Strengthened to Grasp

In this message from Ephesians 3:14-21, Pastor Jim walks through Paul’s breathtaking prayer that drives him to his knees. After unfolding the cosmic scope of God’s plan to unite all things in Christ and form one new people, Jim shows that the only way forward is through the Spirit’s power at work in our inner being. This passage centers on God’s love, our ongoing grasp of that love, and the glorious goal of being filled with the fullness of God. Jim unpacks what it means for Christ to dwell in our hearts, not as a fleeting feeling but as the deep center of our identity, shaping our affections, obedience, and communal life together. The love of Christ is wider, longer, higher, and deeper than we can comprehend, yet we are invited to press on and seize it daily. As we are strengthened by the Spirit and rooted in love, we become a living display of God’s glory in the church, a foretaste of the day when all things are united in Jesus.

Transcript

Lindsey: Our scripture for today comes from Ephesians 3:14-21. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with the power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Jim: God's word for God's people. So this... Prayer that Paul is offering here in Ephesians 3 is Huge. In what he is asking for, the scope of what he is talking about. He has spent, if you remember, he spent the first, well we would say chapters, which were really just paragraphs, sentences, that he was writing in a letter to his friends in Ephesus. He spends the first few sections of this letter telling them things about themselves and about God, about his rescue of them in Jesus Christ. In chapter 1, we honed in on how in 1.10, Paul is saying, "...someday all things on a cosmic level, all things are going to be summed up in Jesus. They're going to be brought together in unity under, in, and through Him." And he says, but part of what he's going to do and is doing is changing us as individuals. Changing us in our identity, Helping us believe new things, be new people, be the new creation brought forward into our temporal world now. He says, you know, you have been given a new inheritance, a new belief structure. You are now walking with God. You're seated with him. You have an entirely new life, a new heart, a new being has been made through what Jesus has done for you. 
And then he goes on to offer a prayer for them in the first part to say, man, I pray that you really get this. Remember, we talked about how he's saying, I know you're Christians, but there's more. And he's praying for them to receive more, to know more of God. 
And then in chapter two, he goes on to say, as much as things are going to be united together in Jesus someday. As for you were dead in your sins and transgressions. 
So he's like on a high, and he comes down to a low again and reminds them of who they used to be, who they were before Christ got a hold of them. He says, You being... Saved by him and brought out of this spiritual death. There's these powers behind the scenes that are working to bring about rebellion against God. You've been saved out of that, and you've been put together as one new humanity, one new family, one people, one children, spiritual children of Abraham, now one people of God to be a masterpiece. To be a God's poem, God's artwork on earth, meaning it's not just about us individually, it's about corporately who we are as the body of Christ. 
And then he goes on into chapter three to say that as we live this out and these spiritual dark forces are coming against us, we actually start to live out God's manifold wisdom. His multifaceted, multicolored, multi-socioeconomic status, like all of that. We start to live that out and put it on display for not just the world to see, but those powers start to see it as well. Angels lean in. Demonic forces are terrified because we, the people of God, are starting to live out that Jesus on earth as in heaven. And so we see that in 1.10, 2.10, 3.10, this whole image of being one people to God's glory, one temple, one body, one family, one spirit, one baptism. He goes on to say, he says, all of this unity, all of this new identity is to put on God, you know, put God on display for all to see. 
And then it's like he goes... And hits his knees and goes, holy cow, how are we going to do this? In the beginning of chapter three. It just, he drives him to his knees. 
You see back in the early church, when people would pray, they would pray standing facing Jerusalem. But here it just drives him in an intimate way, drives him to the ground to say, God, how are we going to do this? The only way is through you energizing it by your spirit. It drives him to his knees and he writes that passes that Lindsay just led. And I want to sort of work it through in reverse for you. I needed to like break this down in my own head and so I'm gonna just read what I wrote, all right? 
So you can understand what's happening in this passage. He ends up by saying what the goal is in verse 21. He's basically saying the goal is to glorify God in the church and in Christ Jesus everywhere for all time. He says, that's the goal. To glorify God. God. In the church and in Christ Jesus everywhere for all time. But to reach that goal, we must be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. Because we're not going to reach that goal of glorifying him unless we're filled with him to the fullness of who he is. But to be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. We must know the love that surpasses knowledge. To know a love that's unknowable almost. It's something beyond even knowledge. 
