Month: April 2015

Permanent Peace.

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Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. – 2 Thessalonians 3:16 ESV

We could all use a little peace. We live in the midst of turmoil. Our lives are inundated with all kinds of demands and surrounded with a thousand different distractions. Technology, designed to make our lives easier, has actually ended up being little more than a huge distraction and time-waster. Phone messages, emails, texts and Facebook requests constantly interrupt our days. Our calendars are jammed. Our schedules are crammed. And our peace disappears under the pressure of it all. And that doesn’t even include all that is going on around us in the world. The news is rarely good. The media provides nothing but a steady diet of stories that leave us either restless, dissatisfied, and fearful about the future. And we long for peace. Which is exactly what Paul prayed for – the peace of God – the Lord of peace. What we all need is peace and the kind of peace that only God can provide. This world can’t provide us with peace. The things of this world are incapable of bringing a sense of peace. Like everything else associated with the Christian life, peace must come from God.

Paul was a student of the Old Testament Scriptures and he was highly familiar with the Pentateuch. So he was well aware of what it says is Deuteronomy 6:26: “May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.” God’s favor carries the idea of Him looking on His people favorably. Rather than looking away in anger at their sins, He looks on them with mercy, grace and love. And that should bring us peace, a sense of calm, tranquility, contentment and joy – even in the midst of all that is going on around us. The God of the universe, the creator of all things, loves us. When everything is falling apart around us, we can know that God loves us, because He sent His Son to die for us. He cares for us. He has His best in store for us. And that sense of His love, care, and compassion should bring us peace. But the peace Paul prayed for was more than just personal or individual peace. He also longed for peace between brothers and sisters in Christ. The Greek word is eirēnē, and it can mean, “peace between individuals, i.e. harmony, concord.” When we get under stress and find ourselves in turmoil, it is easy to get crossways with one another. We can begin to point fingers, pass blame, grow distrustful, resentful and angry with one another. But God’s desire is that we live together in unity. In fact, Jesus Himself prayed for that very thing on the night He would be betrayed: “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us” (John 17:21 ESV). Oneness, unity, peace – the state of corporate harmony experienced by God’s people as they learn to rely upon Him. The Psalmist reminds us, “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!” (Psalm 133:1 NLT).

 Peace. It’s what we all need. But it seems so illusive and impossible to find. But we tend to look in the wrong places. We seek it from the wrong sources. We must never forget that when sin entered into the world, God’s peace, His shalom, was shattered. The garden, once a place of uninterrupted communion with God, became marred by the rebelliousness of Adam and Eve. Their desire to be like God brought a disruption to the tranquility of their environment and permanently damaged their relationship with God. Peace was quickly replaced with chaos. Joy was replaced with sorrow. Intimacy with God was replaced by enmity with God. But the prophet Isaiah prophesied that when the Messiah came, all of this would change. “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5 ESV). Long before Jesus appeared on the scene, Isaiah predicted His sacrificial death on the cross and the amazing reality of restored peace with God made available to us through His death and resurrection. Paul tells us, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1 ESV). We are at peace with God. He looks on us favorably and lovingly. All because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. But we need to be constantly reminded of our new status with Him. We are no longer enemies of God. We are no longer alienated from Him because of our sin. We are His children and He loves us. And that very fact should bring us peace – even in the midst of the storms of life. Paul reminds us, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT).

Never Forget.

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May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. – 2 Thessalonians 3:6 ESV

