Tag: dwell

Romans 8:9 – Are You Sealed?

Posted on by Will

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Truth to Learn

If you are saved, you are sealed and your life should show it.

 

Behind the Words

“Dwells” is translated from the Greek verb oikeō, which means “to reside, to dwell, or to remain in a house.”

 

Meaning Explained

In verse eight Paul summarized the preceding three verses by stating, “those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” We mentioned in that verse that the expression, “those who are in the flesh,” refers to unregenerate people, that is, those who are unsaved; they are not Christians. Part of the reason for this conclusion is what Paul says in the current verse.

“But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.” This is a contrasting statement to the previous one indicating that those who are in the flesh cannot also be in the spirit. You are either one or the other. But how do we know who is in the flesh and who is in the spirit? Paul explains this in the next phrase. He says, “But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Paul explains this in Ephesians 1:13,14  where he says,

in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Those who are saved are sealed with the Holy Spirit and He is our guarantee. This guarantee is a token given as a promise that a transaction will be completed. If for some reason the transaction is not completed, the guarantee is retained by the recipient. Hence, if God were not to grant us our inheritance at the end of the age as He promised, then He would have to leave the Holy Spirit (our guarantee) with us, thus causing light to be united with darkness, which He tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:14 cannot happen. Hence, once we are saved and have the Holy Spirit, we cannot lose that salvation! It is guaranteed!

What Paul tells us in today’s verse is that the one who has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him (or her) is not in the flesh; he (or she) is in the Spirit. Now, just to make sure he is understood, Paul then says, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” In other words, if you don’t have the guarantee, you are not saved and do not belong to Christ.

Those who aren’t saved don’t have the Spirit of God and, therefore, are in the flesh. They are controlled by their sinful fleshly desires. However, those who are saved have the Holy Spirit living in them and should not be controlled by the flesh. Notice I said “should not.” As we have said before, Christians have a free will to obey God or not. Sometimes we let our flesh control us, causing us to sin. We have a choice: to be controlled by our flesh or to be submitted to God. The unsaved can’t make this choice. They do not have a free will; they are bound by the law of sin to obey their sinful desires because they are “in the flesh.”

 

Challenge

So, I ask you again, are you in the flesh or are you in the Spirit? What would the people who know you best say? Would they say that there is clear evidence that you are “in the Spirit?”

In God's service, for His glory,

Copyright © 2018 Will Krause. All rights reserved

Ephesians 3:17 – Indwelling Christ

Posted on by Will

that through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Truth to Learn

Christ dwells in the heart of every Christian.

 

Behind the Words

“Dwell” is from the Greek verb katoikeō, which is made up of kata, meaning “down” used here as an intensifier, and oikeō, meaning “to dwell” or “to reside.” Thus, katoikeō means to dwell permanently or to settle down in one place. In Greek it represents a distinct difference from paroikeō, meaning “to dwell temporarily.”

The Greek word translated “hearts” is kardia, from which we get the medical term “cardiac” referring to the heart.

The word “rooted” is from the Greek verb rhidzoō, which is based on the noun rhidza (from which we get the botanical term rhizome, meaning “a root”). It is expressed here in the perfect tense indicating past completed action with an ongoing effect, where the emphasis is on the effect.

“Grounded” is translated from themelioō, which is indirectly based on the verb tithemi, meaning “to put in place.” Themelioō means “to put a foundation in place.” Thus, themelioō means “to have a solid foundation.” This word is also expressed in the prefect tense.

 

Meaning Explained

Paul is in the midst of worshipping God through prayer. It is a prayer specifically for the Christians in the church at Ephesus, but in general it is intended for all Christians. As we noted in yesterday’s verse, there are five specific petitions contained in this prayer. The first, which we looked at yesterday, was that God the Father would strengthen our inner man; this is to be done by God the Holy Spirit.

The second petition of Paul’s prayer is for Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith. There is some disagreement among Biblical scholars regarding this particular petition. On the surface, it appears that Paul is asking that the Ephesians might be saved (for Christ to dwell in their hearts). However, back in Ephesians 1:1, Paul referred to the Ephesians as “saints.” In other words, they were already saved (a saint is a person who has been set-apart by God because of his or her salvation). According to Greek scholar Dr. Kenneth Wuest,

The personal presence of the Lord Jesus in the heart of the believer is not in view here. That is taken for granted. The word “dwell” is katoikēsai, made up of oikeō, “to live in as a home,” and kata, “down, thus “to settle down and be at home.” The tense is aorist, showing finality. The expanded translation is; “that Christ might finally settle down and feel completely at home in your hearts.”

Notice, also, that from verses fourteen through seventeen Paul is praying to the Father to strengthen by the Holy Spirit and that Christ (the Son) might settle down and feel at home through faith. All three persons of the Godhead are at work together here in the lives of believers. It is particularly important to note that throughout this prayer Paul is asking that the Ephesian Christians (and, by extension, all Christians) might have a deeper commitment and closer fellowship with God.

Based on the Greek grammatical structure of this and the following verse, the second half of this verse is actually part of the next verse, so we will look at it tomorrow.

 

Application

Are you truly saved? Does Christ dwell in your heart? Are you part of God’s family? I hope that is true, but it mustn’t stop there. God wants to have a close personal relationship with you. You are not simply a member of God’s team; you are a member of His family. And, like any loving father or mother, He wants to settle in and get personal with you. Too many Christians today believe that since they have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, they have “punched their ticket into heaven,” and that’s all there is to Christianity. How sad! Even though life as a Christian will have plenty of tribulations and trials, we can walk through this life with peace and joy if we have a close personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. In other words, it’s more than just a saving faith, it’s a living faith! Is that what you have?

