Ephesians 3:16

Ephesians 3:16

The Inner Man.

Every one has an inner man, a better self, a potential perfection within him, which will awake and begin to flower when he feels in his soul the touch of God. Through dress, through manners, through morals, through religious ceremony, we have to go to find the inner man, the very soul. How then is the discovery made? How does a man reach the centre and fountain of his own being, find himself, recover himself, bring himself home again to God? There are very great varieties of experience, but perhaps these things or something like them will be found in all.

I. First, what may be called a soul consciousness, a consciousness of having or being a soul, not merely an animated something, to be covered with dress and beautified with manners, but a something spiritual, vast, deep, related to eternity, related to God.

II. The next thing is the conscious relation to God. No sooner does a man become conscious of his true self than he in that very act becomes cognisant and sensible of God.

III. The next thing, or the thing which goes along with this very often, is the consciousness of sin. If a man, looking and searching inwards, has found no sin to trouble him and humble him, he has not yet found himself.

IV. Then further he becomes conscious of goodness as well as of sin, not the old formal goodness, but goodness that is fresh, and new, and living, with love in the heart of it, gratitude lending it a glow and a lustre, faith building it up. First repentance; then cleansing and forgiveness; then gratitude; then filial love; then active goodness? Not so. The moment a man comes to himself, all these things begin together and go on together.

A. Raleigh, The Way to the City,p. 1.

References: Ephesians 3:16. A. Maclaren, Christ in the Heart,p. 1; J. E. Gibberd, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxi., p. 45.Ephesians 3:16; Ephesians 3:17. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 273.