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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:14-21
I. The Father’s strengthening — Eph. 3:16:
А. According to the riches of His glory.
B. Through His Spirit.
C. With power.
D. To be strengthened into the inner man.
II. Christ’s making His home — vv. 17-19:
А. Through faith.
B. In our hearts.
C. Rooted and grounded in love.
D. Strong to apprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth.
E. To know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ.
F. That we may be filled by the Triune God unto all the fullness (expression) of God.
III. The apostle’s conviction — vv. 20-21:
А. God is able.
B. According to the power which operates in us.
C. To do superabundantly.
D. Above all that we ask or think.
E. To God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:16 is the second of the two important prayers of the apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians. In the first prayer Paul prays for revelation for the saints that they might see the hope of God’s calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, the power of God toward us, and the church that God is after, which is the Body, the fullness of Christ (1:15-23). In the second prayer Paul prays for experience for the saints. This prayer has turned from the objective aspect to the subjective aspect. It can be considered the most profound and the highest prayer in the Bible. There never was, and there probably never will be, another prayer like this. In John 17 the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father. It is a very deep prayer. But Paul’s prayer here is profound and high. One cannot find such a prayer in the Old Testament. In the New Testament there is no other place that records a prayer as profound and high.
The focus of this prayer is that Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God, intends to make His home in the believers and to be deeply rooted in their hearts. Without Paul’s prayer, even though we have the Gospel of John and the fourteen Epistles of Paul, plus Peter’s writings and John’s other writings, we would still be unable to realize that our relationship with Christ is so intimate, that Christ is to be our content, and that He desires to make His home in every part of our being, making us His habitation to express Him. When we speak of the church life, we must understand it to such an extent and enter into the reality in such a way.
We know that a dweller is the content of a dwelling. With the same house, different dwellers result in different contents. According to Paul’s vision, we the believers are the dwelling of Christ. Our content is the all-inclusive Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God. He desires to make His home in us and to be deeply rooted in us.
The working saints are the core group in the church life today. I hope that you all realize this. This will encourage and attract you. It will fill you with a firm conviction. Today in a city like Taipei there are many attractions. It is easy for you to be affected. On the one hand, Christ desires to gain you. On the other hand, the world wants to occupy you. Are you going to go after the world? Or are you going to go after Christ? The choice is entirely up to you. But how you choose depends on your valuation of the object chosen. This is why I want to unveil to you the treasure that we have so that you can have a comparison and will be able to make a choice.
In Luke 14 when the Lord Jesus taught the people the way to follow Him, He also mentioned the matters of reckoning and of considering the price. He used two illustrations, saying, “Which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Lest perhaps, once he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all those looking on will begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to engage another king in war, will not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Otherwise, while he is yet at a distance, he sends an envoy and asks for the terms of peace” (vv. 28-32). The principle is the same in our following the Lord. There is the need for us to consecrate all we are and have in this life.
If there were no God, no man could write a passage like Ephesians 3, because this chapter is too profound. It far exceeds the limit of man’s imagination. This Triune God has passed through all kinds of processes — creation, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension — to become the life-giving Spirit. Today He is not only in us the believers, but He is also making His home in our hearts. As such, He is our life and content. This is why Paul says that Christ Jesus is the treasure within us (2 Cor. 4:7). Our knowledge of such a One is excellency itself (Phil. 3:8).
In order that the saints might see and experience this, Paul bowed his knees and prayed to the Father. The Father is the source of everything. Of Him every family in the heavens and on earth is named. Not only are we the regenerated believers of Him, but the whole created human race, the house of Israel, and even the angels are all of Him. The apostle prayed to such a Father that He would grant the believers, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man. When I read this passage in my youth, I did not understand the meaning of being “strengthened with power...into the inner man” (Eph. 3:16). After a few decades I was still not too clear. But gradually during the last twenty years, due to my understanding of the Bible plus the spiritual experiences I have gained, I have come to realize this matter much more clearly.
