What does it mean to believe on Christ?  To have Christ in you?  What does that look like outwardly?  The scripture we’re going through today is Ephesians 3:17-4:3, and I believe God will give us understanding towards all of those questions.  This is a good chunk of scripture, but again, Ephesians is so rich and helpful, that I feel its worth our time to go through, and necessary to see the full picture of what God wants us to see here.

Ephesians 3:14-19 – For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Paul is praying to God that those in the Church of Ephesus would believe on Christ.  Faith to believe on Christ, and sustaining grace for Christ to be strengthened and formed in you, is only accomplished by the grace of God.  We should all be asking for God’s grace and mercy in like manner, for the love of Christ to made known to us and that our hearts would be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ.

Everything God does is from a heart of love.  “God is love”. (1 John 4:16)  “God demonstrates His love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Rom 5:8)  How often do you meditate on God’s love towards you in Christ?  God knows our weaknesses – he knows every sin from our past, present, and future – every bit of our sin is an attack on the glory of our holy Creator God.  “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5)  Are you just aware of God’s love – like a fact to be known about someone, or has it truly rooted itself in your heart?  Is your heart grounded in the love of God?  Before I move on – let me just tell you, that the answer for all of us is at best “not fully” and perhaps at times “not at all”, and therefore, we all ought to be seeking God for that daily.  

Consider also that Paul ends by saying that if we are rooted and grounded in love, comprehending the depth of the love of Christ, we will be filled with all the fullness of God.  If you want to know what God’s will for your life is, there it is.  It’s not a job, it’s not where you live, it’s not what church you go to, it’s that Christ be formed in your heart, rooted and grounded in His love.  That is the spirit capable of living a life pleasing to God, overflowing His love to a broken world.

Ephesians 3:20-4:3 – “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.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

How is Christ’s love formed in our hearts?  Paul gives us the answer by stating he is praying to God for this above, but also here again Paul restates that this is a work of God, His power at work within us.  You don’t grow in a heart for Christ by being a moral person, going to church, reading your bible, avoiding temptation, or any other outward means.  These are all good things, but unless God is at work in you, unless you call upon Him in humility and dependence to see Christ’s love and root that love in you, your heart will never change.  Those other things will be a burden because they are tasks rather than means of joy, participating in the love of God.

What does it look like to have a heart that is rooted and grounded in the love of Christ?  We have humble hearts, gentle, patient towards others.  We know our sin and failings, and the great love of Christ towards us apart from any merit of our own, and it undoes any form of pride in us.  We root that love in our hearts, so that we can display that love to others.  This isn’t always easy, but we know that the work is not ours to accomplish, but God, so we run to Him and ask for His grace to love as we have been loved.

I’m going to try to land the plane here.  My prayer for you, for me, and all is that we would know that height, the depth of the love of Christ, and have hearts that are rooted and grounded in that love.  Look to Jesus, ask God for grace to accomplish this by His power at work in you, and may it be said of us as Jesus proclaimed “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  (John 13:35)

You are loved and prayed for.

In Christ,

Adam