Living life on this planet can be difficult at times. As followers of Christ, it can be especially so, because we have been called to live lives worthy of God in the midst of a culture that is diametrically opposed to us. It can be easy to lose our focus, grow impatient, feel scared, or become angry. Paul knew that. That is why he prayed this short little prayer on behalf of the believers in Thessalonica. For the most part, they were former pagans who had come to know Christ and were now struggling with everything from persecution to the influence of false teaching. Paul referred to these false teachers as “perverse and evil people” (2 Thessalonians 3:2 NET). The believers to whom Paul wrote and for whom he prayed were struggling with trying to love the Christian life while constantly having to deal with the attacks of the enemy and the daily reality of their own sin natures. So what was Paul’s prayer for them? That God would direct their hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Notice that he does not pray that God would remove them from their difficulties. He doesn’t ask God to remove the false teachers or stop the persecution. His request of God isn’t that He give them joy. No, he asks God to direct their hearts. He wants God to gently, kindly guide their hearts into a better understanding of just how much they are loved by God. Not only that, Paul’s request includes that they fully comprehend the degree to which Jesus suffered in order that they might have a right relationship with God. The writer of Hebrews emphasizes the suffering of Jesus and our need to fully comprehend what He endured in order that we might have eternal life – “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin” ( Hebrews 12:1-4 NLT). Those two things – the love of God and the endurance of Christ – should provide us with the motivation we need to keep on keeping on. But our natural tendency will be to take them both for granted. It is so easy for us to forget just how amazing it is that God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die in our place. And that He expressed that love “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 ESV). When we deserved the worst, He gave us His best. And we also tend to overlook the incredible reality that Jesus willingly and humbly took on human flesh, lived life as a man, was tortured and hung on a cross, and died so that we might be restored to a right relationship with God the Father. Paul puts it this way: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8 ESV).

When we find ourselves suffering and struggling in this life, we need to be reminded of the love of God as expressed in the suffering and death of His Son. God’s love for us is directly tied to the gift of His Son for us. God sent His Son because He loved us. Jesus came and died because He loved us. Jesus was willing to suffer humiliation, persecution, rejection, false accusations, and a death He didn’t deserve – all out of love for us. With all that that in mind, Peter tells us, “In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation” (1 Peter 5:10 NLT). We need to keep life in perspective. Along with Paul, we need to constantly remember that “what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later” (Romans 8:18 NLT). We are loved by God. He gave us His greatest gift – His own Son – as proof of that love. And His Son suffered in ways that we will never be able to comprehend, as proof of His love for us. We must never lose sight of those two realities. But because Paul knew that the tendency of all believers would be to do just that, he prayed that God would guide their hearts back to those two incredible truths: the love of God and the faithful, loving endurance of Jesus. I can’t think of a better way to wrap this up than with the words of Paul found in his letter to the believers in Rome.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:31-39 ESV

Glory According to Grace.

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To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. – 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 ESV

Paul was a brilliant man. He was well-verses in the Scriptures and highly knowledgeable. But at the core, his theology was quite simple. It all centered on God. God was at the center of Paul’s life and the central focus of his teachings. He knew that nothing was possible apart from God. Salvation was unachievable. Sanctification was impossible. A right relationship with God was unattainable. He knew from first-hand experience that it was God who had pursued and captured him. He had been living his life in a well-intentioned, but misinformed attempt to earn favor with God. “I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin–a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault” (Philippians 3:5-6 NLT). But he had been miraculously transformed from a self-righteous, self-focused spiritual over-achiever into a selfless servant of God, and it was all the work of God.

So when Paul prayed for others, he never lost sight of the fact that anything good that needed to happen was going to have to happen because of God. Only God could make them worthy of His calling. He had saved them and He was going to have to be the one to sanctify and progressively transform them into the likeness of His Son. Our best efforts on our best day will never measure up to God’s standard for righteousness – which is His own sinless Son. Which is why Paul prayed that God would make them worthy. He knew that it was God who would have to empower them to live their lives in keeping with their status as His children. It was also God who would make it possible to change their resolve to live godly lives into reality. It was the power of God that would give intentionality possibility. He alone can fulfill every work of faith by His power. And Paul never forgot that all of this was due to the unbelievable, inexhaustible grace of God. God would do all of this, not because anyone deserved it, but for His own glory. When God accomplishes something in our lives, He gets the recognition and glory. When we attempt to do it, or take credit for it, we rob Him of glory. As children of God, we live in order that God might be glorified through our lives as we live in dependence upon Him. Our continuing transformation into Christlikeness points to Him. It is the result of His power and grace. Our good deeds, when done by His power and according to His grace, point people to Him. He gets the glory. Paul’s prayer was “that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him.” That is an amazing thought. When we live dependently upon God, the name of Jesus is glorified in us and through us. Everything He died to accomplish is made evident and proved true in our lives. We become living proof that He was exactly who He claimed to be: The Savior of the world and the Son of God. Our new lives prove that His sacrificial death was more than sufficient to redeem hopeless men and women from condemnation and captivity to sin and death. But here is the other amazing thing Paul realized: We are also glorified in Him. When God works in us, according to His grace and power, we are glorified in Christ. Our lives lived according to God’s power bring glory to Christ. But we are also glorified in Christ. Paul describes it this way: “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord–who is the Spirit–makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT). We are gradually being transformed into the likeness of Jesus Himself – from one degree of glory to another. And God gets the glory.

