17<\/strong>. that Christ may dwell<\/em> ] This clause is in close connexion with the preceding. The “strengthening” is the requisite to the “dwelling”; the “dwelling” the sure sequel to the “strengthening.” See last note but one.<\/p>\n “ Christ<\/em> ” :<\/em> lit. “ the Christ<\/em>,” as so often in this Epistle (Eph 1:10<\/span>; Eph 1:12<\/span>; Eph 1:20<\/span>, Eph 2:5<\/span>; Eph 2:13<\/span>, Eph 3:4<\/span>; Eph 3:8<\/span>; Eph 3:11<\/span>, Eph 4:7<\/span>; Eph 4:12-13<\/span>; Eph 4:20<\/span>, Eph 5:2<\/span>; Eph 5:5<\/span>; Eph 5:14<\/span>; Eph 5:23<\/span>; Eph 5:25<\/span>, Eph 6:5<\/span>; besides uncertain readings). Not to press distinctions too far, we may yet point out that the Lord is here presented not specially as Jesus, but as the Messiah, in His anointed majesty as the Prophet, Priest, and King of His saints. The thought of His Presence includes that of our tenderest affections towards Him, but rises also above it. It is the Presence of the Supreme Teacher, Redeemer, and Possessor.<\/p>\n “ dwell<\/em> ” :<\/em> the Gr. verb indicates permanent abode<\/em>. It is akin to the noun, Eph 2:22<\/span>; where see note. See it used 2Pe 3:13<\/span>, of the eternal presence of Righteousness in the New Universe. It marks a residence quite different from transient or casual lodgment.<\/p>\n The tense is the aorist (infinitive), and the idea of the aorist is singleness of act. Accordingly, the Lord is viewed here as not merely “dwelling,” but, in a definite act, “ coming to dwell<\/em>,” “taking up abode.” The question arises, did the Apostle contemplate the Ephesians as all alike devoid of the Indwelling in question, and needing it to begin? It is difficult to grant this, in an Epistle addressed to a large community, and one evidently rich in life and love. Well-nigh every stage of spiritual development must have been represented there. Yet the aorist must have its meaning. And surely the account of it is this, that the Apostle views them each and all as ever needing, at whatever stage of spiritual life, such an access of realization and reception as should be, to what had preceded, a new Arrival and Entrance of Christ in the heart. Local images are always elastic in the spiritual sphere; and there is no contradiction thus in the thought of the permanent presence of One who is yet needed to arrive.<\/p>\n On the other hand there are possible stages of Christian experience in which, practically, the Lord’s “coming in to dwell,” as here, would be a thing wholly new; and many such cases, doubtless, were found at Ephesus. Not only here but throughout the N.T. the saint is viewed as meant to enjoy a prevailing, not an intermittent, intercourse with his Lord in faith and love; on habitual<\/em> “access,” “confidence,” “peace and joy in believing,” and “fruit-bearing” power. Where such enjoyment does not as yet exist there is still lacking that which is in view here. True, it will be only a crude analysis that will claim to discern and decide peremptorily in such spiritual problems. But this does not alter the facts and principles of the matter in themselves.<\/p>\n in your hearts<\/em> ] A phrase important for the interpretation of the clause. It shews that the Indwelling here is subjective rather than objective; an Indwelling conditioned by the saint’s realization. “Christ” is “in” every genuine disciple (2Co 13:5<\/span>), in the sense of the disciple’s covenant and vital union with Him (1Co 6:15<\/span>; 1Co 6:17<\/span>). But this was certainly the case already with the Ephesian saints. Here then we have to do not so much with fact as with grasp on fact; the reception of the (already vitally present) Lord in habitual realization by the conscience, understanding, imagination, affections, and will. For the “ heart<\/em> ” in Scripture is the “seat” of all these: see e.g.<\/em> Gen 20:5<\/span>; Deu 4:39<\/span>; Isa 6:10<\/span>; Mar 11:23<\/span>; Luk 21:14<\/span>; Act 11:23<\/span>; Rom 5:5 ; 1Co 2:9<\/span>; Jas 1:26 ; 1Jn 3:20<\/span>. See on Eph 1:18<\/span>. “Though all of us is a temple for Him, yet the heart is the choir, where He properly sitteth” (Bayne (cent. 17), On the Ephesians<\/em>).<\/p>\n by faith<\/em> ] That is, trustful acceptance; holy and humble reliance upon Divine promises, such promises as those of Joh 14:21<\/span>; Joh 14:23<\/span>; Rev 3:20<\/span>. Observe that the Indwelling here in view is to be effectuated by means of spiritual action (God-given, as this passage has shewn, but not the less personal) on the saint’s part. And observe that it is not aspiration<\/em>, but faith<\/em>, that is the action. Aspiration will certainly be present, as an essential condition; there must be conscious desire. But it is faith, submissive trust in the Promiser, which is alone the effectuating and maintaining act.<\/p>\n Lit., “through the<\/em> faith”: i.e., perhaps, “by means of your<\/em> faith,” faith as exercised by you; but the article must not be pressed<\/em> in translation, where an abstract principle is the noun. “The faith” in the sense of the Christian creed<\/em> is manifestly not in place here, where the context is full of the idea of the actions of grace in the soul.<\/p>\n that ye<\/em> ] Here appears the holy purpose<\/em> of the experience just described. The Indwelling is to be specially in order to<\/em> the attitude and the knowledge now to follow.<\/p>\n being rooted and grounded in love<\/em> ] “ In love<\/em> ” is highly emphatic by position in the Gr. Does it mean the love of God for us, or ours for God? Perhaps it is needless to seek a precise answer. “Love, generally” (Alford), is to be the region of this great experience of the soul; a sphere of which the Divine Love and the regenerate spirit’s response are, as it were, the hemispheres. But we may at least suggest, with Eph 1:4<\/span> in mind (see note there), that the Divine Love is mainly in view. Is it quite intelligible to regard the saint’s love as the soil and basis<\/em> of his saintship? For observe it is the saints themselves, not this or that in<\/em> them (“ ye<\/em> being rooted, &c.”), that the Love in question thus sustains and feeds.