So to be filled, we have to know the love of God. To know this love that surpasses knowledge, we must grasp the wide, long, high, deep love of Christ. Be filled with God. To know the love is to know Christ, he's saying. To know his love and the extravagant lengths to which he would go for us. To grasp this wide, long, high, deep love of Christ must dwell in our hearts by faith. Is what he's saying. This is all this logical train that he has just prayed through. 
So to grasp this love of Christ must dwell in our hearts by faith. For Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith, we must be strengthened with power in our inner being by the Holy Spirit. This is where he starts. This is the starting point. To get all the way to that glory of God has to start with the Holy Spirit. Doing a work in our inner man, as the old language would say, in our inner being. 
And then we fuel said faith via our worship, our obedience, our rhythm of life, as we talk about here at Hope on a regular basis. So he's saying to get to the goal of glorifying Jesus, it starts with a move of the spirit in your hearts, in the inner being, in the inner person that so plants and roots and establishes Jesus there that we start to grasp his love, a love that's unknowable to the point that we get filled to the measure of the fullness of God. To the glory of God. And so it's all part of this just monstrous prayer that he is praying. And so... I had to boil it down this way as we're going to work through this passage today. I forget what last week was brought to you by the letter S maybe it was. Today's the letter G. All right. This is how that helps me remember this today. We're going to talk about God's love, our grasp, and the glorious gold. God's love, our grasp of it, and the glorious goal towards which we are moving. 
So I want to pray with you about this. So just bow your heads with me and pray one more time. Father, this is, again, this is your... Your scriptures. Paul wrote this to the Ephesian church, but it is for us today, these 2000 years later. You are calling us to this. He didn't just pray this for them. It was really a prayer for all Jesus followers. That we would know you so much, that we would grasp the love of Christ so much, that it would fill us with your fullness. Which is A bonkers prayer. And so, I pray for us this morning. And we pray it for you this morning. For you this morning, that you would do this for us. Holy Spirit, would you plant Christ in our hearts today? Whether we've been following Jesus for 40, 50, 60 years or a couple days? Or not at all yet. Would you plant Jesus in our hearts? In our inner being. And so motivate us to live in the fullness of God and for his glory. Pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, so let's talk about God's love. Let's read a couple of these verses again, 14 to 17. He says, And I pray that you being rooted and established in love. They have power together with all the saints. And so he's saying right from the get-go, whether you're picking up on this or not, that there is a Trinitarian action that's happening. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. I might slip into saying Holy Ghost. It's like in my background. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. One essence, Three persons that make up the Godhead, that make up God. He's saying, I'm praying to God that he would energize you by his spirit to plant my son there. Father, son, Holy Spirit, all at work towards rescuing humanity, towards changing the inner person, towards redeeming them and giving them a new identity. What we need to realize again in a fresh way, and this is my prayer for us today, that we would grasp that God is love. All of his attributes are filtered through the fact that he is love. John makes that clear again and again in his gospel and in his letters. God is love, and all of his attributes are informed by his love. And so Paul is praying that this God of love as the Father would do immeasurably more than we could even ask. That he would just blow them away with his love, with his change, with his transformation, with his rescue, with his redemption. And he's poking a little bit. At Caesar here. Saying he's the father from whom all families on earth derive their name. He's... He's saying he's over all things. There was this belief that Caesar was the father. The pater familia, like no, he's, and Paul's saying, no, it's God. And he loves you. And He is over all things. And you derive your name from Him. And He's praying to Him. And He says that the Spirit... Would move in you. Would change you. Friends, remember, he's talking to Christians. He's talking to people who are already walking with Jesus, who are in the church at Ephesus. And he's saying, I'm praying that the spirit. Would keep doing a work in you. Would keep solidifying who Jesus is in you. That out of his glorious riches, he will strengthen you with power. With power that he would change you dynamically from the inside out. Look at me. Look what Paul says in another place. This is in 1 Corinthians. Look what he says about the spirit, though. He says, but the spirit who is from God. Why? 