The Christian life is not about self-effort. It is about dying to self and living for Christ. It is about abiding in Christ and trusting in God for all that you need. It is about reliance on His power, not our own. It is about submission to His will, instead of our own. It is about seeking His glory, rather than our own. And when we do, we get the extra-added benefit of being transformed into the glorious image of Christ – a process that will find its ultimate fulfillment and completion when we go to be with Him. “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2 NLT). All because of God.
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Our Faithful God.

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Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. – 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 ESV

In this prayer, Paul cuts straight to the chase. He asks that God would do what only He can do: To sanctify them completely. In other words, that God would complete His work of making them holy and conformed to the image of His Son. Paul spoke of this same confidence in his letter to the believers in Philippi: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6 ESV). Paul’s desire was that God continue His sanctification process in their lives. At because he knew and believed his God to be faithful, he was confidence that his prayer would be answered. Our sanctification, just like our salvation, is a work of God. He must do it. We cannot make ourselves more holy or Christ-like. Any attempt on our part of behavior modification will always fall short. We must always recognize and rest in the fact that our transformation is a divine activity in which we play a role, but one that is totally dependent upon God. Earlier in his same letter to the Philippian believers, Paul encouraged them to “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear” (Philippians 2:12 NLT). Their primary effort would be focused on obedience and reverence for God. Our job, as believers, is to listen to what God has to say, and then to do it. We must revere Him and respond obediently to Him as our God and Father. And we are never to forget that our pursuit of holiness is a Spirit-empowered endeavor. Peter puts it this way: “So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, ‘You must be holy because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:14-16 ESV). Don’t miss what Peter says, “you must live as God’s obedient children.” We must develop a habit of listening to our heavenly Father, because we know He loves us and knows what is best for us. Obedience comes with trust. But trust is built from learning to obey. When God reveals His will for us and we obey it, we learn the invaluable lesson of faithful dependence upon Him. No matter how much we may disagree with what He may be asking us to do, we do it faithfully. And that act is an integral part of the process of our sanctification.

It is interesting that Paul’s prayer includes the request that God would keep them blameless in spirit, soul and body. In other words, that they would be completely, wholly holy. Paul speaks of a holistic holiness that touches every part of their being – inside and out. A kind of holiness that would impact the way they live both internally and externally. Paul’s not looking for mere external conformance, but desires to see true heart change accompanied by real lifestyle change. But again, Paul wants us to remember that without God’s help, none of this is possible. For Paul, nothing could be more ridiculous than for a believer to attempt to sanctify themselves. Listen to what he wrote to the Galatian church: “How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” (Galatians 3:3 NLT). Great question, and one we should be asking one another on a regular basis. The sad fact is, we all regularly attempt to make ourselves holy. We try to work out our salvation, but we leave out the part about “deep reverence and fear.” We forget that we need His help and so we end up trying to achieve holiness in our own strength. And it always leaves us worn out and wondering what it is that we are doing wrong or not doing enough. But our God is faithful. He who save us also sanctifies us.

