit of God. The man who uses his wealth in a humble, lowly spirit--with the spirit of the loving Jesus; who makes it not merely the instrument of selfish aggrandizement and outward development--he feels that wealth is the gift of God. 138-139). Significantly, in Ephesians 3:14-17 there are references to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and although the names seem to be used almost interchangeably, yet there is a preeminence pertaining to the Father, as well as distinct differences between the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our part is not to produce life, but to exercise trust. When Christ enters a human heart to dwell there, He enters it and abides as an undying joy. In the original there is an irregularity in the order of words, which has led some to translate thus: ‘in your hearts, having been rooted and grounded in love, that ye may be,’ etc. the note on Acts 20:32.— ἀνεξιχνίαστον, unsearchable [never capable of being fully traced out]) Ephesians 3:18-19. We do not literally inhabit the person of the Father. Contempt for a soul in which Christ is not ashamed to dwell? There is another reference to the Trinity in Ephesians 3:14-17 : Father ( Ephesians 3:14), Spirit ( Ephesians 3:16), and Son ( Ephesians 3:17; cf. It did not call upon communities at first. Being rooted and grounded "in love" means that we place the spiritual interests of others ahead of what we may want (John 13:35). It is a mistake to imagine that the Spirit can be obtained without obtaining Christ; and it is equally foolish and absurd to dream that we can receive Christ without the Spirit. . Matthew 16:17. Strong now in that acquired strength, it increased its bulk and rent the rock asunder. This is the second in a series of four desires of Paul for the believers. Under this head, the first point that occurs is the very obvious one, that before any measure of growth can be obtained there must be life. In accordance with the universal law of revelation, all is from the Father, all is through the Son vouchsafing to tabernacle in our humanity, all is by the Spirit effecting that indwelling of Christ in each individual soul. Here is a peculiar characteristic of Christianity. How then can we reasonably expect to make progress in Christian knowledge, if we make not first progress in Christian love? Whenever we feel dead and barren let us ask to be buried in Christ afresh, and straightway we shall glorify His name by bearing much fruit. He must dwell in our thought, affection, reason, understanding, judgment, conversation, action, whole life; He must dwell in motive, desire, purpose, will; must have more than the tongue, or to flit through the brain: the heart, the whole of man, He wants. Only here and Colossians 2:7. grounded = founded. Faith fetcheth Christ into the heart, as into his habitation; and if he dwell there, he is bound to all reparations. So many commentators do, in fact, take it; but I think that the two ideas may be distinguished, and that we are to see in the words of my text the second step in this prayer, which is in some sense a result of the “strengthening with might by the Spirit in the inner man.” I need not enter in detail into the reasons for taking this view of the connection of the clause which is obviously in accordance with the climbing-up structure of the whole verse. If Christ is so expounded that such an experience is impossible, Christianity is destroyed in the destruction of the very fundamental idea of Christ. Christ dwells in us by faith, because it is by faith we perceive his presence, his excellence, and his glory, and because it is by faith we appropriate and reciprocate the manifestations of his love. Habakkuk 3:17 - Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, on StudyLight.org How can we wonder that so many are wandering in error, when so few are united in the bond of peace? Now, what a proof this is that Christ dwells in the heart by faith, and that the light in which we see him, is the light with which he has enlightened our understanding, and himself dwells in it. It is the eye that does that. How strange are the revolutions taking place in society; and how different from what they were a few years ago. In your hearts; the seat and centre of the moral life, corresponding to ‘inner man’ (Ephesians 3:16), but viewed rather on the side of the affections. We must regard ourselves as working and living for Him. For example, he said, somebody is coming down the street and you look out, and you say, "Oh, here comes Mrs. Song of Solomon -and-so." This takes the clause as a consequence of the indwelling of Christ, in the form of an independent proposition. Some have gone farther on in their spiritual maturity. Ver. III. “To the end that ye”: “Those in whose hearts Christ has made His abode are ‘rooted and well founded in love’” (Bruce p. 327). Contrast Matthew 13:6; Matthew 13:21. 27-41. Ephesians 3:17. κατοικῆσει) that Christ may dwell for ever. By faith we not only acknowledge that Christ suffered and rose from the dead on our account, but, accepting the offers which he makes of himself, we possess and enjoy him as our Savior. So, in the middle of the sentence, if and how are placed, 1 Corinthians 11:14-15; 1 Corinthians 14:7; 1 Corinthians 14:16; and ἵνα itself, that, 1 Corinthians 14:12;(51), 2 Corinthians 2:4; but the words which precede these particles render the earnest striving [of his prayers] very emphatic.