<\/p>\n The chain of thought will thus be: “I pray that your hearts may so receive Christ as their perpetual Indweller, that you may, in this profound intimacy with Him, see and grasp your acceptance and life in the Eternal Love, manifested through Him.”<\/p>\n “ rooted and grounded<\/em> ” :<\/em> perfect participles. The second, lit. founded<\/strong>, recurs to the imagery of the Temple and its basis; ch. 2. The first, giving a metaphor much rarer with St Paul (Col 2:7<\/span> is the only close parallel), suggests the additional idea of derived life and its development. The saints are viewed both as “trees of the Lord, full of sap,” deep in the rich soil of the Love of God (cp. Psa 1:3<\/span>; Psa 92:12-13<\/span>; Jer 17:8<\/span>), and as constituent stones of the great Temple which rests ultimately on the same Love. Col 2:7<\/span>, just quoted, gives the same collocation of ideas, but with differences. The participle there rendered “built up” is present; “ being builded<\/em> upon.” And “in Him<\/em> ” takes the place of “in love.” This latter difference is no discrepancy; “the love of God is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 8:39<\/span>).<\/p>\n Such, as to root and basis, is<\/em> the true saint’s position. It is not created, but realized, when the experience of Eph 3:17<\/span> takes place in him. And the following clauses dilate on the spiritual use which he is to make of it.<\/p>\n That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith – <\/B>see the notes, Eph 2:22<\/span>. Expressions like this often occur in the Scriptures, where God is said to dwell in us, and we are said to be the temples of the Holy Spirit; see the Joh 14:23<\/span>, note; 1Co 6:19<\/span>, note.<\/P> That ye being rooted – <\/B>Firmly established – as a tree is whose roots strike deep, and extend afar. The meaning is, that his love should be as firm in our hearts, as a tree is in the soil, whose roots strike deep into the earth.<\/P> And grounded – <\/B><\/SPAN><\/span> tethemeliomenoi – founded – as a building is on a foundation. The word is taken from architecture, where a firm foundation is laid, and the meaning is, that he wished them to be as firm in the love of Christ, as a building is that rests on a solid basis.<\/P> In love – <\/B>In love to the Redeemer – perhaps also in love to each other – and to all. Love was the great principle of the true religion, and the apostle wished that they might be fully settled in that.<\/P> <\/p>\n Eph 3:17<\/span><\/p>\n That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The substance of Christianity<\/strong><\/p>\n 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. 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–what? The whole nature of God? The whole science of human government? The whole moral theory of the world?–and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. That is, no intellection can ever follow the outgush of experience, and reproduce it in the form of ideas. While the intellect may interpret the experience of the heart, it after all stands afar off from it, and never can partake of the experience itself. It passes knowledge. And to know the love of Christ, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. This is the very supreme of philosophy. It touches the lines and foundation elements of Christianity. Christianity differs from all other religions, not in the fact that it commands a worship–for all do; not simply in the superior view which it gives of God; but by demanding a peculiar condition of heart toward Christ. Other religions demand reverence, and worship, and obedience, and uprightness–that is all. Christ is said to be the end of the law. In other words, that which the whole law means is comprised in Him. Christ in a man–that is the Christian religion. It is Christ dwelling by love in his heart–dwelling in his heart by faith. Out of this will grow many doctrines, and many inferences; but it is the seminal form, the germinent element, in Christianity. It is the personal relationship of the individual heart to the Lord Jesus Christ as its supreme Head and Lover. That not only makes a man a Christian, but brings him into the central point of the Christian system. Everywhere in the New Testament this one element stands forth–the personal identification of the human heart with the Lord Jesus Christ. There are three ways by which Christ can be presented to us:–<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>By the senses. That we shall not have again on earth.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>By the intellect. That is the presentation of Christ doctrinally or theologically.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>By the heart. That is the reception of Christ by the form of an actual experience; by such a cooperation of the reason with the imagination that we are able to bring the invisible person near to us, and so bountifully reproduce Him, and so beautifully set Him forth, that He becomes to us the chiefest among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely; so that every sweet thing in us goes out to Him as every dewdrop in the sunshine evaporates and goes up towards the sun. This is receiving Christ by faith. It is not the rejecting of the senses; it is the non-using of them, rather. It is not the despising of the reason; it is an auxiliary use of the reason. But it is the manly way of taking hold of the Lord Jesus Christ by the enthusiasm of love, and making Him the supreme object of our desire, and of our allegiance. This is receiving Christ by faith; and if we continue so to receive Him, then He dwells in our hearts by faith–that is, by heart-sanctifying love. This I understand to be the distinctive peculiarity of Christianity, not only, but that without which there cannot be any Christianity. There can be no Christianity to the man who does not personally take Christ by faith. There is no substitute for this personal experience, and there can be no system of Christianity which does not provide for this personal experience, towards the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n I remark, then, in view of this exposition, that–<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Any system which leaves out the central figure is not Christian, and has no right to wear that name. For Christianity consists in such an enthusiastic love of the individual human heart for Christ, that they are unified, that there is a substantial, indissoluble oneness between them as there is between the child and the parent; and that it is the cause of all the after life and action of the individual person. If that is denied, Christianity is denied. If Christ is so expounded that such an experience is impossible, Christianity is destroyed in the destruction of the very fundamental idea of Christ.