“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.“ – Vs 10 (NASB)

This verse sounds so good, but it is so hard to live out. Sure, I say I believe God is strong, but then I turn right around and place all my hope on my own strength and ability to handle the difficult situations of life. Yet I know going in that my strength is limited. It fails me every time. So why don’t I take advantage of His strength? What keeps me from trusting in His power?

Paul uses three different words here for strength or power. The first one is usually translated “be strong.” It really carries the idea of having your strength increased. It literally means, “to endue with strength, to receive strength, be strengthened, to increase in strength.” Paul seems to be saying that we need to increase our strength, because he knows that the enemy we are up against is more than we can handle. Just take a look at verse 12. Our enemy isn’t a flesh and blood one, but a spiritual one. And he has powers we don’t possess. So Paul says that we had better increase our strength. But that extra power needs to come from a source outside of ourselves. It has to come from God. He says, “Be strong in the Lord.” I like the way the New Living Translation puts it. “Be strong with the Lord’s mighty power.” We can actually increase our feeble strength with His. We can access a power source that is far beyond anything we could ever imagine. Paul refers to it as the “strength of His might.” Those are our two other power words. You could almost translate this phrase “in the power of His power.” The first word seems to be talking about the extent of God’s power. It is referring to His dominion. He doesn’t just have power, He has complete, kingly, authoritative, sovereign power. Someone can have power, but no authority. God has both. He has power and the right and authority to use it. Everything and everyone has to submit to Him. He has ruling power. I don’t have that.

So how do I increase my strength with His? The following verses seem to give us the answer. He says that we are to put on God’s armor. Notice that Paul refers to it as God’s armor. It is His armor that will allow us to “resist in the evil day.” It is His armor that will allow us to “stand firm.” But we have to remember that the armor belongs to Him. His armor consists of His truth, His righteousness, His gospel, His faith, His salvation, and His word. This isn’t about my version of the truth. It isn’t about my righteousness or my self-righteous acts. This isn’t about the gospel according to Ken. This isn’t even about my faith. It is about His. The word faith here can be translated “faithfulness.” One of its definitions is “the character of one who can be relied on.” That’s why I think Paul is referring not to my faith, but to God’s. I am protected by the faithfulness of God. He will never fail me. It is He who extinguishes all the flaming arrows of the evil one. This isn’t about my meager faith, but God’s unfailing faithfulness. It’s also about His salvation, not mine. It is He who will save me, not myself. And it is His word that is my primary weapon. It’s interesting that Paul uses the Greek word rhema here and not the more familiar logos. The word rhema refers to a “spoken utterance.” It does not usually refer to the Scriptures in their entirety, but to a specific word from God. A rhema is a verse or portion of Scripture that the Holy Spirit brings to our attention with application to a current situation or need for direction. The sword God gives us to use is perfect for the situation. It is His word spoken specifically for the circumstances in which we find ourselves. It is His word made practical for each of life’s situations.

So God wants us to increase our power by turning to His. He wants to supplement our weak strength with His. And He gives us all the armor we need to go into life’s battles with all the power we need – His. We can stand firm because we have access to His power. We can have victory because His power has authority.

Father, help me to lean on your power and not mine. Help me to believe that your power is inexhaustible. Your strength never runs out. And Your strength comes with authority. You are sovereign and in control of any and every circumstance and situation that I encounter in my life. I shall not fear.  Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.“ – Vs 15-16 (NASB)

Be careful how you walk, how you live your life. Watch your step. Walk in love (Vs 2). Be imitators of God (Vs 1). Walk as children of the light (Vs 8).

Paul calls us to live our lives differently than those around us. We are not to blend in, but stand out. We’re not to look like the world around us. Paul says, “do not be partakers with them!” (Vs 7). Instead our lives should exhibit the “fruit of the Light” – consisting of goodness, righteousness, and truth. We are supposed to find out what pleases God and then do it (Vs 10). This is what a life lived in the Light looks like. But those who live in darkness, apart from God, live lives that are unfruitful, and we are supposed to expose them, not join them. We’re not even supposed to talk about the things they do. But in our society, we seem to get a perverse pleasure talking about the things “done in darkness.” We watch TV shows that glamorize the lifestyles of those who live in darkness. Reality TV has brought “entertainment” to an all-time low, giving us a glimpse into the lives of individuals whose lives are characterized by immorality, impurity, and greed (Vs 3). Filthiness, silly talk, and course jesting are common fare on the tube and in many of our lives today. We have forgotten how to blush. Instead of being ashamed and embarrassed by the “sons of disobedience,” we too often become partakers with them. We join in. We become like them and in doing so, we walk as unwise men and women. Our light diminishes. Instead of exposing the darkness around us, we become absorbed by it.

