The Simple Christian Life

Introduction

Simple — plain and uncomplicated in form, nature, or design.

Uncomplicated. I imagine all of us would like some of that wouldn’t we? We would like to un-complicate our life. Perhaps we could take it a step further and say we would like to un-complicate our faith.

Sometimes we make things simple into a very complicated mess. Man does that with the way in which we are meant to find relationship with God. We have created religion after religion and way after way in which to work, earn and claw our way to salvation.

Every religious system in the world does that you know. Every single one outside of Christianity is about you and what you can do to earn a place in paradise after this life.

But Christianity is different. Our faith is all about Christ and what He did for us. He did it all and we enjoy the fruits of His labor.

But after we come to faith in Christ we often complicate matters. We again make it about works. Everything tends to become a matter of what we do or don’t do both morally and ministerially.

But Paul tells us in our passage that life in Christ is really pretty simple: strengthened with God’s power in our inner being through His Spirit, have faith, know the love of God and be filled with the fullness of Him.

To make it even more simplistic: Trust God to fill you with Himself and teach you how much you are loved.

Our faith is all about knowing God and experiencing His love. That pretty much sums it up. Nothing really very complicated here.

Do you know God or do you know about God? Have you ever thought about the difference? Our faith is about knowing God and experiencing Him. This experience is one of love.

Strength — Dwell — Comprehend

Strengthened with Power in our inner being — This is God’s power…”Power” comes from the Greek word “dunamis.” It means the potential to exert force in performing some function.

We need God’s force to come to bear upon our inner being in order to change us. We cannot change ourselves. Unless God changes us we will always remain the person we have always been.

A lot of folks need to believe this. We cannot change who we are…only God can do that. We need an outside force to come upon us in order to be made different.

So Paul starts right here…He prays God will come to bear upon them in their inner man…the place of our mind, will and emotions so that we might become someone different.

Christ may dwell by faith — “Dwell” means to “live, dwell, to reside.” Paul is telling us that we can experience Christ living in our hearts by faith only as the result of the strengthening of our inner man.

God’s power at work in us enables us to have faith in the first place and that faith is what allows us to realize His presence and work in our life. It enables us to have fellowship with Him.

This is an important point really…So many are attempting to achieve something that only comes to us by faith.

Faith, remember, is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. If Christ is to ever be real in your life…if you are ever going to experience God, it will happen a a result of faith...the faith He has put in your heart by the working of His strength on your behalf. It is not something we can do for ourselves.

Comprehend — To understand, realize, grasp, comprehend.

Paul desires that the resulting change in our inner man and the experience of Christ in our life, will lead to a new understanding and realization of God’s infinite love.

We do this with the saints…it isn’t something we do in isolation from others. God created us for community with one another in Him.

That’s it…there you have what it means to be a Christian. God takes the initiative…seeks us, strengthens us, places faith in our heart and saves us, roots us in love and leads us to understand more and more how much we are loved as we live out His love in community with the people of God.

This love compels us to be more and more like the one we love. It compels us to tell others of the love we are loved with as well. God and His love changes everything.