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>As the Christian system is not held by those who leave out the central figure, so every Christian system is imperfectly held by those who only hold it in a philosophical form. This latter mode is far in advance of the former, which I have just been criticising; but still the holding of the Lord Jesus Christ speculatively and philosophically, the teaching of Him only technically and psychologically in this way, is so imperfect a holding of Him that it cannot for a moment compare with the full-orbed glory of Christianity as it is set forth in the earliest narratives and teachings of the New Testament. I would not underrate the value of an intellectual conception of Christ; but I would hold it as an auxiliary, and as a guide. The intellect cannot fulfil the conditions of Christianity. It is the heart by which a man must believe unto salvation. It is not Christ as analyzed, as stated in technical terms, that ever will affect a man. Every man must by the inflammation of his own heart feeling find his Christ. A creed is just like a philosophers telescope. He sweeps the heavens to see if he can find the star for which he is searching; and by and by the glass brings it to his eye. The glass helps him, but it is not the glass that sees the star. It is the eye that does that. The glass is a mere instrument by which to identify the star, and magnify it, and bring it near, and shut off other things. A blind man could net see a heavenly body with a telescope, no matter how powerful it might be. A creed is a philosophers telescope by which we identify philosophical truths, and magnify them, and bring them near; but it is the heart that is to apprehend them. It is the heart that is to interpret the things that are marked out by our creed or philosophy.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The heart may embrace Christ with an enthusiasm of love, though the intellectual perception is imperfect and vague. It is better that the intellectual perception should be full and clear; nevertheless, a man can embrace Christ by the heart without the help of the understanding, far better than he can embrace Christ by the understanding without the aid of the heart. Thousands and thousands there have been, I believe, who have loved Christ, and have lived on their love to Him, and have died by the power of that love, and have been translated to glory, though they could not have defined the Divine nature, nor reduced their faith to any intellectual expression. They would have been larger and happier Christians, doubtless, if they had added to the heart element the intellectual element also; but it is possible for one to take hold of Christ with the heart. It is possible for one who has but slender endowments of reason to take hold of Christ. (H. W. Beecher.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n True knowledge of God<\/strong><\/p>\n We come to a knowledge of Christ by shaping ourselves into His nature. We do not come to know Christ by gathering together arguments from physical science, nor by grouping texts out of the written Word of God: we come to a knowledge of Christ by a personal experience of those qualities which inhere in Him, and which, in power, constitute His divinity. He who has in himself a moral quality which corresponds to that which is in Jesus Christ, and has great sensibility in it, will have a knowledge of Jesus Christ, of God in Christ, or of the Eternal Father, as the case may be. He will have in himself a knowledge which he cannot have by any external process of reasoning. The sensibility of a corresponding nature is a true interpretation, and is the highest argument possible, under such circumstances. It is so much of us as is godlike that gives us the evidence of God. A moral state carried up to a certain degree of intensity will develop evidence and power in the direction of truths of its own kind. And he who is, like Christ, built up in love–built vertically, built laterally, built all round; he whose nature it is to dwell centrally in this great, enriching, all-controlling element and power of love, will have brought into his mind a realization of the existence of God, and of the power of Gods nature as a Being of love, which will be overwhelming and all-satisfying; which you cannot get from science, because science does not touch it; and which you cannot get from mere reasoning, because reasoning does not reach to it. We may help ourselves by reasoning, and we may gain analogies by science; if we turn to the natural world we may find there evidence of the existence of God, so far as Divine quality is represented by power and matter; but when we rise to the moral and personal elements of the Divine character, nature has nothing in it which can explain them to us–unless we be nature; and we are. There is nothing in nature, aside from man, out of which we can develop these attributes of the Divine Being. We can apprehend them only by having in us moral qualities which correspond to them, and by having them as sensitive to the Divine presence as the thermometer is to the presence of heat, or as the barometer is to the pressure of the atmosphere, or to the presence of moisture in it. 