WEEK TWO
Day Five
DAILY SCRIPTURE
Ephesians 3:17-19
LEADER GUIDE QUESTIONS
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Know: Read Ephesians 3:13-21
Note: Read slowly, carefully marking keywords- continue to mark the words from previous lessons—Mark keywords with a different color or with a symbol to differentiate them.
Continue to mark keywords: In Him, In Christ, grace, faith. Continue to add to your “In Him list.”
Glory
Spirit
Inner Man
Power
Fullness of God
Love
Observation: Study notes below for context. Journal your thoughts or questions.
What: What is an area in your life that has been a constant battle?
“13 Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.” Ephesians 3:13
The best doctrine comes from a life of Prayer. The heart of Ephesians is Paul’s prayer for the church. He wanted the church to awaken to the same spiritual reality that he had. We get a sense that Paul’s life revolved around prayer, which is the secret to the love and power he walked in.
Paul was a forerunner for the Church. The fact that he was in prison and would later die a martyr’s death is proof that what he was preaching was advancing the kingdom. The powers of darkness that once ruled over the world had been disarmed and were beginning to experience the first waves of occupation through the early church believers. When Christians are a threat to the enemy, there will always be retaliation, which is what Paul experienced repeatedly.
Paul prayed that the church would awaken to the riches of His glory so that they would walk in strength and power. Power is the Greek word “dynamis” which is where we get the word dynamite. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16). The power of God is the good news of the gospel. The ability to live a life of “power” is found in believing and receiving the love of God. The gospel is the power for our complete salvation (sozo); wholeness, provision, healing, deliverance and redemption.
For the first-century Christians, persecution was a guarantee. The advancement of the Gospel did not come without bloodshed. For those coming into the faith, the victory of the Cross had to be worth dying for. How does one leave their family and beliefs at the risk of losing their lives? The gospel had to produce something greater than physical blessings. The spiritual reality that they were loved by God, at peace with Him, and forgiven produced a confidence that nothing on this earth could shake them from.
“14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man. 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:14-21
Paul prayed that the church may know the love of Christ. (Not the love for Christ). He prayed that they might comprehend its length, depth, breadth, and height so that they might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Paul is saying that God will give us exceedingly, abundantly; above all, we can ask or think if we know the love of Jesus for us. Once we know and believe the love He has for us, all we have to do is think greater and bigger, and he will surpass it.
But what about leaving behind the world for the sake of the Gospel? 1 John 2:15 says, “ Do not love the world or the things in the world.”
What is the love of the world, and what makes us love it?
“Worldly” means the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. What causes us to love the world? John tells us, “If anyone loves the world, the love of God is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)
John tells us that people love the world because they don’t know the love of God. If we continue falling back into patterns of sin, we indulge the lust of our flesh and eyes and live out of pride; it is because we either don’t know how much God loves us or we have forgotten it. We fill our lives with the things the world offers because we believe our lack is greater than God’s supply.
Can we keep ourselves in the love of God with all of the temptations and hardships of the world? Have you ever tried to overcome a crippling addiction? Have you ever tried to love someone unloveable? Have you ever attempted to keep your tongue from gossip and failed?
You were struggling to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Trying really hard does not work. You will fail over and over.
John 15:4-5 says, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
The word abide is “meno” in Greek and means “to remain as one, not to become another or different.”
“He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17). You are the “temple of the Holy Spirit.” This means that when your spirit came alive in Christ, it came alive with Christ, joined to Him.
Fruit is a natural by-product of a fruit tree produced when a branch is connected to it. Fruit does not concentrate on trying to produce; it simply comes out of the connection. When we grow in the knowledge of Jesus, when we behold Him and live from love from Him, love will flow from us. We become what we behold.
Becoming aware of the spiritual reality that we have become righteous through the blood of Jesus, we will supernaturally bear the fruit of the spirit because the Spirit already dwells in us with all the fruit needed to love, live free from the power of sin and all the other ways we worked out of our strength. When we rely on our flesh, we find an exhausting battle of trying on our own strength to overcome our past, relying on our strength to have self-discipline, trying to be kind to rude people, relying on our street smarts or medication to keep our mind from anxiety.
Instead, as you discover how to rest in Him, that you are joined to Him, there will be an outflow of the new inward reality. The love of the Father keeps us in peace, not loving the world but loving all of the people of the world with His love.
This is what it means to be rooted and grounded in love. Love flows from love.