— ἐξισχύσητε) you may be able: even still further.— καταλαβέσθαι) to attain, to comprehend.— τί τὸ πλάτος καὶ μῆκος καὶ βάθος καὶ ὕψος, what is the breadth and length and depth and height) These dimensions of the spiritual temple refer to the fulness of God, Ephesians 3:19, to which the Church according to its capacity ought to correspond; comp. вселиться верою Имеется в виду постоянное упование верующего на Христа, осуществляющего Свое господство над ним. We see men holding to opinions unpopular some few years ago, when they would be called fanatics, fools, and madmen. I remark, then, in view of this exposition, that--. He points to that part in which Christ peculiarly dwells,in your hearts, — to show that it is not enough if the knowledge of Christ dwell on the tongue or flutter in the brain. The profoundest result of Christ’s Advent is marked by an intimate connection between Jesus and the soul of the believer. ), The being of a grace must go before the increase of it; for there is no growth without life, no building without a foundation. note, Ephesians 2:20-21; Colossians 1:23; Colossians 2:7). It is the gift of the Father through the Son, and it can become the root and the foundation of the life of each one of us. III. He sets it at liberty from sin and Satan (Luke 11:1, etc). He has not the love he ought to have for any object; he is narrowed up into his own selfishness. But observe, secondly, that whenever a little light dawns in again upon your soul, in that light you again see the same grace and glory in Christ which you saw in him before. Here, again, the construction is a difficult question. It came and Unbarred partitions that divided man from man. (Capel Molyneux, B. So, asking absolutely, Colossians 1:9 [“We do not cease desiring ( αἰτούμενοι) for you:” viz. 9. This I understand to be the distinctive peculiarity of Christianity, not only, but that without which there cannot be any Christianity. God watches over His people, hears their prayers, is to them as a Father. on StudyLight.org Because men have not seen Him, and cannot apply to Him the same tests that they apply to matter, there is a strong drifting towards atheism. You do not stop the thought at all. It is not Christ as analyzed, as stated in technical terms, that ever will affect a man. “Rooted”: “So that having your roots deep and your foundations strong in love” (Wey). May dwell in your hearts; may intimately and continually possess and fill, not your heads only with his doctrine, but your affections with his Spirit: see John 14:23. Caldwell further says, “Strikingly, the passages which deal with Christ"s indwelling in us also repeatedly affirm that we dwell in Christ. The spirit of love is fitted for all conditions. note on Ephesians 1:1(40)) were a testimony that he, Ephesians 3:1, spoke the truth concerning himself. You see, all eternity is ahead of us and God is fitting us for eternity. I did so, because the words, “Ye being rooted and grounded in love” in the original do stand before the “that,” and are distinctly separated by it from the subsequent clause. The storms of wind and rain have done it no harm! Out of this will grow many doctrines, and many inferences; but it is the seminal form, the germinent element, in Christianity. What about your friends? ", In other words, Christ hasn't the run of the house. In almost all we have seen we have noticed that these changes that come from salvation are far reaching, permanent and complete. On κατοικεῖν in the spiritual sense, comp. Read Introduction to Ephesians . If they are not filled with good, some evil spirit will enter in, and he, not Christ, will dwell there. Some have even taken it as expressing the design of the prayer. That ye being rooted - Firmly established - as a tree is whose roots strike deep, and extend afar. But can we trust the Saviour enough and, just for today, let Him run our life? Maclaren, Christ in the Heart, p. 15; J. Culross, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. 4. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, etc. III. See Ephesians 1:23. 2. If you exercise your mind upon small matters, your mind becomes diminished in its powers and capabilities--if you exercise your mind upon great matters, your mind expands; if the heart is fixed on a small object of affection, its affections become small--if on a comprehensive one, the affections are enlarged. We need the Spirit of God to empower us to get out of spiritual lethargy and we need to let Christ live at home in our hearts. the use of in Matthew 12:45 ; Luke 11:26 ; 2 Peter 3:13 ; and also its application to Christ Himself in another relation in Colossians 1:19 ), is also embraced in the scope of Paul’s prayer. The necessary inference is, if we are failing to properly "love" God, others, and especially our own brethren, then we are refusing to let Christ control our lives. When Christ abides in a human heart, He is in it as an immortal hope. There is nothing in nature, aside from man, out of which we can develop these attributes of the Divine Being. There is a similar epithet found at Ephesians 3:10, manifold.— πλοῦτον, riches) Here heavenly riches are commended; presently after, wisdom, Ephesians 3:10. Have that without which all the coquetries and blinkings of that indwelling of Christ in church. 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