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. It is said that God bears witness in us; but not a whit more than we bear witness to His presence. I sat last summer sometimes for hours in the dreamy air of the mountains, and saw, over against the Twin Mountain House, the American aspen, of which the forests there are full. I saw all the coquetries and blinkings of that wonderful little tree–the witch, the fairy tree, of the forest. As I sat there, when there was not a cloud moving, when there was not a ripple on the glassy surface of the river, when there was not a grain of dust lifted, when everything was still–dead still–right over against me was that aspen tree; and there was one little leaf quivering and dancing on it. It was so nicely poised on its long, slender stem that it knew when the air moved. Though I did not know it, though the dust did not know it, and though the clouds did not know it, that leaf knew it; and it quivered and danced, as much as to say: O wind! you cant fool me. It detected the motion of the air when nothing else could. Now, it only requires sensibility in us to detect physical qualities, if we have the corresponding qualities; or social elements, if we have the corresponding elements; or moral attributes, if we have the corresponding attributes. We detect all qualities by the sensibility in us of corresponding qualities which reveal them to us. And he who has largely the Divine element will be able to recognize the Divine existence. That element in him is the power by which he is brought to a knowledge of God. In view of this exposition, I remark–<\/p>\n Christ inhabiting the moral nature of man<\/strong><\/p>\n The effect of a reverie is to create a mental presence, thus we see in image of the mind those from whom we are separated. Faith in Christ brings Him down in spiritual presence to perform His saving offices.<\/p>\n Christ in the heart<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>When Christ dwells in the human heart, He dwells there as a living power, not merely attracting all our other affections, but moving, renewing, sanctifying, moulding us according to His own idea, working His own pleasure in us, making men faithful in their daily business, true, righteous, strong for their daily service, for labour, for suffering, for sorrow, for waiting, for whatever Providence may appoint.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>When Christ enters a human heart to dwell there, He enters it and abides as an undying joy.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>When Christ abides in a human heart, He is in it as an immortal hope. (James Culross, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The indwelling of Christ in His people<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It is not personal.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It is not visionary.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>It is not merely emotional.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It is the result of faith as realizing His presence.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It is the result of the communication of the Holy Spirit, by which He is graciously present.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>It is the result of His love. (G. Brooks.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Christ dwelling in the heart<\/strong><\/p>\n In your hearts; in the central region of your moral life–that region in which thought springs up, the region of affection and desire, the region in which purposes are formed, in which future actions have their birth; may Christ dwell there. The conception is not a difficult one to lay hold of. Take a case from ordinary life. A widowed mother lives in a cottage by the sea; her only boy is a sailor; she has not seen him for years; for years he has been far away, sailing from land to land; but her heart is full of him; she thinks of him by day, she dreams of him by night; how tenderly she handles every relic that he left behind him when he went away; how the glass in her spectacles grows dim as she reads his letters; his name is never missed out from her prayers; and many and many a time, when she is busy about her daily work, the thought of her boy will flash into her heart like a beam of golden sunlight; the stars speak about him, and so does every white-sailed ship away out on the sea. Nobody has any difficulty in understanding what is meant when it is said that her boy dwells in her heart. So may Christ dwell in your hearts, the object of trust, of affection, of allegiance. (James Culross, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The three Advents<\/strong><\/p>\n The Advent of Christ may be considered as a three-fold fact–or, perhaps, we may more properly speak of three Advents. The first of these was the coming of Christ upon the earth, the entrance into the sphere of visible and material things of a Divine and spiritual revelation. But not only do we recognize the Advent of Christ in the material world–in the world of nature. We also discern His Advent in history–in the world of social facts and movements. Explain it as we may, it cannot be denied that since the coming of Jesus there has been a vast and progressive change in society. It has been truly said that the world can never be the same after that Advent as it was before it, as it would be without it. The distinctive boundary lines of ancient and modern history meet just at that point of time on which Jesus stands. There is a life, a spirit, an expression in the world since that time that it did not show before that time. But there is still another Advent of Christ in which these that I have now referred to are, so to speak, realized and completed. And that is the Advent of Christ in the individual soul. Here is a peculiar characteristic of Christianity. The Author and Finisher of our faith is not like the founders of other systems–merely an objective teacher or lawgiver, or a leader in external and material conquests, carrying the kingdom of God with the sharp edge of the sword. He is an inward Saviour–the indwelling source of spiritual life. The profoundest result of Christs Advent is marked by an intimate connection between Jesus and the soul of the believer.<\/p>\n Christ dwelling in the heart<\/strong><\/p>\n Show the privilege of having Christ to dwell in the heart, by considering what He does there. In general: He brings with Him all the promises and blessings of the new covenant (1Co 1:1<\/span>, etc.; 2Co 1:20<\/span>; Eph 1:3<\/span>).