“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, 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.

“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 3:14-21 ESV)

Belief in Jesus Christ is not for the sole purpose of being forgiven all our sins so that when we die we get to go to heaven, even though that is how some people are teaching “the gospel.” And it isn’t just so that we deny self, die to sin daily, and walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands, and not in sin, although it certainly entails all of that. But when we believe in Jesus we enter into a covenant of marriage with our Lord which is a binding covenant that must be fulfilled by both the husband (Christ) and his bride (us).

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

But it isn’t just all of that, either. For when we are believing in Jesus Christ with God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in him, we also become members of the family of God, and we enter into relationship with his church, his bride, and we are now members of his church, his body, with our fellow Christians now becoming our brothers and sisters. And we are now family. And as members of the same family we are to look out for one another, and to care about each other, and do for each other according to God’s word.

And the apostle Paul sets an example for us in what this is supposed to look like. Now he often was not physically present with those to whom he was ministering, for a lot of the time he was in prison for preaching the gospel. And they didn’t have telephones and celphones and smartphones back in his day, nor did they have texting and emails and social media, and such, as we do. So a lot of his communications with the body of Christ were via writing letters to them, which were probably not delivered overnight, either.

So, for one example here, we do not have to be physically present with the body of believers in Christ Jesus in order to minister to the body of Christ in the manner in which the Scriptures teach that we ought to do. For the body of Christ, the church, is all one body, the universal body of Christ, which is comprised of all who are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ throughout the world. And with the invention of the internet and social media and smartphones and such, we are able to communicate with people all over the world in many different nations and to people of multiple languages.

And Paul’s writings did eventually get to the people of the world of many different nations and languages and cultures via missionaries going to these nations, but also now via the internet and social media and smartphones and the like. But we must be careful with these various devices, for they also contain a whole world of evil within them, too. So we must be very guarded when we use such devices so that we do not fall prey to the enemy and fall back into sin and thus desert the Lord and his calling upon our lives.

But Paul cared about the believers in Christ in various locations, and so when he could not be with them in person, he wrote them letters to encourage them, and to exhort them, and sometimes to scold them or to warn them and to caution them against falling prey to deception. And that is the purpose of the writings that the Lord Jesus gives to me, too. But this is something we all should be doing, not necessarily in writing, although the internet right now is still open to us sharing the gospel, but not forever.

And Paul was concerned for the spiritual welfare of the believers in Christ, and so he was concerned that they be strengthened with power via the Holy Spirit in their walks of faith and in obedience to the Lord. For we are all human beings, and we still live in flesh bodies, and we will grow weak and tired, and we can become vulnerable to the temptations of Satan to desert our Lord and his calling on our lives and to go the way of the flesh and of the world so that the world will like us and not reject us.

For faith in Jesus Christ is not a feeling or a profession or a religion, but it is our practice. For the word faith, with regard to the Christian faith, means to be persuaded of God. And what God persuades us to do in his word is that we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience to his commands. He persuades us first of all of his holiness and righteousness and of our sinfulness and of our need to repent of our sins and to surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and to now follow him in walks of obedience to his commands.

For the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge is not just about Jesus dying on a cross to save us from our sins so that we can go to heaven when we die. It is about Jesus giving his life up for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our lives of living in sin and for self, so that we will now serve and honor the Lord Jesus with our lives in walks of obedience to his commands and in holy living, and in daily denying self and dying to sin. For Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

So, make certain that you are daily denying self and dying to sin, by the Spirit, and that you are walking in the ways of the Lord in holy living, by his grace, and in his power, and that you are no longer giving way to sinful rebellion but that you are now living righteously. And then be those who minister to one another within the body of Christ in the ways in which God’s word teaches us that we, as the body of Christ, are to minister God’s love and grace to one another, according to his will and purpose for our lives.

[Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

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