Now, here’s the catch. God may not transform us in quite the way we expect or desire. He may choose to use difficulties and disappointments. He may allow heartache and loss to enter into the equation. At times, He may allow brokenness in order to eliminate pride and self-sufficiency. When all is said and done, God will have been at work. He will have had His way and seen that His will was done. You can rest in that fact. He will surely do it. So why wouldn’t we pray this same prayer for our loved ones, our friends, and fellow believers? His desire for us is our sanctification. Should our desire for one another be any different?

Love = Holiness.

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Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. – 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 ESV

Paul had an obsession with love. He prayed for it constantly. It seems that in virtually every one of his prayers, he requested that God would increase the love of those for whom he prayed. For Paul, love was synonymous with being a Christian, because the kind of love he was referring to was not of this world. It was from above. Along with the apostle John, he could say, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7 ESV). There is an earthly kind of love and then there is godly love. God’s love is sacrificial and selfless, while the love of this world is selfish and self-centered. God’s brand of love gives. The love of this world gives to get. God’s love doesn’t show favoritism. The love of this world is based on convenience and reserved for those who are lovely or deemed loveable. So when Paul prayed that the love of the believers in Thessalonica would increase and abound, he was praying for something supernatural. That’s why he prayed, “may the Lord make you increase and abound.” It would have to be a work of God. We are incapable manufacturing the kind of love God requires. When Jesus commanded His disciples, “love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12 ESV), He knew that they would find it an impossible command to keep – without help. Which is why He sent the Holy Spirit. It is only with the Spirit’s divine assistance that they would find the strength and motivation to love like Jesus loved. And when the Holy Spirit descended upon them that day in Jerusalem, it was a game-changer. They were transformed from timid, self-centered disciples who lived with a what’s-in-it-for-me mentality, into selfless, sacrificial servants of God who had a lay-it-all-on-the-line attitude concerning love and life. They would willingly and eagerly take the message of God’s love, as expressed through the gift of His Son, to the world. They would spend their lives spreading the good news about Jesus to anyone and everyone who would listen. But they would also grow in their love for one another.

And that was Paul’s prayer for all believers – that they increase and abound in Christ-like love for each other. And that should be our prayer today. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35 ESV). It is our love that sets us apart or makes us holy. It is our capacity to love like Jesus loved that marks us as His followers. The kind of love Paul has in mind is a jaw-dropping, eye-popping love that is inexplicable and impossible to replicate. It comes from God. The apostle John wrote, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8 ESV). Obviously, everyone loves. But not in the way that God demands. And if our brand of love is not the love of God, then we don’t really know God. I find it interesting that the disciples once asked of Jesus, “Teach us to pray.” But you never read of the asking Jesus to teach them to love. Why? Because I believe that, in their minds, prayer was a ticket to getting things from God. Like many of us, they viewed prayer as a kind of resource that would allow them to tap into God’s power and put them on the receiving end of His blessings. But they had no desire to learn to love. Partly because they probably thought they already knew how. But also because love, even on a purely human level, requires giving. Love in its very essence is an act of giving. You give yourself away. And you don’t always get something in return. To love and not be loved in return can hurt. To have your love refused can be devastating. But that is the very kind of love Jesus and Paul were talking about. The love of God. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV).

But what’s goal of this kind of love? Well, God’s love results in eternal life. He gave His Son so that those who believe in Him might receive forgiveness of sin and salvation from condemnation and death. God’s kind of love produces holiness. Which is why Paul prayed, “so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness.” As we love as God loves, it transforms us. It changes us from the inside out. We learn to become less self-obsessed and more selfless. We discover the joy of giving without the nagging need to get something in return. We experience the life-transforming joy of loving another person for the sole purpose of seeing them come to know the love of God. Again, the apostle John puts this thought in very simple terms: “No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” (1 John 4:12 NLT). God’s love is made complete, it comes full circle, when it flows from Him to us and on to others. God’s love was not intended to stop at us, backing up within us like a stagnant pool. It was intended to be shared and to flow from us like a life-giving stream, refreshing all those to whom it touches. So our prayer should be that our love increase and abound. We should desire to see God produce in us a love that is beyond measure and imagination.

