Strength in the Inner Being
Ephesians 3: 17-21
The letter of Paul to the
Ephesians is written in the prison (3:1).
Paul is obviously suffering. Yet, he
has words of hope for the
Paul is on his knees praying.
Praying in difficulties: some quit, others (as we read in the letter from
Let me tell you about Igor Stravinsky. He died in 1971. He
was a Russian composer, who later became French, and even later an American
citizen. He was a good friend of Debussy’s.
He had wonderful compositions. Stravinsky
was one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century. But he wrote extremely
difficult compositions; almost impossible to play.
One time he composed a
difficult interlude for violin. The explanation
was:
“Of course,” Stravinsky said,
“I don’t want the sound of someone playing the passage. I want the sound of
someone trying to play it.”1
God has a special call to all
of us for our inner being. When there are so many trials, sufferings, wars and
destruction, we do not see “success” or
“effectiveness.” Remember, Paul
was beaten many times; he was in prison when he wrote this letter.
Paul is not giving up from his prayer life. He prayed to the Father. He is continuing to pray
that his people may be strengthened in
the inner man.
2. What do we understand by the inner man?
I read in Barclay’s
commentary an interesting observation:
He describes the inner man
with three dimentions:
a- There is a man’s REASON. He is praying to Jesus that he will strength his friends’ reason so they can discern
between what is right and what is wrong.
When I look to the world and
to the leaders of the world, I wonder what did happen to REASON?
b- There is the CONSCIENCE. Our conscience should be
more sensitive towards God. We can close the door of our conscience. That is
very dangerous. We do not hear each other or God. The door is closed.
c- There is the WILL. We can have reason, and
conscience, but we do not have the will to implement, to execute what we know.
If we do not have strong will, we can collapse every time a new problem arises.
Paul wants the Ephesians to
have a strong inner being in Christ- strengthening the reason, the conscience,
and the will.
Jesus takes permanent
residence in us if we allow him. It is not by force. People work hard in the
The secret is to try to allow
the presence of Christ to be dwelling in us permanently.
3. Paul prays that the Ephesian Christians may be able
to grasp the meaning of how wide and long and high and deep is the love of
Christ. (18).
God’s love is so big and so
wide that can include everyone in. North to South, East to West. All are
invited to experience the Love of Christ. When we experience love of Christ our
inner being is put to test everyday. Love of Christ energizes our inner man to continue to live in this fallen world of
hate and destruction.
The love of Christ, that
surpasses knowledge, can help us live with hope when there is pain and
suffering. When we are rooted in the love of Christ, we can have a new day
today and tomorrow. This will help to strengthen the inner man.
Let me finish with a story about
how important the strength of inner man is.
I enjoy learning about
submarines. They make them with strong steel walls so that when they dive in
the ocean they will not collapse from the extreme pressure of the water.
I look at creation of God and
I wonder. Small fish can swim in the depths of the ocean. They are not built by
heavy steel. How do they survive from crash from the pressure?
The secret is in their own pressure. The fish have an inner pressure equal to
the outside pressure. This helps them survive.
Brothers
and sisters. We all are facing outside
pressures daily. How can we survive? Pills? Vacation? Changing jobs?
Paul knew the secret:
Strengthening the inner being by Jesus Christ.
Ask Him to Dwell in YOU.
1 Homileticsonline.com