Can you please explain Ephesians 3:16-17?
These verses are part of one of the Apostle Paul’s prayers for believers in Christ. We do well to read the whole prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Paul outlined several specific requests in this prayer. Let’s look briefly at each one:
1) “…to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” First of all, we have no strength of our own. Jesus said in John 15:5, “…without Me ye can do nothing”, and in Philippians 4:13 Paul confirmed this by saying, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” How does Christ strengthen us? He does it “by His Spirit.” The Holy Spirit indwells us to empower us and He strengthens the “inner man,” which is the “new nature” we received when we were born again, through the Word of God. Romans 7:22 teaches us that every child of God loves the Word of God; it says, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” And in 2 Corinthians 4:16 we learn that our inward man is renewed in strength daily, “…though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”
2) “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” To understand this request, we must first realize that Christ does indwell every believer. Colossians 1:27 says, “…Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and in 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul said, “Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates.” But Paul’s desire in his prayer goes beyond that, for he is praying that Christ may truly REIGN IN OUR HEARTS; that He may have FIRST PLACE IN OUR HEARTS by our affections being focused on Him. Colossians 3:1-2 speaks to this, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” If Christ does occupy our affections, He will not only be “LIVING in our hearts,” He will “be AT HOME in our hearts!” He will feel welcome there and we will be conscious of His presence.
3) “That ye, being rooted and grounded in love.” If Christ has His rightful place in our hearts, we will then become “established in love.” Just as a plant or a tree receives nourishment and support from its root system, so a believer’s life is nourished and supported by being “rooted and grounded in love.”
4) “May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” If the first three requests are answered, we will then be prepared to comprehend the vast, multi-dimensional purposes of God for us and to constantly increase in our knowledge of Christ’s love, though we’ll never reach the end of His love, for it is, like Himself, infinite. We will then be “filled with all the fullness of God,” which is the pinnacle of a Christian’s experience, for we can’t go any higher than that! (158.9) (DO)