Beyond Imagination.

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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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. – Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV

Ephesians 3:14-21

Sometimes our prayers lack faith. We ask, but we don’t really believe anything is going to happen. We talk, but we don’t expect to hear anything in return. We share, but it feels as if our words disappear into a black hole. But would have us remember that the effectiveness of our prayers are based on the faithfulness of our God, not us. He closes out his prayer for the Ephesian believers with a benediction that focuses on the unfathomable faithfulness and power of our God. He is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” God is not limited by the limitations of our prayers. The very same power that is at work within us is quite capable of exceeding our expectations and answering our requests, even when we fail to make them. Paul knows that we have divine assistance. We have the Holy Spirit within us. “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words” (Romans 8:26 NLT). And the Holy Spirit provides us with something we don’t have on our own – an intimate awareness of the mind and heart of God. “No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:11 NLT). So the Spirit prays on our behalf. He knows the will of God perfectly. He understands the heart of God intimately. So He prays for us. And the answers are “infinitely more than we might ask or think” (New Living Translation).

And when God answers even our unspoken prayers, He gets the glory. His power gets revealed through our lives and the body of Christ, His church. God is at work in the lives of and the circumstances surrounding His people. He is accomplishing things we have not even asked to happen. He is performing miracles we didn’t even think to request. And on those occasions when we do make requests, the answers come, but often in ways we didn’t expect. Rather than giving us what we asked for, He provided what we really needed. We asked for happiness, but He gave us an opportunity to increase in holiness. We asked for comfort, but He provided a perfect environment in which to learn contentment. We asked for healing, but He chose to provide us with a chance to learn to experience His grace even in the midst of weakness.

In one of his other prayers, recorded in the book of Colossians, Paul requested that God would, “give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9 NLT). The end result of this knowledge of God’s will would be that they would grow to know God better and better. When we grow in our knowledge of God, we are able to pray more effectively and in keeping with His will. We will desire what He desires. We will request those things which He longs to give. But in the meantime, in those moments when we don’t know what to pray for, or make requests for things we don’t really need, God answers anyway. His Spirit prays on our behalf and God answers, lovingly and faithfully. All for His glory and our good. “That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.’ But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us” (1 Corinthians 2:9-12 NLT). The Spirit is our helper. He is our advocate. He intercedes on our behalf, making requests to God that reflect the heart of God. He knows God’s deep secrets. He has an insider’s understanding of God’s plan and always prays in accordance with it.

So does all this mean that there is no need for us to pray? Are we to just leave that up to the Holy Spirit? The obvious answer is, “No!” We have been commanded to pray. “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done” (Philippians 4:6 NLT). “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV). We are to pray expectantly and constantly. We are to ask of God because it expresses our dependence upon Him. But Paul would have us remember that even when we are unfaithful to pray, God is answering. He doesn’t stop giving just because we stopped asking. And He gives in ways that are beyond our wildest imaginations. He has our best in mind. Our holiness is His highest priority. Our transformation into the likeness of His Son is His ultimate objective. But let us never forget that prayer is really less about us than it is about God. We should long to see His glory revealed. We should desire to His power displayed. We should pray that His will be done and His Kingdom come – in our lives and on this earth. Because He knows best.

Power to Know.