<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>He rebukes the heart (Rev 2:4-5<\/span>; Rev 3:19<\/span>).<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>He humbles the heart (Act 9:5-6<\/span>; Eph 3:8<\/span>).<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>He sets it at liberty from sin and Satan (Luk 11:1<\/span>, etc).<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>He reveals His love to it (Eph 3:17-19<\/span>).<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>He weans it from other things (Php 3:7-8<\/span>).<\/p>\n 6. <\/strong>He strengthens it (Isa 57:15<\/span>; Psa 33:26).<\/p>\n 7. <\/strong>He satisfies it in the want of outward blessings.<\/p>\n 8. <\/strong>He reconciles it–God and man (2Co 5:19-21<\/span>).<\/p>\n 9. <\/strong>He fills it with the hope of glory (Col 1:27<\/span>).<\/p>\n 10. <\/strong>He sups with it, and it with Him (Rev 3:20<\/span>). (H. Foster, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The indwelling Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n Two remarks of an expository character will prepare the way for the lessons of these verses. The first is as to the relation of this clause to the preceding. It might appear at first sight to be simply parallel with it, expressing substantially the same ideas under a somewhat different aspect. The operation of the strength-giving Spirit in the inner man might very naturally be supposed to be equivalent to the dwelling of Christ in our hearts by faith. 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. It is enough to point it out as the basis of my further remarks. And now the second observation with which I will trouble you before I come to deal with the thoughts of the verse is as to the connection of the last words of it. You may observe that in reading the words of my text I omitted the that which stands in the centre of the verse. 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. They ought not therefore to be shifted forward into it, as our translators and the Revised Version have, I think, unfortunately done, unless there were some absolute necessity either from meaning or from construction. I do not think that that is the case; but on the contrary, being carried forward into the next clause, which describes the result of Christs dwelling in our hearts by faith, they break the logical flow of the sentence by mixing together result and occasion. And so I attach them to the first part of this verse, and take them to express at once the consequence of Christs dwelling in the heart by faith, and the preparation or occasion for our being able to comprehend and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Now that is all with which I need trouble you in the way of explanation of the meaning of the words. Let us come now to deal with their substance.<\/p>\n Christ in the heart<\/strong><\/p>\n A soldier of Napoleons great army was wounded one day by a bullet which entered his breast above his heart; he was carried to the rear, and the surgeon was probing the wound with his knife, when at length the guardsman exclaimed, An inch deeper, and you will find the emperor. And the Christian soldier, even when most sorely pressed and pierced by his foes, is conscious that were his heart laid open by their wounds, it would only discover the name of his great Captain deeply engraven there.<\/p>\n The heart a temple<\/strong><\/p>\n It is related in ecclesiastical history that the parents of Origen used to uncover his breast as he slumbered and print their kisses over his heart; for they said, This is a temple of the Holy Ghost! (Chas. S. Robinson, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Inward religion<\/strong><\/p>\n Liturgies, <\/em>although a great lawmaker, would allow none of his laws to be written. He would have the principles of government interwoven in the lives and manners of the people as most conducive to their happiness. The multiplication of Bibles that stand upon bookshelves or lie upon tables is an easy matter, but to multiply copies of walking scriptures, in the form of holy men who can say, Thy Word have I hid in my heart, is much more difficult. (New Handbook of Illustration.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Root religion<\/strong><\/p>\n The being of a grace must go before the increase of it; for there is no growth without life, no building without a foundation. Put a dry stick into the ground, and dress and water it as much as you will, it will continue the same until it rot; but set a living plant by the side of it, and though much less at first, yet it soon begins to shoot, and in time becomes a wide-spreading tree. (J. Stoughton.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Rooted in Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n Paul <\/em>Jeanne ascribes amazing fertility to the soil of Mentone, and backs his assertions by a story which reads like a legend. He says that a stranger coming to pay a visit to his Mentonese friends stuck his walking stick into the ground and forgot it. Coming back some days afterwards to seek his cane, he was surprised to find it putting forth leaves and young branches. He declares that the little tree has grown vastly, and is still to be seen in the Rue Saint Michel. We have not seen it, and are afraid that to inquire for it in the aforesaid Rue would raise a laugh at our expense. We may believe the story or not as we please; but it may serve as an emblem of the way in which those grow who are by grace planted in Christ. All dry and withered like a rod we are thrust into the sacred soil, and life comes to us at once, with bud and branch and speedy fruit. Aarons rod that budded was not only a fair type of our Lord, but a cheering prophecy of ourselves. 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. (C. H. Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Christ dwelling in the heart<\/strong><\/p>\n A <\/em>wounded soldier boy was dying in a hospital, the lady who watched by his bedside said to him, My dear boy, if this should be death that is coming upon you, are you ready to meet your God? He answered, I am ready, dear lady; for this has long been His dwelling place; and as he spoke, he placed his hand upon his heart. Do you mean, questioned the lady, gently, that God dwells and rules in your heart? Yes, he answered, but his voice sounded far off, sweet, and low, as if it came from a soul already well on its way through the dark valley of the shadow of death.<\/p>\n Love to Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n To be in the heart of anyone is to be the object of cordial affection; to dwell in His heart is to be the object of that affection constantly and habitually; and to dwell in the heart by faith is to be the object of an intelligent and enlightened affection.<\/p>\nFuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>That the attempt to prove a God by scientific tests, applying physics strictly, can only reach a small way up. There is an argument that can be constructed that will satisfy–those that it will satisfy; but it is only a little way that it can go. And as I do not think that men can, by scientific observation, test and determine that which lies outside of all physics, so neither do I think this failure need lead to the scepticisms which some men make, but which, thank God, the most eminent scientific men do not make, who are many of them reverent, and who are all of them, I believe, seekers after the truth. The greatest physicists of the day are men who want to know the truth, not only as it is related to matter and to men, but as it is related to Divinity. But that makes no difference. You cannot prove nor disprove by matter that which lies beyond matter; and if, through all the material universe, there is no sign nor hint of God, it does not make any difference in the truth of His spiritual existence.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The difficulties which beset the existence of God as a personal Being, of intellect, of emotion, and of will–a transcendent and glorified man (for that is as near as we can come to it)–these difficulties are not alleviated when we turn in other directions. I am speaking in an age which runs strongly in the line of scepticism as to the existence of God. 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. I see no alleviation in that direction. That we exist, that nature exists, that there is an infinite chain of cause and effect, that it has had a past history, and that it is to have a future history, we cannot deny. We cannot deny that the vast universe is a fact, except by shutting our eyes. You meet the same difficulties in the realm of sense. When you say that matter is eternal, you do not help anything. It is useless to attempt to stop the thought by a word. You do not stop the thought at all. We go back on it. It is more difficult for me, a thousand times, to conceive that there is in the universe a self-ordering nature, than it is to conceive of a personal God who takes care of the universe, as we take care of an estate, or of a kingdom. Neither do I find any relief in turning to the poets. There is no relief for me in atheism, or pantheism, or in the idea that the sum total of the universe, and that all causes and effects, are God; that the whole physical creation is the body of God; that all the intelligence diffused through all creatures is the intelligence of God; that matter and mind, as they exist distributed through the universe, are only another name for God. By adopting this theory we may run away from some grievous difficulties; but we run into as many others that are no less grievous. I would rather shut my eyes and give up trying to understand my God, than undertake to trace Him partly in myself, partly in you, partly in the laws of matter, and partly in the laws of mind. In such a diffused thought of God there is no relief to me from the difficulties which inhere in this subject. The prime trouble is, that we are not large enough to understand God on any theory. (H. W. Beecher.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The firm heart is figurative to denote the highest and purest part of man. It may be compared to a house divided into apartments. Christ must dwell in every room or division. 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. And no transient stay, but constant residence.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Christ brings to the heart many rich treasures. Knowledge of the future, all the promises and blessings of new covenant.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Faith is the key to unlock the door of the heart for Christ to dwell with us. (J. A. Fullerton.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>When Christ enters the human heart to dwell in it, evil tenants must go out.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>When Christ comes into a heart to dwell, casting out evil tenants, he does not come alone; He brings with Him all those things that accompany salvation.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>What it is not.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>What it is.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The conditions of the advent. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith requires an earnest belief in Christ. I observe that this belief must be as specific as the Advent, not a mere historic belief; not a languid acknowledgment of the fact that Christ has come into the world. Again, a mere conventional or traditional acquiescence is not the kind of faith that is required, an acquiescence by which men are called Christians in the sense in which we are a Christian community. True faith is an earnest, original action of the individual soul, moved by strong conviction. That faith is good for nothing which you take and adopt from another. You cannot receive a faith from your fathers. There is a time when we can indicate to our children the landmarks of fight. But even the minds of children should not be cast into a fixed mould. We should not say, Search no more; here is the image of our fathers, and the image and superscription must be stamped upon the waxen substance of your minds; let it harden there! We say, there is the old Bible; let your minds become developed, and your own experience will shed light upon it. So learn for yourselves an original, active, earnest faith that comes out of every mans soul, Which he struggles and wrestles for as Jacob wrestled in the night with the angel. We should feel as the Samaritans did: Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we ourselves know that this is the Christ. But they themselves saw Him and knew Him, and from an earnest and original conviction of their own souls they believed in Him. Conviction is a personal exercise of trust. It is a spontaneous, complete yielding of the whole soul to that in which we trust.