So that we may understand what God has freely given us. Do you hear what Paul's saying about the Holy Spirit? He's saying, I'm asking God to give you the Spirit. Why? 
So you can understand what he has freely given you. What has he freely given you? Himself. In Christ Jesus. He said, friends, the only way that we can grasp who God is to know who God is if he does a work first and foremost. We're not going to get there on our own. We are blind in our sin and stuck in our slavery to it, stuck in death. And he says, I'm praying that God will give you the spirit so that your eyes will continue to be opened with power to know who Christ is in you. And that you are in him, Father and Spirit at work to reveal Jesus. Why? 
So that the sun may dwell in your hearts. So that the Son may dwell in your hearts." He's using language here to say that He may dwell in you. You've been rooted, you've been established, the foundation has been built, that you are in Jesus, you are built on Jesus. He's inside of you, and I'm praying that the Spirit would give you a power to experience that, to feel that, to know that from the inside out. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all at work to do what? To make Christ dwell in our hearts. To root him there, to establish him there. Why? Because he's a God of love. Because we are lost without him, because we are broken without him, because we have no hope without him. We are far without him, he says earlier on in the letter. We need him. 
So Paul and other places in Romans 5:8, talking about God's love. He says, but God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And can I speak to you Christians in the room? While you are still a sinner, Christ has died for you. Past, present, future. All of our sins on the cross in that moment. While we were yet sinners, God displays his love. Or look what he says in 1 John. He speaks to this, you know, a couple of different ways. This is John's. Take on this. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. See what great love the Father has lavished on you, that you could be called children of God. And Paul's praying God, would you help them get it? Would you help them know this, the love of the Father, the power of the Spirit? How? To do what? To grasp Christ. To take hold of him, to know him in the inner man, in the inner woman, in the inner being. 
So he said, God is a God of love who is after you, who has pursued you. And I'm praying that you would, by his spirit, be empowered to grasp hold of Christ, to know him from the inside out, and that would completely change you. It's the only way that we are going to be the people of God that he's calling us to be. It's the only way that we're going to be the temple, to be that one new humanity, to be that body, to be the sign and the foretaste of what's to come someday. It's if Christ is rooted and established in our hearts and we're so full of his love. Fullness, full of his love, full of his characteristics. And it starts with the Spirit opening our eyes. Planting Jesus in us and then man that tree is planted full and it starts to grow. But it's an ongoing work. 
So God is love and it's a, It's an ongoing work that we need to grasp. We need to grow in our grasp. Look at verse 18. What he's saying about grasping. 
So that you may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. You may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide— I picture a stadium here filled up with water. Wide and long and deep and high is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge— that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Friends, this grasping is an ongoing heart level communal work. Motivated by the Spirit, energized by the Spirit. This is what he's praying for. But we have to know, if you read Paul, if you see other places, he's saying it's an ongoing heart-level communal work that we do together to grasp. Again, these people are already Christians. My guess is in a room like this on a Sunday morning, the majority of you, probably not everyone, but the majority of you are already Jesus followers. He's speaking this to you today. That there's an ongoing heart level communal work to grasp, to fully grasp. Buh. The high and wide and deep and long love of Christ. And I don't know about you, But over the last couple of years, this has been a journey for me. Because I don't think I understand it. I don't think I grasp it. I don't think. I know I don't. I know I don't. I go through my day thinking I'm all alone. It's all up to me. I got to remember how to do everything. I got to be in control of everything. And I forget that Christ loves me. Paul prays for me. I pray for you. We need to be on our knees praying for each other that we would grasp The high and deep and wide and long love of Jesus and really know what it means in our core, in our inner being. Lots of us We know facts about God. We know doctrine about God. We know theology about God, and that's good, and that's great, and we should. 1000% we should. But do we actually... No, God. Do we actually? Feel his presence? Do we know him and trust him in such a way that we know that he's a good father? That he is a God of love. We might know that doctrine. " What do we know it? I can know... I can know that my dad grew up on a farm in South Jersey until he was 12 years old. What do I actually know him? I can know that my dad was a Vietnam war vet or is a Vietnam War vet. But to actually know him. I could know what ring size my dad is, but do I know the feel of his hand? See the difference in what I'm talking about? That's what Paul's talking about here, that we really know the love of God in Christ Jesus. And we really grasp it, experience it, feel it. Believe it, be rooted in it, that it would dictate the daily existence of our lives. And so it's an ongoing work. It's a heart level work. It's a communal work. It's an ongoing work. He says through faith. Faith is something that We do, right? Faith is something we... Practice. On hopefully a daily minute-by-minute basis. He says, so that you will know. Knowing is something we do. 