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…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. – Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV

Ephesians 3:14-21

Paul’s prayer for the believers in Ephesus was for inner strength, provided by God through His Spirit, so that they would know what it means to have Christ dwell or take up residence within their hearts. Paul was praying that they would have a complete awareness of Christ’s transformative presence within them. These were believers that Paul was praying for, but he knew that they could easily miss out on the full reality of their relationship with Christ. So he asked God to give them the power to recognize and realize just how remarkable a gift they had received when they placed their faith in Christ. And he emphasized that faith was the key. It was the key when they first believed and it would be the key to their ongoing relationship with Christ. Paul knew their faith would be tested. His own imprisonment had already had an adverse affect on them. They had become scared. Doubts and questions had crept into their hearts and minds. And Paul knew that they were going to need God to give them strength to endure. Not only that, God would have to empower them to understand the fulness of what they had received in Christ. He referred to them being “rooted and ground in love” – the love of God. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV). “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9 ESV). God expressed His remarkable love for mankind by sending His own Son to die on man’s behalf. And the believers to whom Paul wrote had personally experienced that love. That love had taken root and provide them with a firm foundation that nothing could ever shake. Paul believed that with all his heart and wrote the believers in Rome so that they might comprehend the truth of the unshakeable reality of God’s love. “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?” (Romans 8:35 NLT). “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39 NLT).

But Paul wanted the Ephesian believers to know beyond a shadow of a doubt the “breadth and length and height and depth” of that love. He wanted them to experience the full scope of God’s love as revealed through Christ – “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” Paul knew that, on this earth, we will never fully comprehend the magnitude of the love of Christ, because it is beyond our human capacity. But with God’s help, we can grow in our appreciation for and understanding of His love. We can experience, albeit incompletely, what it means to “be filled with all the fulness of God.” God has given us His Spirit. He has made available to us His indwelling power. But we fail to experience the fulness of that power because of sin, stubbornness, self-centeredness, and our constantly faltering faith. It is like having a car with a powerful engine and a full tank of gas, but we never turn on the ignition. The power is there, but we fail to make use of it. Which is why Paul prayed for power from God to provide the strength necessary to turn the key and feel the full force of God’s indwelling presence in our lives. Far too often we wallow in mediocrity and weakness when we could be experiencing the transforming power of God. The full love of God is unknowable and incomprehensible – without God’s help. We will never fully appreciate just what He has done for us without the Spirit’s assistance. God’s love for us has no limits, but we are limited in our ability to understand it. That’s why we need God’s help. What a great reminder to each of us to pray constantly for one another for God’s divine assistance. We can’t fully appreciate all that we have been given in Christ without God’s help. We are like children who have received a massive inheritance, but lack the mental capacity to comprehend the incredible nature of the wealth at our disposal. We end up settling for so much less. We have the love of God available to us and we would rather play around with the weak and worthless affections of this world. C.S. Lewis put it well when he wrote, “It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory).

Inner Strength.

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For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being… – Ephesians 3:14-16 ESV

Ephesians 3:14-21

Paul was a praying man. He prayed constantly for the people over whom God had placed him as a shepherd, and his prayers reveal not only his heart of love, but his understanding of God’s will. Paul opened his letter to the Ephesians with a prayer and, here in chapter three, he shares the content of yet another one of his prayers for them. Paul wrote this letter from prison and he told them that he did not want them “to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory” (Ephesians 3:13 ESV). Then he wrote, “For this reason I bow my knees before God.” Paul’s prayer was motivated by his desire that they not lose heart. He didn’t want his imprisonment to leave them scared, in doubt, or lacking in faith. He no doubt knew that they would find his imprisonment for sharing the gospel more than a bit intimidating. It would have been easy for them to question whether they would be next. In Paul’s day, being a Christian could be dangerous, especially for Gentile converts living in a pagan context. Persecution was a constant reality. So Paul told them what he was praying for them. He wanted them to know of his concern but, more than that, he wanted them to know what the solution was. He made it clear that his prayer on their behalf was directed the the Father. He was going directly to the source. Paul uses a word play in the Greek. He says that he bowed before the Father (patera) from whom every family (patria) is named. He is the Father of the fathers of all the families on earth. He is the creator of all mankind, so ultimately He is the Father of all. Without Him, no one would exist. Paul is reminding his readers of God’s deity and dominion over all things. Paul was taking their needs to the God of the universe.

