Strengthening the Inner Man: A Meditation on Ephesians 3 for the Season of Pentecost

For this cause I bow my knees

 unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

That he would grant you,

 according to the riches of his glory,

to be strengthened with might

by his Spirit in the inner man;

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;

that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

May be able to comprehend with all saints

 what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,

that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Now unto him that is able to do

exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,

 according to the power that worketh in us,

Unto him be glory in the church

by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,

world without end. Amen.

 

It strikes me that one of the foibles of our social media age, is a growing fascination with what other people think is true, right, or salutary.  People have sought to know other’s opinions over the course of history by both speech and writing, but never have so many individual opinions at the moment of their genesis, been so broadly published and consumed by so many others.  With the underlying software and hardware technologies of the social media age, enormous efforts are made to typify, normalize, or project value on this sea of popular opinion, which in turn becomes the source of much of what passes as journalism and education today.  Surveys of opinion in various media become the subject of research and analysis, turned into political and economic policies, speeches, or articles… all of which are re-imbibed by those who generated it.  Below the surface of noble intentions to connect people and data, social media as a construct caters to at least two native flaws in a broken humanity:  prideful narcissism, and communal insecurity.  Pride, in that everyone has a platform on which to publish their opinions regardless of their opinion’s relative value, and insecurity in wanting to be liked and accepted within a group.  The result is an emerging form of selfish tribalism which can tear apart families and long time friends, all over who shared what meme, or who laughed at what post.

 

Lost in this outward fascination with other people’s opinions, is the concept St. Paul writes about in Ephesians 3 regarding the “inner man.”  Philosophers of many stripes had advocated for centuries before St. Paul that people should live an examined life of introspection, refining the mind and building character from the inside out—a point not lost on Hebrew Prophets and Philosophers like David and Solomon, who themselves wrote centuries before thinkers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle broadened Greek perspectives.  This inner life, or inner man, was broadly conceived as the seat of reasonable thinking which shared something with a rational universe and a rational creator which could help align a person’s physical actions and feelings with what was objectively true, good, right, and salutary.  Such an approach was intended to lift human beings above the emotions and instincts of mere animals, or the unthinking flora and fauna all around them.  Even among pagan philosophers, an alignment of the inner man with the world around them and their reasonable Creator gave them the best possible attempt at a good life in harmony with Natural Law and the Natural Law Giver.  Like so much of the better thinking in the pagan world, it is not far from the truth St. Paul offers to the Church at Ephesus—it just doesn’t have sufficient power to accomplish what it sets out to do.

 

St. Paul does not throw away the concept of the inner rational man, but shows its fulfilment in Jesus Christ, the Logos of God.  In concert with the ancient Hebrew Prophets who themselves were filled with the Holy Spirit and testified to the coming of Jesus, Paul invites the Christians at Ephesus to be renewed inwardly by the Holy Spirit into the image of Jesus.  Only then can the inner man perceive the length and width and depth of the wisdom of God, being transformed by the love of Jesus into a new creature restored to harmony with God and all creation.  What the pagan philosophers hoped for but could not attain through their own fallen powers of intellect and perception, Jesus accomplished by his life, death, and resurrection, then gave freely to everyone by grace through faith.  The restoration of the inner man, therefore, is not fundamentally a human work but the work of Jesus and His Spirit transforming a fallen person into a child of the Living God.  Such children of God never need fear death, nor evil, nor any calamity that might approach them in this broken world, because the restored life inside them is as eternal as the Creator who has saved them.  Thus the strengthening of the inner man, of the soul and mind of a person, can be aided by human attempts at logic and reason, but is only fulfilled and made truly strong in Jesus Christ.

 

Such a pursuit of inner strength does not preclude interaction with those around us, but it centers us amidst the tumult of raging popular opinion.  Regardless of what someone says or does across the vast backdrop of social media, or what artificially intelligent bots might aggregate into surveys and conglomerate as data sets, or what marketers and political action committees might curate to feed your narcissism and insecurity, your inner man formed and strengthened in Jesus is impervious to the vicissitudes of human corruption.  With a mind and soul enlivened by God’s Living and written Word, empowered by the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit, and in harmony with God the Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth, pride is swallowed up in grace and insecurity is scattered by love.  No longer does such a mind or soul need to aggrandize one’s self through ceaseless public proclamations, nor does it feed upon public opinion to satiate personal insecurity through tribal affiliations.  Rather, that soul which is born from above by Water and Spirit walks in the eternal life and wisdom of Jesus through every passage of the world, secure in the love and mercy of God.  This is the truly free man who cannot be manipulated by fear or pride, but offers to everyone around them the free gift of saving grace which has promised to set all people free.

 

In a world awash with new technologies which seek to enslave and distract countless people by both pandering to and enflaming our fallen weaknesses to pride and insecurity, there is an eternal and liberating truth which transcends every age of man:  the Man, Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus who restores our inner man, who builds our virtue and character from the inside out; Jesus who takes away our sinful pride and who heals our insecurities by His grace; Jesus who sends to us His Holy Spirit that we might be empowered to victory over every evil and deception; Jesus who expands and enlivens our intellect to perceive the width, and depth, and height of His wonderous grace.  All glory and honor be to Him forever, who is always and everywhere that which is most fully true and right and salutary, and the highest aspiration of every inner man.  Amen.