Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

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In St. Paul’s urging of the church in Ephesians 4.1-3, to “walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, and endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” the Apostle, the one ‘born out of due time’, Paul unveils a theological truth that we here at St. Mark’s, should hold fast to, in hope and faith. Paul’s exhortation is not merely a pep talk, urging his readers to emotionally psych themselves up, unto virtue. “For the Kingdom of GOD is not just a lot of talk; it is living by GOD’s power” (1 Corinthians 4.20 – NLT). St. Paul gives us his evidence to this fact, by telling us why and how GOD’s faithful people should and can walk worthy of our calling. Paul says: “GOD will grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith …that you may be filled with all the fullness of GOD” (Ephesians 3.16-17 & 19). 

If we are to walk, (which is a practical illustration for ‘living our Christian lives), in such a way that is worthy of our calling as GOD’s people, then we must be filled with the fullness of GOD in our inner man. To live as Christians, virtuously, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing one another’s burdens, endeavoring to keep the bond of ‘belonging, believing, and becoming,’ then we must be strengthened by the riches of GOD’s Spirit in the inner man. — St. Paul, in 2 Corinthians, calls these riches GOD’s surpassing power (hyperbole dynameos). These riches are the key to fulfilling our godly call unto virtuous spiritual lives in this world. — Why? — Well, if we do not take hold of GOD’s ‘hyperbole dynameos’, then we will be living in our inner man, our spirits, by the impoverished and undistinguished spiritual weakness of our corrupted natures. — If we try to serve GOD without the surpassing power of His Spirit, when trials and tribulations come our way, our fellowship will fail, we will disband, we will see divisions and schisms in the Body of Christ, and we will walk away from the will and leading of the GOD who has promised us access to His glorious riches and grace in Christ JESUS.  

Having ‘the fullness of GOD’s riches’ and ‘being strengthened through GOD’s Spirit in the inner man,’ are essentially the same theological concept. This concept means to be in communion/sharing/κοινωνία with the Triune GOD. And when we are in faithful, covenantal communion with Him, we find our spiritual life flowing up through the Holy Spirit, who indwells His people, individually and corporately; mystically and sacramentally — Take any naturally occurring vine and break one of its branches off from the main stalk, and what will happen? The branch, being separated from the surpassing power (hyperbole dynameos) of the vine, cut off from communion with its mystical life source, the branch will die and fall away. Whether stormy winds, wild beast, or the force of man put a branch to the trial and cause it to break away from sharing in the life of the vine, there will be a schism, a disbanding, and a loss of fruitful life. Nothing more than the fire heap is worthy of the branch’s future. 

Yet, the Scriptures make it clear, to be filled with GOD’s fullness and strengthened in the inner man by His Holy Spirit, this mystical communion is actuated by a life of hearing, reading, marking, learning, and obediently following GOD’s Holy Word. King David summarized this actuation of sharing in communion with GOD’s surpassing life power as hiding GOD’s Word in our hearts that we might not sin against Him. (cf. Ps. 119.1) We are to allow the Word of GOD to ‘abide in our hearts that we might believe on the LORD JESUS Christ and come to Him – following all His commandments. (cf. John 5.38) 

St. Paul, in writing to the church in Thessalonica said, “For this reason we also thank GOD without ceasing, because when you received the word of GOD which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth – the word of GOD, which also effectively works by the ‘hyperbole dynameos’, showing itself operative in you, who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2.13). — The word of GOD in the heart of the individual believer, as well as the Church corporately, bears much fruit in the fullness of GOD and in the inner man. It is rich! — But how does the seed of the Word come forth in the child of GOD and bear fruit? All in a moment, or in the term of a process?  

For a case in point, we need look no further than ancient Israel as our study. — Israel’s people had been in Egypt four hundred and thirty years (cf. Ex. 12.41) when GOD called Moses and Aaron to lead their captivity captive out of bondage to Pharoah. And after hearing all that GOD had told Moses and Aaron to do and say, Israel did respond with great hope in the fullness of the riches of GOD’s glory promised by His Word. We read in Exodus 4: “Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people. So, the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped” (Exodus 4.29-31). 

Yet, after Moses and Aaron approached Pharoah, commanding him to release GOD’s people so that they could travel three days into the wilderness to worship YHWH GOD, the Pharoah laughed in their faces and doubled down on the people’s workload. He said, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor … Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard the false words [of YHHW spoken by Moses and Aaron]” (Exodus 5.4 & 9). — Pharoah’s task masters went on to yell and beat the people of Israel because they were not keeping up with Pharoah’s quota demands in the fabrication of bricks. It was at this point that the people accosted Moses and Aaron, for they lacked any notion of ‘walking in the calling unto which the LORD had called them.’ In fact, they said to Moses and Aaron: “Let the LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight, [and a stench in the nostrils], of Pharaoh” (Exodus 5.21). 

It is impossible to deny the hardships of experience that GOD’s people are readily made to face in this fallen world. — With the Israelites, Moses and Aaron had promised that GOD would deliver them from their tribulations in Egypt. Yet, after a short time of Moses’ leadership, things for Israel were not slowly getting better; they were rapidly getting worse! 

When trouble and persecution arrive because of the Word, many followers of Christ will quickly fall away (Mark 4:16–17). In the parable of the Sower and the Seed, the principle which our LORD underscores, is that there is no such thing as an untested faith. – This concept runs true, throughout the Bible. Writing to the Thessalonians, Saint Paul notes two things with which to him marked their Christian conversions as genuine: they recognized the apostolic message which they had heard as GOD‘s Word, and their reception of that Word was tested by suffering. — Paul says to the Thessalonian church: “For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of GOD, which are in Judea, in Christ JESUS. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans; [suffering for receiving the Gospel that they also received.]” (1 Thess.2.14). 

We see that when the Word of GOD arrives in our hearts and dares to live by GOD’s grace through our faith, testing and trials come our way as a means for GOD‘s children to grow, spiritually – to tap into His riches in the inner man. As one theologian has noted, “many Christians are given the opportunity within Sunday worship to affirm [the receipt of the WORD in their hearts by saying]: ‘I believe in one GOD, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.’ — This is all well and good, but we do not actually know that we truly believe in the Word of GOD in our inner man, until Monday faces us with experiences which suggest to our depraved and selfish sensitivities, that GOD is far from ALMIGHTY and pretty unfatherly to boot!  

The testing [of the Word of GOD planted in the seat of our hearts, minds, and souls] has its place and purpose in GOD’s sharing of His riches to our inner man. This testing is applied, not only through the outward trials of adversity and circumstantial difficulties in our time bound realities, but also to our individual spiritual struggles from besetting sins, daily temptations, and the ceaseless spiritual warfare that rages against us in the heavenly realms. “If we are honest, and unless, therefore, we are prepared to rewrite the whole of the Bible, we must face the fact that captive and oppressed Israel, having sheltered herself beneath the blood of the Passover lamb, launched out into pilgrimage (Ex.12:11) to face the wilderness (Deut. 8:15) in a divinely programmed test of obedience, bringing her loyalty to light, and proving, not hers, but the faithfulness of GOD. (cf. Deut.8:1-4; 1 Cor. 10:6–13)”¹ 

The faithfulness of GOD – testing is for the faithfulness of GOD. So, let us be clear, GOD is not desirous that His people suffer for suffering’s sake. Nor does He want the suffering of His children to prove their loyalty to Him. For if that was the case, ours would be a ‘loyalty’ little worth, and even less worth measuring. Instead, GOD desires His Word to take root in us by the glorious riches of His power, producing the fruit of the fullness of His surpassing power (hyperbole dynameos) in our inner man. — As one theologian has written: “None of us can come to the highest maturity without enduring the summer heat of trials … As the corn does not leave the husk without threshing, and as wheat makes no fine flour until it be ground, so are we of little use till we are afflicted. Thus, why should we be so eager to escape such benefits of the testing of GOD?”² 

Indeed, why should we seek to escape the benefits of our testing after receiving GOD’s Holy Word, especially, if He be our Redeemer and Deliverer? — In Exodus 6:1, we read, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand, he will let Israel go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.’” From the circumstances we described – viz., things going from bad to worse with Moses as GOD’s mediator before Pharoah – this claim by GOD, (that Pharoah would drive Israel out of Egypt), seemed a bit fantastical. — Fantastical or no, GOD then says to Moses: “I Am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as GOD ALMIGHTY (El SHADDAI), but by My name LORD (YHWH), I was not known to them” (Exodus 6.2).  

To have confidence in our testing by GOD the Grower, we need to know GOD as YHWH, as well as El SHADDAI. To set the record straight, Israel did know GOD by both of these Names: El SHADDAI and YHWH. (cf. Gen. 17.1; 28.3; 4.26; 15.7; 22.14; etc.) “But that experience [of GOD as YHWH] was about to take place through the deliverance of Israel from Pharoah and Egypt by GOD’s mediator … By His ALMIGHTY Name of El SHADDAI, GOD’s power supported and insured the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promises. Now, in the Exodus, as YHWH, GOD would fulfill those promises underwritten by His eternal power as Redeemer and Deliverer. Thus, GOD would start using His personal, covenantal Name: ‘I am YHWH.’ This Holy Name, with its fresh and applicable meaning (Redeemer and Deliverer), meant that GOD would now be with Israel in an even more personal way, redeeming and delivering her from her testing in bondage, making her into a fruitful and godly nation.”³  

Again, I ask, why should we seek to escape our testing in the LORD after receiving GOD’s Holy Word, especially if He be our Redeemer and Deliverer? Listen to what the LORD promised to Israel and judge for yourselves if He is not faithful and true. — “‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will redeem/take you as My people, and I will be your GOD. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your GOD who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD [YHWH – Redeemer and Deliverer]’” (Exodus 6.5-8). 

Since we are not Marcionites who hold to the strict belief that the GOD of the Old Testament is different from the GOD of the New, we see the attributes of El SHADDAI, YHWH GOD, in the works and promises of JESUS Christ as well. — Again, brothers and sisters, listen and judge for yourselves if GOD in Christ is not faithful and true. — “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (St. Matthew 11.28) — “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” — (St. John 7.37-38) — “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3.20) – “If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (St. John 8.31.32). 

The Christian Walk is not an easy walk. If it were, many more would be on this pilgrimage of faith with us. If the Christian Walk were not permeated with challenges, tests, and tribulations, then I am sure our church pews would be overflowing with people, and we would need multiple services to serve everyone that would come looking for the broad way of ease into eternality.  

Brothers and sisters, El SHADDAI – YHWH GOD – JESUS Christ is our Strength and our Redeemer. Therefore, let us walk worthy of the calling with which we were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, and endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace in the fullness of GOD by the glorious ‘hyperbole dynameos’ of the riches of His Holy Spirit by sharing in His life – His communion – His fellowship. May GOD, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, always go before us and follow after us, making us continually to be given to all good works, that our perseverance through much physical and spiritual testing, may lead to godly character; and our godly character to Christian hope; and our Christian hope to Christlikeness. All these things we ask, through Him who came to live, die, rise and ascend for our sakes, even JESUS Christ, our Redeemer and Deliverer, who is El SHADDAI, YHWH GOD. Amen. 

1 Motyer, J.A., The Message of Exodus: The days of our pilgrimage, (Downer’s Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2005), 97-98. 

2 ThePrinceofPreachers.org. “Spurgeon Quotes.”` Accessed 9 October 2025. https://www.princeofpreachers.org/quotes/the-purposes-of-trials.  

3 Ross, Allen P., Recalling the Hope of Glory, (Grand Rapis: Kregel Publications, 2006), 147-148.