In order to make you clear, I would put it this way. Man is of three parts. Outwardly there is the body, which is for contacting the physical world. Within there is the soul, with its self-consciousness; it is the seat of our personality. The deepest part is the spirit, with its God-consciousness. With the spirit we can contact God. Before we were saved, our spirit was dead and had lost its function. We lived by the body and the soul. Some are strong in their bodies. Others are strong in their souls. One day we were saved. God forgave our sins, and His Spirit entered into our spirit, quickening us and enlivening our spirit. From then on we were regenerated and now possess the life of God. However, our body and soul are not changed much. Those who are strong in their bodies remain strong in their bodies. Those who are strong in their souls remain strong in their souls. Most of the brothers are still strong in their mind. They like to argue. The sisters, on the other hand, are strong in their emotions; their hearts are more calculating and careful. Now we all are saved and are coming together to have the church life and the family life. Because our spirits are not strong enough, the brothers may still live habitually in the mind, and the sisters may still live habitually in the emotion. As a result we produce conflicts and difficulties. For this reason we need Paul’s prayer, that the Father would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, which is our regenerated spirit.
When we are strengthened into the inner man, and our spirits become strong, the sisters will be able to overcome their unstable emotions, and the brothers will be able to overcome their debating mind. In this way, when everyone turns to the spirit and allows the Lord to be the Lord, and everyone walks by the Spirit, there will spontaneously be no conflicts or difficulties. In the family life, how can there be no arguments between the husband and the wife? The only way is through the strengthening into the inner man. When the spirit is so strong that it prevails over the emotion and the mind, no argument can go on. Otherwise, the more one talks, the more reasonings there are; the more one argues, the more there is to argue about; and the more two people argue with each other, the more their souls are strengthened. In the same way, in the church life we need to have a strong spirit. How can we be without murmuring and striving? How can we be without criticisms and judgments? How can there be no rights or wrongs? Only by a strong spirit can all these be removed. The strongest part of our being should be our spirit. It should be stronger than our soul and should control our mind, emotion, and will. Only then will we have a proper, healthy Christian family life and church life.
When our spirit becomes strong and prevails over our soul, we are being strengthened into the inner man. Then Christ will be able to make His home in our hearts through faith. In the past, although Christ was in our spirit, our spirit was not strong. As a result it was not the spirit that was the master. Rather, it was the soul that was the master, and Christ had no way to make His home in our hearts. Only when our spirit becomes strong and prevails over our soul are we able to give in to Him, thus giving Him the opportunity to make His home in our hearts. All the married brothers and sisters have this experience. Sometimes a couple will argue with each other. While the two are exchanging words with each other, Christ has no way to settle down within them. When He cannot make His home in your heart and has no way to move out of your spirit, He suffers greatly.
Some of you live in the brothers’ houses or sisters’ houses. Often a small matter will cause unhappiness among you. At the beginning when you live together, everything is sweet. It is like a honeymoon. But this wonderful situation does not last long. Gradually, the honeymoon goes away, and there begins to be an unhappy feeling among you. There is either incompatibility in disposition or difficulty in adjusting to different ways of living. For all these problems, no way will work. The only thing that works is to be strengthened into the inner man. When our spirit is strong to overcome the soul, Christ will have a chance to make His home in our hearts. Once He settles down and is at ease, you and I will also be at ease. When He is at peace, we are also at peace.
Our heart is like a house with four rooms, which are the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience. When our spirit is strong and our inner man is being strengthened, every room in our heart is occupied by the Lord, and every part of our heart can be under the Lord’s control. In this way Christ will make His home in our heart, and we can be rooted and grounded in love. When we Christians are saved, a basic matter happens between God and us and between ourselves and the saints. It is a story of love, and this love is just God Himself. Because of our regeneration, we have the life of God and have become God’s cultivated land and God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9). Since we are God’s cultivated land, we need to grow and be rooted. And since we are God’s building, we need to be built up and grounded. Both of these items, the rooting and the grounding, are all in love. For us to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ is for us to grow and be built up in His life. The result is that we are strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.
Breadth, length, height, and depth are all dimensions of Christ. These dimensions are unlimited in the universe. Everything about Christ is unlimited. His love is unlimited. His patience is unlimited. His humility, loving-kindness, goodness, etc. are all unlimited. All these are to be our practical experiences in the church life. This is not all. We are to know the knowledge-surpassing love. The words to know here mean to touch, taste, and experience. The love of Christ is just Christ Himself. Christ Himself is unlimited. So is His love. That is why we have the love that surpasses all knowledge. Yet we can know this knowledge-surpassing love through our experience.
When Christ makes His home in our hearts, and when we are strong to apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of Christ and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Him through our experience, we will be filled by the Triune God with all His virtues and attributes to become the fullness of God expressing all His riches. This fullness is the church, the corporate expression of God for the fulfillment of His desire. This is too tremendous a matter. During the past sixty years, I have seen many among us who have given up golden opportunities of high positions and material riches to stay in the church life to live a normal and simple life. Through the operation of the Triune God, they have lived out in a practical way this portion of the word in Ephesians 3. The effect of this choice is too great. Only eternity can tell its worth. For this reason I hope that you would all pay a high price to live such a church life.
Genesis 2 shows us that after God created man, He put man in the garden of Eden to enjoy the fruit of the tree of life and to work the garden and to keep it (vv. 8-16). By then God was everything to man. He was man’s entertainment, satisfaction, and protection. But through the fall man lost God and also lost everything else. After this the descendants of Cain developed the lyre and pipe, raising of cattle, and forgers of every cutting instrument of bronze and iron (4:16-22). They began to seek after pleasure, satisfaction, and security by themselves, and they put God aside. This is the condition of the whole world today. It has deserted God to seek for its own pleasure, satisfaction, and security. Among the nations, between individuals, in society and the homes, everyone is striving and fighting for these things. However, we are those who are saved by the Lord and called by God. We do not live for these things. Although we work and strive in society, our pleasure, satisfaction, and protection is God. When we enjoy God as our all, we will not come under the world’s attraction and bondage, but we will be able to fellowship with God in tranquility, living a normal and peaceful life. The result is that we will be able to live the real church life, experiencing Christ and expressing God’s riches.
At the end of this passage in Ephesians 3, we see the apostle’s firm conviction in this matter. He was convinced that all his prayers would be fulfilled by God. Paul said that God is able to do superabundantly above all that he asked or thought according to the power which operates in the believers. This is Paul’s conviction. It is also our conviction. I present this word to you; I am convinced that ultimately God will fulfill these things among us, even beyond what we ask or think, that glory may be to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever. Amen.
For the church to arrive at this glorious stage, God needs a group of people on earth today who are separated from the world and are even separated from other Christians to be the pillars against the tide of the age. They are constantly being strengthened into the inner man to escape the corruption from the lusts. Their souls are fully under the control of the spirit. In their hearts Christ is making His home. Throughout the ages countless saints have given up every worldly thing and have chosen to take this way as a result of seeing this vision. The Lord’s testimony is able to continue today because practically, throughout the last two thousand years, there have been people who were willing to live this kind of life and have this kind of spirit. Without this kind of life and this kind of spirit, the new way is a vain theory. The life pulse of the new way is this kind of living and this kind of spirit. It is what Ephesians 3:14-21 is all about. Everyone whose eyes are open will see the preciousness in these matters.
I have laid these matters before you. I hope that you will make a comparison and will make a wise choice. Everything depends on your discernment. It also depends on how much you are strengthened into the inner man. For our living we have to follow the Lord’s leading to fulfill our duty. For our future we have to be strong in spirit to choose God’s will. Since God has spoken His word, surely He will fulfill His word. He is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. He will surely find a group of people who will accomplish His purpose. In this universe this matter will surely see its ultimate consummation, which is the New Jerusalem, the testimony of God in eternity. Our church life today is a miniature of this testimony. May we give ourselves to this and be part of this glorious economy of the Triune God.