So that you will grasp. Grasp is the one where it really starts to take hold. This is a Greek word, not that it matters, but it's a Greek word, Catalumbano, which means to like seize. To overtake, to take hold of in a strong way. And he's praying that we would seize it. That we would grab it. It's often used for ambush, meaning like something's passing by Grab it. He's saying, I'm praying that you will seize. The love of Christ for you. This is, friends, can I just tell you, this is the normal, ongoing, daily Christian experience. It's not something you do at once and then you're done. It's a daily reality, minute by minute, to wrestle this thing to the ground, to keep holding onto it. And of all people. Paul gives us an example of this. Okay. This is like an encouragement to me. I feel like such a deadbeat Christian sometimes. And like, here's Paul, like I'm still trying to take hold of it. Look what he says in Philippians 3. This is one of my favorite passages. He says, not that I have already obtained all this. He's admitting, right? Not that I've already obtained all of this thing or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Do you know what word is there? Catalumbano. That I would seize it. That I would take hold of it the way that he has seized me. That I would press on and take hold of him. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal. To win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Do you hear him? I'm trying to grasp. I'm trying to take hold of. I'm pressing on towards a goal that I haven't yet reached. There's always more of God to discover, friends. There's always more of God to know. You can know all the doctrine. You can know all the details. But he's saying there's more to know him in his fullness. "Which is beyond knowing," he says. 
Yeah. Just keep pressing on. Keep trying to seize it. Keep trying to take hold of it. Energized by the Holy Spirit, not earning it. Trying to grasp it. Trying to understand it, trying to know Him more, and not just details, not just doctrine. It's an ongoing work. It's a heart level work. Now, He's saying that Christ would be in your hearts, in your inner being. Two different words that get used there: heart, inner being. We think of the heart too sentimentally. We just came out of Valentine's Day, cards, flowers, mush, like it's, we think of the heart as like this, just like deep feeling thing, right? Not how it is in the Judeo-Christian world. I want to read something for you. Now, I sent this all to you. I can see that a few people opened it because I use MailChimp. 
So I will now read it for you as well. But I sent it to you really so you can read it at home as well, because Tim Keller, he's too deep of a thinker. All right. But I wanted you to hear what he says about the heart. He really grasps what's happening here. The heart is used as a metaphor for the seat of our most basic orientation, our deepest commitments, what we trust the most. It is what we most love and hope in, what we most treasure. What captures our imagination, Every heart has an inclination, something it is directed towards. The direction of the heart then controls everything. Our thinking, feeling and decisions and actions What we most love, we find reasonable, desirable, and doable. Whatever we cherish in our hearts most controls the whole person. No wonder Jesus is so concerned about our hearts. No wonder God ignores, you know, outward matters and looks supremely at the heart. He's saying, He says you can't change merely by changing your thinking. Or through great acts of will. But rather by changing what you love most. Change happens not only by giving your mind new truths, though it does involve that, but by feeding the imagination new beauties so you love Jesus supremely. We change when we change what we worship the most. How do we do that? By seeing that Jesus' own heart was crushed and broken as he died on the cross for us. It is as we worship a crucified Savior that our hearts are transformed. What he's trying to point out is that when Paul is saying, I'm praying that God by his spirit would so implant Jesus in your heart. He's not just talking about a feeling. He's talking about like the center of your will, the center of your being, that inner person, your soul, spirit, body, will, thoughts, emotions, feelings, loves, affections, all of it. He's saying that all of it, that Jesus would be rooted there. And friends, can I just tell you, the Spirit starts that work, the Spirit motivates that work, the Spirit continues that work, and yet we are the other side of the coin. We are part of it. We can lean into other affections. We can turn our attention to other things that then motivate our heart in different directions, that move us in other ways. He's saying, hey, we're all part of this journey. The Spirit is doing something, and yet we are taking part in it, an ongoing work of the heart by faith to know beyond knowing, to grasp, to take hold of faith. Not just emotions, but centering our entire being on Him, on Christ and His love. And I don't know a better way to do that than to regularly As weird as this is, psychology would probably tell us not to do this, But to think about our unloveliness compared to his loveliness. We're actually honest with ourselves about the despicable people that we are in our hearts and minds. That we are lusters, we are cursors, we are angry people. We're jealous people. We're envious people. We're abusive people. We're selfish people. We're greedy people. Look at that for a minute. And the look at the goodness of Jesus on the cross for us. 
