Filled With All the Fulness of God

"...so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:19 NRSV)

It becomes us not to dogmatize with confidence, but to speak with modesty on a theme so high and difficult. We would suggest that the petition is that ye may be so filled with the Holy Spirit and with all his gifts and graces, as God is filled. This is expressed in a mandatory form by Christ (Matt. 5:48), "Be ye also perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." 

Something more than initial Christian life is here prayed for by Paul in behalf of the church in Ephesus. The new birth begins with the love of God in the heart, shed abroad by the Holy Spirit. But such a heart is narrow and needs enlargement; it has remaining defilements which need cleansing. So there are steps and intervals between spiritual infancy and manhood. The crowning act of this process of development is here denoted by the being filled with all the fullness of God. Elsewhere it is expressed by the prayer, "The God of peace himself sanctified you wholly." — 1 Thess. 5:23, (R. V.) Both the filling and the sanctifying are in grammatical forms which imply singleness of action, however long the preparation may have been.

— Half-Hours with St. Paul and Other Bible Readings Chapter 4.

The Power to Comprehend

"I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth...." (Ephesians 3:18 NRSV)

"In order that ye may be fully able [Alford] to apprehend [R. V.] with all saints." The tense of the verb "apprehend," Ellicott suggests, implies the singleness of the act, as if through the instantaneous perfecting of love, there comes a sudden revelation of God to the soul, in the face of his adorable Son revealed by the Holy Spirit.

This is the highest and most precious knowledge, for the excellency of which Paul counts all things to be loss, prefacing his declaration with a "yea, verily," as if he thought he had made a splendid bargain. This knowledge, which is so personal that Paul seems in the words, "My Lord," to be its exclusive possessor, he now desires only as the common property of "all saints," because he has found out that Christ can give himself entire and undivided to every perfect believer. Blessed paradox! I do not wonder that an old saint in Wales declared that "Jesus Christ was a Welshman, because he always speaks Welsh to me."

Christ Dwelling in the Heart

"...and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith...." (Ephesians 3: 17 NRSV)

It is instructive to note that Christ dwells only in the vital center of our being, not in the tongue, which would produce only a mouth religion, not in the hand, which would make a lifeless routine of works, but in the heart, which rules the tongue, the hands, and the feet, making them the instruments of a glad and willing service. He never takes up his abode in the brain alone; but it is his purpose, after taking possession of the heart, to extend his conquest to the head. To reverse this order would reduce Christianity to a theory instead of a joyful experience. Alas, too many have proved the truth of this declaration. A Christ flitting through the intellect now and then, gives no such repose of soul as the Christ who becomes a permanent resident of the heart, year after year, and decade after decade. The beauty of this is that he who carries him through life will have his presence in death. A good lady in a love-feast once said, "I mean to carry heaven with me through life, then I shall be sure of it at the end of my journey."

The door through which Christ comes in and takes up his abode in the heart is faith. Faith widens the soul so that more and more can be grasped. It has been said that "more depends upon taking in faith than upon giving and doing in love. For the more we take of the fullness of God, the more we can live." Faith is the inner man's vision, his reason, and his light. Such faith is possible when the heart is purified of sin. Then the eye is purged of film. The pure in heart see God. Only they have a spiritual perception which makes him real.

— Half-Hours with St. Paul and Other Bible Readings Chapter 4.

"What Shall I Do, Lord?"

Paul's first recorded prayer, Acts 22:10, "What shall I do, Lord?" is the keynote of his whole Christian life-activity and not a selfish quietism. It indicates that he did not have that conception of the new birth in which the sinner is passive or rather, passive in fulfilling its conditions. That form of piety in which the Christian devotes himself exclusively to coddling himself, to constant morbid introspections of frames and feelings, will not be found in the writings of St. Paul. We are not so much inclined to this error as were many medieval Christians, who were taught that a soul which desires supreme good must remove, not only all sensual pleasures, but also all material things, silence every impulse of its mind and will, and be concentrated and absorbed in God; and that the monastery was most favorable for this result. Self-surrender to God is requisite to the stature of the fullness of Christ; but it must always be accompanied by perfect self-sacrifice for the salvation of our fellow-men. Love must be made perfect in both its Godward and manward aspects. It is a good omen when people are converted with the idea that salvation means vigorous, ceaseless work for others, and joining the church is enlisting in an army in front of an appalling rebellion.

— Half-Hours with St. Paul and Other Bible Readings Chapter 3.

Five Thousand Converts?

QUESTION: Explain Acts 4:4, "And the number of the men was about 5,000."

ANSWER: The Am. Revision has, "came to be about 5,000." This has been understood as the sum total of adult male believers up to that date, for the Greek word for men excludes women and children. The 20th Century version reads thus: "The number of men alone mounted up to some five thousand." But there are very eminent scholars  who  say that there was on that day a fresh accession of 5,000 men exclusively. This view is held by such as Chrysostom, Jerome, and. Augustine. The Greek verb, "came to be," instead of "was," seems to be against this interpretation.

—  Steele's Answers p. 140, 141.

Church Fairs and Auctions

QUESTION: Is it right to support the church of Christ by fairs, entertainments and auction sales?

ANSWER: No. It is derogatory to the Gospel by making the impression on the world that it is not of itself alone worth supporting. The lack of money requisite to the maintenance of Christian worship arises from three causes: (1) Little or no love of Christ. (2) Pride prompting the building of edifices too costly for the people to pay for and to maintain. (3) Selfishness requiring the entire services of a preacher and unwilling to be part of a circuit as in olden times in America and as in England now. (4) Often questionable devices are used in fairs to get money. The Scotch preacher intimates this in his pulpit notice: "We very much need more 'siller' (silver) and have tried hard to get it honestly and have failed; so we have decided to hold a fair."

— Steele's Answers p. 140.

Should People Be Compelled to Do Right?

QUESTION: Is  it in accord with a sanctified life to compel people in a public place to do right, when they are not willing to do right otherwise?

ANSWER: True virtue must be free; it cannot be compelled. But decent behavior in a public meeting may be righteously required by calling on the police in the last resort, and both the preacher and the police who collars the disturber may be entirely sanctified.

— Steele's Answers p. 139, 140.