And what was it that Paul was asking God for? Strength. His pray was “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” Paul was asking God to provide them with power – not an outward display of His power, but an inner strength provided by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul was praying his prayer from prison. He was not asking God to break open the bars and release him. He was not asking God to show a power of force and deliver the Ephesian believers from any and all persecution. He was praying for inner strength. Paul knew what it meant to have that kind of strength. In his letter to the Philippians, he wrote, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13 ESV). Paul had experienced an up and down life, filled with tremendous joys and extreme heartache. He had been beaten, shipwrecked, stoned and left for dead, imprisoned repeatedly, threatened, chased out of town, and ridiculed relentlessly. Yet he was able to say, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Paul knew that the key to their survival was power provided by God – life-transforming, boldness-producing power that would come from the inside out.

What many of us lack as believers is endurance. We give up far too easily. When faced with difficulties, trials or trouble of any kind, we immediately begin to figure out how to get ourselves out of the situation in which we find ourselves. We even pray that God would deliver us from the difficulty. But it may be that God wants to use the very circumstances from which we seek deliverance to make us stronger. I could be that God wants to reveal His power within us while the trouble looms all around us. He wants us to learn that inner strength, when provided by Him, always prevails over external circumstances. Paul wrote the majority of his letters from prison. He remained steadfast and faithful even when faced with some of the most difficult situations. He did not let external conditions distract or defeat him, because he found strength from Holy Spirit. So he prayed that God would do the same thing for the believers in Ephesus. And that should be our prayer for one another today: God-provided, Holy Spirit-produced inner strength. The strength to face any and all circumstances with faith, joy, patience, contentment, and an overwhelming sense of God’s faithful presence. A change in our circumstances won’t make us stronger, but a change in perspective will. We must know that our God is in charge, all-powerful, and deeply in love with us, regardless of what our surroundings or situation may seem to say. We need His strength to patiently wait for His will to be done. We need His power to transform our inner man and give us strength to stand strong in the midst of the storms of life.

Pure and Blameless.

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And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. – Philippians 1:9-11 ESV

It was Paul’s prayer that those to whom he wrote would increase in love, but in a love that would be accompanied by knowledge and discernment. It was his desire that their love would be truth-based and God-directed. He knew that the kind of love God required was different than that found in the world. God’s brand of love produces a life that is pure and blameless. That doesn’t mean that we can live sinless, perfect lives on this earth, but as we learn to love as God loves, it produces an increasing degree of Christ-likeness in our lives. The love of God is selfless and sincere, not selfish and hypocritical. In his great “love chapter,” Paul describes God’s love in these terms: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT). That is the kind of love that Paul prays will abound or increase more and more. It is that kind of love that will allow us to stand before Christ some day pure and blameless. And Paul reminds us that this kind of love is the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. He must produce this kind of love within us. We can’t fake it or self-manufacture it. Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 NLT). Love is a byproduct of righteousness. Righteousness is a gift provided to us by Jesus Christ. Isaiah reminds us that, “When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NLT).

We must never forget that our righteousness comes from Christ. In the same way, our ability to love comes from Christ. We cannot love with the kind of love He did apart from Him. Jesus commanded us to “love one another: just as I have loved you” (John 13:34 ESV). The apostle John writes, “let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7 ESV). So we are to love on God’s terms. We are to love with God’s love. That is the kind of love Paul prays will increase more and more in the lives of believers. And when we love like that, God gets all the praise, glory and honor. Why? Because, apart from Him, we couldn’t pull it off. Jesus made it very clear. “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 ESV). Bearing fruit – the fruit of righteousness – is what it is all about. And that fruit includes love – the kind of love that was modeled by God, comes through Christ, is made possible by the indwelling Holy Spirit and produces a pure and blameless life.