Paul is calling the community of Christ to shine, to let the Light that is within us to illuminate the darkness around us. Darkness is an absence of light. But because we carry the Light of life within us, we should be shining into the darkness with lives characterized by goodness, righteousness, and truth. Over in the first letter of John, we read, “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7). We are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we live our lives in the Light of God, just as Jesus did, we get to enjoy the fellowship of one another, and the constant forgiveness of our sins. Fellowship and forgiveness. Those are just two of the many benefits we enjoy when living in the Light.

So we are to be careful how we walk, how we live our lives. Our lives should be characterized by wisdom, not foolishness. Our speech should be characterized by thanksgiving, not obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking. We are to be filled with the Spirit. Why? Because the days are evil and we need to make the most of the time we have here on earth. We should want to make good use of the days God gives us here. We have an opportunity to make a difference. We have the solution to the world’s darkness right within us. It is the Light of Jesus Christ.

For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made us understand that this light is the brightness of the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. But this precious treasure––this light and power that now shine within us––is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.” – 2 Corinthians 4:6-7

We have the Light within us. But we need to let it out. So that everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.

Father, thank You for the Light of Your Son. He illuminated my darkness one day and I have never been the same. Thank You that I share that Light with others, and together, we have the privilege of allowing the light of Jesus Christ shine through our lives into the darkness all around us. I confess that my light is dim at times and I allow the darkness to overwhelm me. But I want to let the Light shine more brightly and I want to shine together with my brothers and sisters in Christ so that our presence could dispel the darkness, expose sin, and attract others to the glory of Jesus Christ. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.“ – Vs 11-12 (NASB)

I love this chapter. In it Paul paints a picture of the way in which the church, the body of Christ, was meant to function. He reveals to us God’s plan for using the body of Christ to bring about spiritual maturity in the people of God. The community of believers is key to the maturity of believers. We were not meant to grow in isolation. God placed every one of us in the context of a community of believers and called it the body of His Son. Jesus Himself is the head of this body – an interdependent organism where every member is critical to the health of the whole.

“…we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” (Vs 15-16)

We are to grow up – together. Because we are a body that has been fitted and held together. We are each to do our part – together. And when we do, the body grows – together. This is a team effort. It is only normal that we grow together and not individually. It would be abnormal if a child’s arm grew at twice the rate as the rest of his body. It would be considered an aberration. Yet we think it is perfectly normal for one Christian to grow more rapidly than another, with no apparent concern or feeling of obligation to contribute to the growth of anyone else. We have turned the Christian life into an individualized effort – isolating ourselves from the influence of others and ignoring any responsibility for the spiritual well-being of one another.

Yet, throughout this chapter, Paul stresses the corporate or community aspect of the body of Christ. He uses phrases like “one another,” “preserve the unity,” “one body,” “the unity of the faith,” “the whole body,” “the growth of the body,” and “we are members of one another.” Everything Paul talks about in this chapter has to do with the communal or relational aspect of our faith. We need each other. We were created to be dependent upon one another. In fact, Paul seems to indicate that independence and isolation are attributes of our former life. He tells the Ephesians not to live their lives the way the lost world lives (Vs 17). Their lives are characterized by confusion, with thinking that is devoid of truth or an understanding of what is right and appropriate. Their understanding is darkened. Their hearts are hardened. They are calloused. And they have given themselves over to sensuality. The NLT Bible translates verse 19 this way:

“They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.”

Their lives are characterized by immorality fueled by greediness. That word means “greedy desire to have more, covetousness, avarice.” They don’t care about others. They only care about themselves. Their greed and avarice drives them to satisfy their own selfish desires. But Paul says, “you did not learn Christ in this way” (Vs 20). That is not the way of Christ. We are to die to ourselves and make others our highest priority. We are to serve and not be served. We are to lay “aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another” (Vs 25). Don’t let anger, greed, covetousness, or potentially damaging words destroy the unity of the  body. Instead, Paul says to “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Vs 32).

We are members of one another. We need one another. We are to live for one another. We should have the attitude that we cannot exist without one another. God created us to live in unity and community – thriving and growing together in an interdependent, loving atmosphere where the grace of God is being lived out every single day.

