Ephesians 3:17

that Christ may dwell 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.

" Christ" :lit. "the Christ," as so often in this Epistle (Ephesians 1:10; Ephesians 1:12; Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:5; Ephesians 2:13; Ephesians 3:4; Ephesians 3:8; Ephesians 3:11; Ephesians 4:7; Ephesians 4:12-13; Ephesians 4:20; Ephesians 5:2; Ephesians 5:5; Ephesians 5:14; Ephesians 5:23; Ephesians 5:25; Ephesians 6:5; 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.

" dwell" :the Gr. verb indicates permanent abode. It is akin to the noun, Ephesians 2:22; where see note. See it used 2 Peter 3:13, of the eternal presence of Righteousness in the New Universe. It marks a residence quite different from transient or casual lodgment.

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," "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.

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"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.

in your hearts 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 (2 Corinthians 13:5), in the sense of the disciple's covenant and vital union with Him (1 Corinthians 6:15; 1 Corinthians 6:17). 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" in Scripture is the "seat" of all these: see e.g.Genesis 20:5; Deuteronomy 4:39; Isaiah 6:10; Mark 11:23; Luke 21:14; Acts 11:23; Rom 5:5; 1 Corinthians 2:9; Jas 1:26; 1 John 3:20. See on Ephesians 1:18. "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).

by faith That is, trustful acceptance; holy and humble reliance upon Divine promises, such promises as those of John 14:21; John 14:23; Revelation 3:20. 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, but faith, 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.

Lit., "through thefaith": i.e., perhaps, "by means of yourfaith," faith as exercised by you; but the article must not be pressedin translation, where an abstract principle is the noun. "The faith" in the sense of the Christian creedis manifestly not in place here, where the context is full of the idea of the actions of grace in the soul.

that ye Here appears the holy purposeof the experience just described. The Indwelling is to be specially in order tothe attitude and the knowledge now to follow.

being rooted and grounded in love "In love" 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 Ephesians 1:4 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 basisof his saintship? For observe it is the saints themselves, not this or that inthem (" yebeing rooted, &c."), that the Love in question thus sustains and feeds.

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."

" rooted and grounded" :perfect participles. The second, lit. founded, recurs to the imagery of the Temple and its basis; ch. 2. The first, giving a metaphor much rarer with St Paul (Colossians 2:7 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. Psalms 1:3; Psalms 92:12-13; Jeremiah 17:8), and as constituent stones of the great Temple which rests ultimately on the same Love. Colossians 2:7, just quoted, gives the same collocation of ideas, but with differences. The participle there rendered "built up" is present; "being buildedupon." And "in Him" takes the place of "in love." This latter difference is no discrepancy; "the love of God is in Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 8:39).

Such, as to root and basis, isthe true saint's position. It is not created, but realized, when the experience of Ephesians 3:17 takes place in him. And the following clauses dilate on the spiritual use which he is to make of it.