The reason Paul prayed for this to happen was because He knew that it was not going to be the norm for any believers. Our sin natures are constantly seeking to get us to love by our own standard, not God’s. We are prone to selfishness and self-centeredness. We seek our own way. We love only if we get love in return. We operate with a what’s-in-it-for-me mentality. So Paul prayed that our love would increase. But he wanted it to be God’s kind of love. For that to happen, he knew that God would have to produce it. That requires a knowledge of God and a willing reliance upon the Holy Spirit’s direction in our lives. To love what God loves, we must know Him well enough to understand where His heart lies. We must have knowledge and discernment to know the difference between our loves and His. As we grow to know Him better, we will end up loving what He loves. We will love like He loves. His love is always focused on righteousness and redemption. He loves in order to bring about change and transformation. His love has a purpose. It is always for our good and His glory. We must learn to love that way. It is His love, perfect in us and flowing through us, that will make a real difference in this world, and result in our lives being pure and blameless when we stand before Him some day.

Love, Knowledge and Discernment.

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And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. – Philippians 1:9-11 ESV

It was Paul’s desire that the love of the believers in Philippi would grow more and more. He knew how important love was in the life of the believer. He fully understood that, because God has loved us, we are obligated to love others. God is love, and as His children, we are to express His nature. But Paul also qualified His request for increasing love by requesting that it be accompanied by knowledge and discernment. He was not asking for a sentimental sort of love, but a well-reasoned and Christ-like love founded on an understanding of the truth of God. Our love is not to be without discrimination or discernment. The psalmist writes, “You who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Psalm 97:10 NLT). Paul himself wrote to the believers in Rome, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” (Romans 12:9 ESV). In his prayer for the Philippian believers Paul gives his reason for requesting love accompanied by knowledge and discernment – “so that you may approve what is excellent.” The NET Bible translates that phrase as “so that you can decide what is best.” Our love, as it grows, if accompanied by knowledge and discernment, will help us establish right priorities and enable us to focus on what really matters. The problem today is that love has become non-discerning and indiscriminate. We love without thought or priority. We love food, cars,  entertainment, pleasure and people all equally and without considering what it is that God loves. What does His heart beat fast for?

There are things in life that we are NOT to love. God hates pride. So should we. God hates injustice. So should we. But there are also things that are not immoral or unethical, that we have made priorities or “loves” in our lives, that have taken the place of God. We love convenience more than God or others. We love our own comfort more than we love God or others. We love acceptance, the praise of men, the things of this world, our own agendas, and a host of other things more than we love God or others. But Paul prays that our love will be marked by knowledge of the truth and a Spirit-provided discernment that will allow us to see what really matters. True love can be costly. God showed His love for mankind by sending His own Son to die. It cost Him dearly. God knew what needed to be done and He did it. His love was driven by what was best. Jesus’ love for us was also driven by what was best – what His Father wanted. We are to love, but always on God’s terms. Sometimes, our brand of love can do more harm than good. In our day and age, we have confused tolerance with love. We are told to love everybody. But what we are really being told to do is approve of what everyone is doing. Our love is to be all-accepting and non-discriminatory. We are not to judge. We are not free to disapprove. But the Word of God would have us love – within reason and with truth as our standard. In the Proverbs we read, “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV). God will not overlook sin. He can’t. So neither should we. That does not mean that we should refrain from showing grace. But at no point are we to show love without discernment. Sometimes the greatest form of love is that which points out the sin in another person’s life. If sin separates us from God, then letting someone know that what they are doing is putting a barrier between them and God is the most loving thing you could do for them. Telling them you love them while knowing that their behavior is an affront to God is anything but loving.

What if we prayed this prayer for one another today? Can you imagine what it might be like if each of us, as believers, were more knowledgeable and discerning in our love? What would it be like if we truly learned to love as God loves? Peter tells us, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8 ESV). But notice that he says, love covers a multitude of sins, not accepts or ignores them. Yes, we need to love more. But we need love that is based on knowledge and discernment. We need love that approves of and agrees with what is best – God’s best. How did God love us? While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God loved us at our worst, but He was not wiling to leave us that way. The apostle John reminds us, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 ESV). “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5 ESV). God’s love was based on redeeming us and renewing us into the likeness of His Son. He didn’t love us by leaving us just like we were. He loved us so that He might justify and sanctify us. And we are to love in that very same way.