Father, show us how to live together in unity. Open our eyes and let us see just how important the body is to You. Forgive me for trying to live the Christian life on my own. Forgive me for my self-centeredness and greediness. May we truly learn what it means to be one, just as You and Your Son are One. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.“ – Vs 16-19 (NLT)

Here is another one of Paul’s incredible prayers for the church. It gives us real insight into how Paul viewed the needs of the believers of his day, but it also reflects what we need as we attempt to live out our faith in this generation.

Paul’s prayer revolves around the love of God. First, he prays that the Holy Spirit would give us inner strength. The New American Standard Bible says, “to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.” The idea is that we would continue to grow in strength. The result of that increasing internal strength is an increasing dependence on Christ. As we grow in Spirit-empowered strength in our inner man, we live increasingly more by faith, allowing Christ to inhabit and influence our lives as we learn to trust Him. We also begin to discover the reality of God’s incredible love for us. It is measureless and incomprehensible. We can’t fully understand it or explain it, but we can experience it and live in it every day of our lives. And Paul is praying that we would experience it. Not just talk about it, but experience it. We tend to relegate the love of Christ to what He did at Calvary. But He continues to express His love to us every single day in a variety of ways. Paul is praying that we would begin to recognize that love in all the details of our lives. We would see it, recognize it, comprehend it, appreciate it, be grateful for it, and live in it. The result will be that we are filled up with the fullness of God. We will be filled with His love, His power, His presence, His peace, His joy, His wisdom, His Son.

But it all begins with love. A growing comprehension of just how much Jesus Christ loves us. He loved us enough to die for us, but He also loves us enough to live within us. The presence of His Holy Spirit is an expression of His love. The power the Holy Spirit provides is proof of His love. His Spirit helps us grow in our understanding and recognition of the countless ways Christ expresses His love to us each and every day. But we can’t see it because we are living in the flesh. Our inner man is controlled by sinful, selfish desires that lie to us and tell us that Christ can’t love us because He won’t let us have what we want. We begin to believe that it is the things of this world that give us joy, peace, and contentment. We turn to confuse the love of Christ with the love of pleasure. And we begin to trust in and turn to the creation instead of the Creator for our satisfaction. That’s why Paul prays that we would have inner strength to trust Christ and recognize His unmatchable love for us. We need to Holy Spirit’s power to say no to the flesh and yes to Jesus. We need His strength to help us trust Christ and not ourselves. As we do, we will begin to see just how much we are loved and we will begin to overflow with the things of God. Now isn’t that a prayer you’d love to see answered in your life?

Father, I want to be filled up with your fullness. I want to begin to understand just how much You love me. Give me the strength I need through the power of Your Holy Spirit so that I might stop giving in to my own sinful flesh and the lies of the world. Help me to trust Your Son more and more and to live in the reality of Your love. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of Gd’s household.” – Vs 19

Earlier in this chapter, Paul describes the believer’s condition prior to coming to Christ. He uses some pretty strong language: Separate. Excluded. Strangers. Having no hope. Without God in the world. Far off. He says we used to live “in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of our mind, and were by nature children of wrath” (Vs 3). We were “dead in our transgressions” (Vs 5). We “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air” (Vs 2). He uses some pretty bleak language, and for a reason. Because unless we understand the bad news, we will never fully understand or appreciate the Good News.

Sometimes it’s hard for us to embrace the truth about who we were without Christ. But the point is, because we were without Christ, we were without God. Paul refers to us as “children of wrath.” That’s a semitic idiom that means we were destined for wrath. One translation renders it this way: “…the punishment of God was waiting for us even as for the rest” (BBE). In other words, we were deserving of God’s judgment and wrath. Our Godless condition doomed us to a Godless eternity. And we could do nothing about it. No amount of good works, righteous efforts, rule-keeping, law-abiding, or self-effort could alter our standing before God.

But then something happened. God made us alive together with Christ! (Vs 5). Even when we were as good as dead, incapable of doing anything to save ourselves, God stepped in. Why? Because He was rich in mercy. He was literally abounding, overflowing in love toward us. Mercy is “kindness or good will towards the miserable and the
afflicted.” Mercy isn’t just some kind of sympathy that looks on in sadness at the state of another, but it takes action. It does something. And that’s exactly what happened. God did something about our condition. He “raised us up” and “seated us” in the “heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Vs 6). He saved us. And He did it out of His grace. Charles Ryrie defines grace this way:

“First, grace is unmerited favor. As a concise definition of grace, this serves well. More elaborate definitions have their place; but simply stated, grace is unmerited favor. It is undeserved on the part of the recipient. It is unearned and unearnable.”

