Many of us are unaware of what is happening within our bodies. We adhere to the belief that "everything is fine." This dictum is also applied within local churches. We often harbour hopeful thoughts and desire to believe that "everything is fine." Ideally, everything should be well; however, this may not reflect the actual situation.
Several years ago, I was going about whatever I was engaged in as usual. I had no signals of anything amiss within my body, till one Sunday morning as I was getting ready for church, sudden pain was experienced in my chest which radiated to my arms and jaws. I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease, which indicates that the arteries supplying blood to your heart are narrowed or obstructed by a sticky substance known as plaque. A physician may suggest a procedure called angioplasty, which involves inserting a tube with a small balloon at its tip into an artery that leads to the heart and deploying a stent to keep the artery passage open. This procedure opens the blockage and restores proper blood flow to the heart muscle.
In the book of Ephesians, Paul is seen wearing the cardiologist's hat, examining the heart of the church in Ephesus with the intention of removing any hindrance that may be obstructing the work of Christ in the lives of God's people. The obstruction mentioned here and in chapter 2 pertains to division within the church. In Ephesians 2, Paul recalled the historical rifts that existed between the Jewish community and the Gentiles. He shared the good news that "now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13, KJV).
It is a fact that, unknown to us, the plaque settles in various parts of the church. Mostly, this is either ignored as trivial or half-hearted attempts are made to reconcile differences. Ministry of reconciliation is negligently present in most churches. We make believe that all is well, and some day there will be a "cardiac arrest" and collapse of true worship in churches.
Paul prays for all of God's people to be empowered, and for God [God the Stent] to reside in their hearts: "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17, KJV). He prays that they will be rooted, like a plant, and established, like a building, through God's love. The phrases "being rooted and established" are presented in the perfect tense, indicating a completed action with lasting effects. You could interpret this as "having been and continuing to be rooted and established."
The outcome is that through faith, Christ may "reside" in the hearts of believers. This does not pertain to Christ's initial indwelling at the moment of salvation, but rather to the wish that Christ may literally "feel at home in," or be at the very core of, our lives, as individual believers as well as the collective Body of Christ, the Church. We may reflect on the question: can Christ find a welcoming space in a heart, and in our churches, filled with obstructions?
What obstacles need to be eliminated from your church today? Ephesians 4:31 provides several examples: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice" (KJV).