So it starts to click for us to realize, man, that's how incredible he is. That's how loving He is. That's how amazing He is towards us. Keller uses an analogy. To say it's like a soda machine. He says, "You put money into the-- well, You probably don't anymore. You just use credit cards or your tap to pay. But anyway, go with me. Remember, I was born in the 1900s. 
So soda machines back when they were 50 cents, or whatever. Put in your money. Press the button. I'm a Pepsi fan. Click. Doesn't come out. What do you do? Hit it. Picket. Hit that thing. Until eventually it drops, right? What Keller points out again and again is that we have lots of thoughts about God. We have doctrine. We've got all these things that we study. He's saying, keep after it. Keep studying it. Keep thinking about it. Keep focusing on Jesus and you're putting it in your head and you're pounding it until it goes and drops into your heart. Until it drops into the center of your being. You get it? 
So there is a work, there's an ongoing heart level work that we do by believing new things, thinking new things, studying the scriptures, pounding these things into our head, praying Lord Jesus by your spirit, drop this thing into the center of my being so that it changes my affections. So that it moves me towards focusing on him, staying true to him. And so it comes through our prayer process. And through our practices. When we do this, it becomes this experiential knowledge, this relationship with God, a deep knowing. And... We need to avoid a dichotomy. Okay. There's a dichotomy often in the Christian church that says it's either to know God, is either an all a spiritual experience or a head knowledge experience. And Paul says, no. It's one. Thanks. Church often teaches, you just got to pray, you got to pray, and it'll just fix itself and you'll just feel it someday and you'll get zapped, maybe. Maybe. And there's the other side that says, the move of the spirit, that's for the past. That doesn't happen anymore. You just got to know the right morals. You just got to study the right scriptures. You just got to memorize the right thing. Then you'll feel it. Then you'll know it. And what Paul is saying is, no. It is motivated by the Spirit, started by the Spirit, energized by the Spirit, maintained by the Spirit, and us. Our working with him to pound it into our heads again and again, how wonderful he is, how loving he is until it drops into our hearts. 
And then that. That warmth, that heat, that light. That revelation starts to be a reality in your daily existence. Involves Our efforts combined with the energizing of the Holy Spirit And friends, It means a rhythm of life. I don't know how else to say it. It means practicing this stuff on a regular basis, going after Jesus day by day. That involves other people, involves corporate worship, it involves prayer, scripture, You know, fasting, times of silence and solitude, bringing in the finances under the reign of Jesus, hobbies, friends, all that stuff, constantly trying to point it towards the Lord, finding out what He's doing, allowing Him to speak the gospel into our lives. And so. How are you energized by the Spirit? Driving this gospel into your head again and again until it drops into your heart. 
Like Keller talks about. And As I said, it's a communal work, friends. The other dichotomy to avoid is thinking that it's all about you. That your spiritual experience is you feel good. Paul would say, what? Ew. This is for what? The glory of God. It's for the glory of God, that your delights would change, that your affections would change. Why? 