God showed me unmerited favor or kindness. The important word here is unmerited. What God did for me was totally unearned and undeserved. Paul stresses this when he says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, is the gift of God” (Vs 8). Even our faith, our ability to believe, was a gift from God. Why is this so important? Because if not, we would have reason to boast. We could say we somehow earned or deserved what we received. And that would devalue the price that Jesus Christ paid on the cross. If we could have saved ourselves, there would have been no reason for Jesus to die on our behalf. Charles Ryrie continues his definition of grace:

“Second, grace is not cheap. Grace is expensive. It is free to the recipient but costly to the donor. The only way one may say that grace is not very costly is if the particular benefit costs the donor very little. But to use the word cheap in the same breath with the grace of God in salvation seems almost blasphemous. It cost our Lord Jesus His life. Some may insult grace, reject it, trample on it, or disgrace it, but that does not lower its infinite value.”

God has shown me grace! And it cost Him dearly. Because of His grace, I have been “brought near by the blood of Christ” (Vs 13). I am no longer an alien or a stranger, but a fellow citizen with the saints, and am of God’s household. Now that’s amazing grace!

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe!
You who are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive’

From the hymn, Grace Greater Than Our Sin, by Julia H. Johnston and Daniel B. Towner, 1910, 1938.

Father, than You for Your amazing grace. I don’t fully understand it. I will probably never fully comprehend it. But I stand in it. Thank You for not leaving it up to me. Because I would still be without hope and without You. But because of Your mercy and grace, I am Your child. Thank You. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

“I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.” – Vs 16-17

I love the prayers of Paul. He didn’t pray like I pray. He never seemed to pray for circumstantial change in the lives of those for whom he prayed. In other words, he didn’t pray that the contract would go through on that new house, or that Eutycus would get relief from his lower back pain, or that Aristarchus would get the raise he was hoping for. Now I’m sure Paul did pray for these kinds of things, but we don’t seem to have them recorded in any of his letters. His prayers were different. They have a certain intensity about them. They were deeply spiritual, yet highly practical. Paul seemed to pray “power prayers.” He went to the core issues. He didn’t waste time on circumstantial issues, but went right to the heart of the problem. Take a look at this prayer again:

“I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.”

He is asking God to give them spiritual wisdom and understanding so that their knowledge of Himself might increase. He wants them to grow in their knowledge and understanding of God. Why? Because the more we understand God, the more we understand His power, His love, His mercy, His grace, His plan, and the unbelievable privilege it is to be considered His child.

Paul explains in his prayer just how we might come to this knowledge and understanding. By having the eyes of our hearts enlightened (Vs 18). Deep inside, we need to have certain things clarified and brought to light. We need to know the hope of His calling. We need to understand the unshakable, future reality of our eternal salvation. It is real. It is the reason for which we have been called. We need to understand the riches of His inheritance. Here, Paul seems to be praying that we would understand that WE, as saints or set-apart ones, are the riches of His inheritance. It is the people of God who make up the inheritance of God. The kingdom of God is not a place, it is a people. We are His possession.

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” – 1 Peter 2:9 (NLT)

We are His. We are part of His incredibly vast, rich inheritance of saints through the ages. And we need to understand that. We are not alone. We are not individual saints, but are part of a massive kingdom, a holy nation, a people chosen by God Himself!

Finally, Paul prays that we would “begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him” (Vs 19). The more we come to know and understand God, the more we will comprehend just how powerful He is. His power raised Jesus from the dead. That same power is available to us as believers. Not to get what we want or to have God do our bidding. But that power is available to transform us into the likeness of His Son. That power is available to us so that we might live the life He has called us to live.

So how well do you know God today? I have to confess that my knowledge of God is probably far too academic. It is book knowledge. I know what the Bible says about God, but Paul is praying that I would know God – personally and experientially. There’s a big difference. So what if we prayed this way for one another? What if we prayed for spiritual wisdom and understanding so that we might each grow in our knowledge of God? It was pretty important to Paul. Maybe we should give it a try.

Father, I ask that you would help every one of us as your children to grow in our knowledge of You by increasing our spiritual wisdom and understanding. I know You can accomplish that through Your Word and Your indwelling Holy Spirit. Give us an increasing hunger for Your Word and a willingness to obey Your Spirit. So that our knowledge of You might increase daily. Open our eyes so that we will truly understand that Your inheritance is made up of all the saints, past, present, and future. Help us to see their value just like You do. Help us to comprehend the immensity of Your power that is available to us every day of our lives – and to live like we believe it. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org