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The manner of the advent. What is meant when we say that Christ dwells in the hearts of men? We do not mean that an actual Christ dwells there; we mean that the spirit of Christ dwells in the hearts of men. And the spirit is really the man. The man is not in his outward or physical form. The real man is the soul, the spirit, and character. The moral standard of Christianity is not a verbal rule, but a character. The rule of Christian life is not an outward law; it is a character. When our characters are assimilated to Christs character, or when Christs character permeates and controls us, then Christ dwells in our hearts. There is no mysticism in that–nothing unreal, nor anything we cannot grasp. Christ dwells in the heart as a character–as a spirit of life. It is by the spirit, and not the outward form that Christ dwells in us. One man may today show the spirit of Christ in the disposition of his wealth; another man may do likewise in his poverty. 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. The outward condition does not make a man like Christ; but the inward spirit. Thus Christianity is adapted to all conditions. The spirit of love is fitted for all conditions. Be you rich or poor–do you stand in a prominent or obscure and lowly place before men–have the spirit of Christ! Let it dwell in your heart! Be truly Christ-like in your home and business relations, fulfilling the duties that rest upon you, as did those who went about Palestine of old preaching the gospel to the poor. Does God take note of the actual size and description of your goodness? Who can tell what shall be Gods minister–the little bird in the air, the snow in the field, the lilies that are dressed better than Solomon! All are agents of Gods instruction. Use your instruments to minister good to man, to make the best use of the little you have. Drop the pebble in the water, and who can tell how wide its ripples will extend in the stream? Do your little acts of goodness and live a true life, and God will see to the rest, and make, perhaps, your small practical action to result higher and deeper than you can calculate.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Sphere and result of the advent. We are brought to consider the sphere and result of the Advent. Christs Advent is in and through individual souls. To be sure we contemplate Christianity as the grandest scheme of social regeneration, and the only true scheme that the world has ever known. It came and Unbarred partitions that divided man from man. It aimed at a new and better social state; it aims at it now. And men have looked forward to a New Jerusalem, and that Christ would come with a shout and gather together His elect. Christianity speaks to individuals. It did not call upon communities at first. It did not call nations, but individuals–Peter, James, and John and Nathaniel, and in due time Paul. And if the world is to be made better, it is to be made better through individual souls. Christs kingdom is essentially an inward kingdom. Its power is silent and hidden. It is the progress of a conviction. Sometimes when yon look upon the shore, the sea extends before you smooth and glassy, and the shore is covered with slimy weeds, and by and by you walk that way again, and the great sea has come up, and the shore you looked upon is no more to be seen. So silent and hidden forces are pouring into the world, and all at once we discover the world is made better; but not by a sharp shock or outward convulsion. The geologist tells us the earth has never been made by any sudden formation, but by one thing being added to another. So social changes have been made–not by quick shocks, but by silent action. How strange are the revolutions taking place in society; and how different from what they were a few years ago. We see men holding to opinions unpopular some few years ago, when they would be called fanatics, fools, and madmen. But lo! that opinion becomes the adopted law of the land; it is the ruling force; it is the recognized idea. What has come about? It is the silent work of the Divine kingdom in the individual heart. (E. H. Chapin, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Mark, then, the apostles desire here that all Christian people may possess the indwelling Christ, To begin with, let me say in the plainest, simplest, strongest way that I can, that that dwelling of Christ in the believing heart is to be regarded as being a plain literal fact. It is not to be weakened down into any notion of participation in His likeness, sympathy with His character, submission to His influence, following His example, listening to His instruction, or the like. A dead Plato may so influence his followers, but that is not how a living Christ influences His disciples. It is no mere influence, derived and separable from Him, however blessed and gracious that influence might he, but it is the presence of His own self, exercising influences which are inseparable from His presence, and only to be realized when He dwells in us. I preach, and rejoice that I have to preach, a Christ that died, yea! rather, that is risen again; who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Nor do I stop there, but I preach a Christ that is in us, dwelling in our hearts if we be His at all. Well, then, further observe that the special emphasis of the prayer here is that this indwelling