In God's service, for His glory,

Copyright © 2015 Will Krause. All rights reserved

1 Corinthians 3:16 – We Are God’s Temple

Posted on by Will

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Truth to Learn

The body of Christ (the church) is the Temple of God.

Behind the Words

The Greek word translated “know” is eidō, which means “to see.” However, it is often used metaphorically to mean “to perceive,” that is “to know.” It is written here as s second person, plural verb. Therefore it means “you (plural) know.”

Eimi is the verb translated “you are.” It is written as a second person plural verb meaning “you (plural) are.”

“Temple” is from naos, which literally means “a dwelling place.” There is another word translated “temple.” It is hieron, which refers to the entire temple complex. Naos, however refers specifically to the central, most significant portion of the temple. In the Jewish temple, the naos was the building that housed the Most Holy Place (the Holy of Holies). This is where the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat were located, and it was at the Mercy Seat where God was said to dwell.

The word translated “dwell” is oikeō, meaning “to reside” or “to dwell.” It is derived from the noun oikos, meaning “a house” or “a dwelling place.”

The final word in this verse, “you,” is from the Greek second person, plural pronoun meaning “you (plural).”

Meaning Explained

Today’s verse is one of the most frequently misapplied verses in the Bible. Have you ever heard someone say something like, “Don’t smoke, don’t drink alcohol, or don’t engage in immoral physical activities because when you do you are harming your body, which is the temple of God.” Most often, such people use today’s verse as the proof text. However, this verse does not say that our individual physical bodies are each a temple of God. Neither does this verse say that the Holy Spirit lives within our individual physical bodies. What it says is that the body of Christ (the local church or the church universal) is the temple of God and that the Holy Spirit dwells in the church (not the building, but the people). And – as if that doesn’t ruffle enough feathers, did you know that nowhere in the entire Bible does it say that the Holy Spirit indwells you (singular).

Consider the following verses: 1 Peter 2:5; Ephesians 2:22; 1 Corinthians 3:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20; 2 Corinthians 6:16; and Galatians 4:6. In every one of these passages, the English words “you” and “your” are translated from the second person plural pronoun in Greek (you, plural). Also, in 2 Timothy 1:14, and James 4:5, we are told that the Spirit dwells in “us.”

This may shed some new light on Jesus’ comment:

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)

We are not saying that Christianity is not an individual, personal relationship with God, for that is the crux of the Christian walk. What today’s verse does teach us is the importance of being part of a local church and working together to build the body of Christ, the Temple of God!

Application

Are you just a Sunday morning Christian, or does your life revolve around serving God and building up God’s Temple?

In God's service, for His glory,

Copyright © 2013 Will Krause. All rights reserved

 

Ephesians 3:17 – Indwelling Christ

Posted on by Will

Ephesians 3:17  – Indwelling Christ

that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Truth to Learn

Christ dwells in the heart of every Christian.

Behind the Words

“Dwell” is from the Greek verb katoikeō, which is made up of kata, meaning “down” used here as an intensifier, and oikeō, meaning “to dwell” or “to reside.” Thus, katoikeō means to dwell permanently. In Greek it represents a distinct difference from paroikeō, meaning “to dwell temporarily.”

The Greek word translated “hearts” is kardia, from which we get the medical term “cardiac” referring to the heart.

The word “rooted” is from the Greek verb rhidzoō, which is based on the noun rhidza (from which we get the botanical term rhizome, meaning “a root”). It is expressed here in the perfect tense indicating past completed action with an ongoing effect, where the emphasis is on the effect.

“Grounded” is translated from themelioō, which is indirectly based on the verb tithemi, meaning “to put in place.” Themelioō means “to put a foundation in place.” This word is also expressed in the prefect tense.

Meaning Explained

Paul is in the midst of worshipping God through prayer. It is a prayer specifically for the Christians in the church at Ephesus, but in general it is intended for all Christians. As we noted in yesterday’s verse, there are five specific petitions contained in this prayer. The first, which we looked at yesterday, was that God the Father would strengthen our inner man; this is to be done by God the Holy Spirit.

The second petition of Paul’s prayer is for Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith. In translating from any language into another language there are situations where the exact meaning of the source language is difficult to express in the target language. This is the case here. It appears from the translation that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, but then again, He may not. That is NOT what the Greek text says. In fact, in the Greek the verb translated “dwell” is expressed as an infinitive, so a literal translation might be “that Christ to dwell in your hearts …” but that doesn’t make sense in English. This particular infinitive is an aorist infinitive which indicates completed action, so we could actually translate this as “that Christ dwells in your hearts …” Paul is praying to the Father for all those in Ephesus to be born-again Christians.

Notice, also, that from verses fourteen through seventeen Paul is praying to the Father to strengthen by the Holy Spirit and to indwell the believer with Christ (the Son) through faith. All three persons of the Godhead are at work together here in the lives of believers.

Based on the Greek grammatical structure of this and the following verse, the second half of this verse is actually part of the next verse, so we will look at it tomorrow.

Application

Does Christ dwell in your heart (a completed action)? If you have accepted His blood, through faith, as payment for your sins, then He does. This indwelling is not a process; it doesn’t gradually happen. It happened once and for all the moment you believed the gospel message.

In God’s service, for His glory,

Copyright © 2011 Will Krause. All rights reserved.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, send an e-mail to: