Search
We have seen that the church is the Body of Christ and the fullness of Christ. In Ephesians 3 the apostle Paul prayed for the believers to experience the reality of the church. Verses 16 through 19 say, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” Here Paul speaks of a few important matters. First, Paul speaks of Christ making His home in the believers’ hearts; second, of apprehending with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth; third, of knowing the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ; and fourth, of being filled unto all the fullness of God.
The phrase that Christ may make His home in your hearts shows that Christ is making His home in the hearts of many people. The church is the Body of Christ and also Christ’s home. The church is Christ’s making home in our hearts. In the original language the phrase make...home is the verb form of the noun home. For Christ to make His home in our hearts is for Him to make us His home, His house. We are Christ’s Body, His fullness, and we are also His home. The church is where Christ makes His home, where He is making His believers His home, and where He dwells restfully. When a person makes his home, he can put everything he owns in his home as it pleases him. When Christ makes His home in our hearts, He puts everything that He possesses in our hearts. As a result, He can control our entire being.
In a sense, Christ is making His home in individual saints, but strictly speaking, He is making His home in all the saints. An individual is not sufficient to be Christ’s home. Christ’s home is not an individual believer but the saints, the Body of Christ. Sometimes a believer says, “Christ dwells in me.” We must see that this “me” is not an independent “me”; it is not an individual “me.” This “me” is joined to all the believers. It is difficult for a person who has not had sufficient dealings with the brothers and sisters and has not attended many meetings to experience Christ dwelling in him.
Experientially, a believer who does not attend meetings and who cuts off fellowship with other believers might feel that Christ has left him. For example, a brother who is unhappy with the situation of the meetings may decide to read the Bible and pray by himself at home since he does not get any help in the meetings. The first day that he stays at home, he devotes considerable time to read the Bible and pray. On the second day he reads and prays less. This pattern will continue until after a week he gives up reading the Bible and praying, because he does not sense the dearness or nearness of the Lord. To stay away from other believers is almost the same as staying away from Christ. Hence, when we stay away from other believers, it is not easy for us to sense Christ making His home in our hearts. We should consider how much grace we have received from the Lord in our personal seeking and how much we have received through the brothers and sisters. The Lord’s presence, His making home, is in all the saints. We should never say, “The Lord is omnipresent, so we do not need to be in the meetings. We can shut our door and pray at home, according to the teaching of the Bible, because the Lord will be with us.” If we stay at home instead of going to the meetings, after half a year we will have no way to pray and will probably end up loving the world. To leave the saints is to leave the fellowship of the Body of Christ. This is nearly the same as leaving Christ.
We must come together because our hearts are the corporate dwelling place of Christ. The word hearts in verse 17 is clear and definite; it is not an empty word. Hence, Paul is not speaking in a general way concerning Christ dwelling in us. Paul is clear and definite concerning Christ making home in our hearts. Christ making His home in our hearts is dear and affectionate, because we sense His presence in our hearts. Therefore, Paul also speaks of our being rooted and grounded in love. Every time we meet together, we sense that the Lord is making His home in us, that the Lord is lovable, and that our union with the saints is sweet. Thus, when we let the Lord make home in our hearts, we are joined with all the saints in the Lord’s love and are able to apprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth. The breadth, length, height, and depth are descriptions of the Lord’s immeasurable dimensions. No one can say how wide is Christ’s width, how long is His length, how high is His height, or how deep is His depth. Only God in Christ is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth. He is as immeasurable as the universe.
We can experience the immeasurable and boundless Christ when we come together with all the saints. Individually, our experience of Christ is limited, but when we experience Christ with all the saints, we sense His vastness. We also realize that He is as immeasurable as the breadth, length, height, and depth of the universe. We do not know how vast Christ is. He is so vast that He needs a corporate body to contain Him. The more the saints are together, the more the immeasurable Christ is manifested. We can apprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth, and we can know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. To know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ is to realize that His love is beyond what we can fathom. His love is all-surpassing. There is not a problem that He does not bear, nor is there a suffering that He does not feel. When we see that the Lord is able to take care of each and every problem, we will know that His love is beyond our human apprehension. However, we must remember that only when we are joined together with all the saints can we know Christ’s breadth, length, height, and depth and also know His knowledge-surpassing love.
One person cannot fully experience Christ’s immeasurableness, nor can one person fully know Christ’s knowledge-surpassing love. But when believers come together, people will see and experience the immeasurable Christ and His unfathomable love. Hence, Paul says, “That you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” If we are joined together and let Christ fill us, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God. The riches of God must be expressed through the church. Hence, the church must be full of Christ. When the church is full of Christ, full of God, people will touch Christ and God. This is the church, the Body of Christ, the fullness of Christ. This is where Christ can make His home and be expressed.