may be an unbroken and permanent one. Any of you who can consult the original for yourselves will see that the apostle here uses a compound word which conveys the idea of intensity and of continuity. What he desires, then, is not merely that these Ephesian Christians may have occasional visits of the indwelling Lord, or that at some lofty moments of spiritual enthusiasm they may be conscious that He is with them, but that always, in an unbroken line of deep, calm receptiveness, they may possess, and know that they possess, an indwelling Saviour. God means and wishes that Christ may continuously dwell in our hearts; does He to your own consciousness dwell in yours? And then the last thought connected with this first part of my subject is that the heart strengthened by the Spirit is fitted to be the temple of the indwelling Christ. How shall we prepare the chamber for such a guest? How shall some poor occupant of some poor but by the wayside, fit it up for the abode of a prince? The answer lies in these words that precede my text. You cannot strengthen the rafters and lift the roof and adorn the halls and furnish the floor in a manner befitting the coming of the King; but you can turn to that Divine Spirit who will expand and embellish and invigorate your whole spirit, and make it capable of receiving the indwelling Christ. That these two things which are here considered as cause and effect may, in another aspect, be considered as but varying phases of the same truth is only part of the depth and felicity of the teaching that is here. For if you come to look more deeply into it the Spirit that strengtheneth with might is the Spirit of Christ; and He dwells in mens hearts by His own Spirit. 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. The lesser gift of His presence prepares for the greater measure of it; the transitory inhabitation fits for the more permanent. Where He comes in smaller measure He opens the door and fits the heart for His own more entire indwelling. Unto him that hath shall be given. It is Christ in the heart that makes the heart fit for Christ to dwell in the heart. You cannot do it by your own power; turn to Him and let Him make you temples meet for Himself.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>So now, in the second place, notice the open door through which the Christ comes in to dwell–that He may dwell in your hearts by faith. More accurately we may render through faith, and might even venture to suppose that the thought of faith as an open door through which Christ passes into the heart floated half distinctly before the apostles mind. Be that as it may, at all events faith is here represented as the means or condition through which this dwelling takes effect. You have but to believe in Him and He comes, drawn from heaven, floating down on a sunbeam, as it were, and enters into the heart and abides there. But do not forget that the faith which brings Christ into the spirit must be a faith which works by love if it is to keep Christ in the spirit. You cannot bring that Lord into your hearts by anything that you do. The man that cleanses his own soul by his own strength, and so expects to draw God into it, has made the mistake which Christ pointed out when He told us that when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he leaves his house empty, though it be swept and garnished. Moral reformation may turn out the devils, it will never bring in God. And in the emptiness of the swept and garnished heart there is an invitation to the seven to come back again and fill it. And whilst that is true, remember, on the other hand, that a Christian man can drive away his Master by evil works. The sweet songbirds and the honey-making bees are said always to desert a neighbourhood before a pestilence breaks out in it. And if I may so say, similarly quick to feel the first breath of the pestilence is the presence of the Christ which cannot dwell with evil. You bring Christ into your heart by faith, without any work at all; you keep Him there by a faith which produces holiness.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>And the last point is the consequence of this indwelling of Christ, ye being, or as the words might more accurately be translated, Ye, having been rooted and grounded in love. Where He comes He comes not empty handed. He brings His own love, and that consciously received produces a corresponding and answering love in our hearts to Him. So there is no need to ask the question here whether love means Christs love to me or my love to Christ. From the nature of the case both are included–the recognition of His and the response by mine are the result of His entering into the heart. This love, the recognition of His and the response by mine, is represented in a lovely double metaphor in these words as being at once the soil in which our lives are rooted and grow, and the foundation on which our lives are built and are steadfast. (A. Maclaren, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>In the first place, then, this is not the desire that Christ must be in their mind and understanding, as the object of simple, abstract, uninfluential knowledge. Many may be the persons and opinions in our minds that are not objects of attachment, but, on the contrary, of indifference, or even of aversion. We know merely that they are there, and what they are. Some of them we would rather have absent from our minds, and some of them we would banish from them altogether; but to be in the heart is to be admired, esteemed, loved–loved with cordiality and ardour. We cannot express fervent attachment in more energetic terms than in the language of the apostle, I would that Christ might dwell in your hearts. And what is expressed here, that we are in our hearts to do? Can anything be stronger than the attachment which shares life and death with its object? Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. The love, then, that Christ demands of His people is fervent love; not a lifeless indifference, a mere negation of hatred, a lukewarm, spiritless neutrality. No. He must be in the heart, and must have the chief place there.<\/p>\n