So you can worship God and bring him glory to the ends of the earth. It's not just so you can sit somewhere in your house and feel like, man, that's amazing what the spirit just did. As fantastic as it is, he says it's so that you can bring glory to God as a communal one body, one family, one church, one temple. It's not just about you. It's about us in him. And so... To that end. It's for a glorious goal. God's love, our grasp of it is for a glorious goal. He says that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Think about what he's saying. I'm asking, I'm praying. That the spirit would energize you, that Christ would be so rooted in your heart, that you would so understand the love of God. That's like beyond knowing that you would be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. You would be filled with to the fullness of God. Picture Niagara Falls for a second. Can you go there? Picture it. Hear it. Stand under it with a Dixie cup. Try to catch it. Paul's saying, that's what I'm praying for you. The fullness of God. Would fill you Friends, I don't think we have the foggiest idea what that means. I don't think we've, It scratched the surface. What that means And I don't just mean us as individuals. We immediately go to the individual experience of that. As true as it might be. But I mean the communal experience of that. A people filled with the fullness of God? His, all of his characteristics, All of his love. Is peace. Is justice All of it? His warmth, his heat, his creative brilliance Power. All of it. We have not even scratched the surface of this, not 1% of this. And Paul's saying, yeah, you need a spirit. 
So I'm on my knees begging for this for you. That you'd be so filled with Jesus that you'd be filled with the fullness of God, increasing in his character, increasing in communication with him, oneness with one another, experiencing his presence. Guys. When God would travel with the Israelites through the desert in the wilderness, it was a cloud of fire and smoke that would settle over the tabernacle. What was the tabernacle? His presence dwelling there. And that has since gone away and been replaced by his Holy Spirit that's in us. The cloud, the fire is in us. We're giving ourselves to that. Are we asking for that? Are we so loading that into our heads and into our minds that we're allowing it to drop deep into our hearts that it's so moves us in the way we live and the way we work and the way we play and the way that we love in the way that we are one with one another. Fullness of God happens individually and communally, friends. When the fullness of God starts to, when you start to taste that and experience that and know that in your life, you become this new creation person that you look and act different in your life. You can't help it. You're walking with God in a new way and a profound freedom, joy. That experience, that knowledge of that love that's unknowable is only to make us delight in him more. It's not just so we can feel good, but it's made so that we can know him more. That we can turn our affections towards Him more. And live out the true humanity that we've been made to be. He doesn't give us this experience and we don't know him in such a deep way. He's not filling us and making us feel better about ourselves and freeing us from sin and deaths so that He loves me so I can. It's not a permissiveness. He loves me, so I can do whatever I want now. No, it's not that. It's not he loves me so I have to. He loves me, so now I have to obey all these rules. No, that's legalism. Doesn't work. Doesn't get to the root of the problem. It's not permissiveness, it's not legalism, He loves me so I can get to. He loves me so I get to be new humanity. That's where life is found, friends. Being so filled, so energized by the spirit that we grasp who Christ is, that we start to get some inkling of the measure of the fullness of God filling our lives so that we can be new humanity. Individually and corporately. Living out the manifold wisdom of God. 
That's why he ends with So that God will be glorified. Listen to the things that he puts on par with each other. 
So that God will be glorified in Christ Jesus and in the church. Christ Jesus Is the church, right, on earth? For his body? He's saying, I'm praying that you would live this out in such a way that God would be glorified in the church as he is in Christ Jesus. Throughout all generations, forever and ever, summing all things up in Jesus. That will happen someday. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess when all things are unified in Jesus. And he's saying, but you get to taste that now. The church is supposed to be a microcosm of that now, living this out to the glory of God. 
So filled with him by his spirit and his love, by planting Jesus there, rooted and established there, that you start to live this out now so that people can see and experience it. And so as we move forward into the rest of this book, It's like a switch gets flipped. He moves from these first three chapters of talking about who we are in Christ, who we are in Christ, how we're called to be one. 
And then you get to chapter four and he basically says, Now. Because of that live like this You get to live like this now. Walk worthy of the calling that you have received, he says. And so as we get into chapter four, five, and six in the coming weeks, we're going to start to see the practical outworking of this. What it means for us to actually be one body in our homes as husbands and wives, as parents and children. He talks about slaves and masters, like what it means to be in a world where it's like unequal, right? In our standings, like we're talking about all of that, the reality of that. Then he closes the book talking about what it means to put on spiritual armor. To deal with those dark forces that are opposed to this kind of fullness of life. 
So I pray that you will continue reading this along with me and thinking about these things as we move ahead. Let's pray.