so that according to the riches of his glory supplying you strength, power through that his Spirit in your inner being, Christ dwelling in your hearts through faith, that rooted and founded in love... (Ephesians 3:16-17)
The parable of the soils or sowing speaks of the necessity of having deep roots. The seed sown in rocky soil is one who receives the message with joy, "yet he has no root in himself but lasts only a short time, and when suffering or persecution arises on account of the message, immediately he falls away" (Matthew 13:20-21). Jesus also mentions the thorn of the deceit of riches that choke people out. Paul writes this deceit is a root of all kinds of evil, the love of money, which some craving are led astray from the faith and pierced themselves with great sorrow (1 Timothy 6:10).
Take care that no one forfeits the grace of God; and that no root of bitterness grows up and causes trouble and by it, many are defiled. (Hebrews 12:15)
A legalistic church forfeits grace and many will be defiled with a root of bitterness. Just look at what goes on in such a church (1 Corinthians 6:1-6). Surely, the purpose of the church is to produce people who will not fall away but will endure, bearing fruit. This is what it means to be built up in Him, it is a purpose of the work of ministry, to edify or build up. Without a strong foundation, the house will not stand. Without being rooted and founded people will fall away. But we want to show off the house, or we don't want to do the dirty work of laying a foundation, so we build upon the sand, and when the storms come the true foundation is revealed. Jesus is our foundation stone and he gives gifts for a purpose, to equip the saints for the work of ministry to build up so that children are not tossed to and fro but grow up into maturity, to the full measure of the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16). We see the concept of growth throughout the scriptures and that of being established, rooted, founded, built up in Him.*
... Christ dwelling in your hearts through faith, that rooted and founded in love...
The word founded means to found, lay the foundation of, Mt. 7:25; Heb. 1:10; met. to ground, establish, render firm and unwavering, Eph. 3:17; Col. 1:23; 1 Pet. 5:10. It has both the idea that the foundation has already been laid and that of it being established, so that one is unwavering, steadfast, enduring. Jesus used this word founded to refer to the man who builds his house upon the rock, he is a person who hears his words and does them, when the storms come he will stand (Matthew 7:24-25). James speaks of such a person who is not just a hearer only but a doer also, he is blessed in his doing (James 1:25). This person possesses the work of endurance which produces maturity (James 1:2-4). He asks for wisdom from God in faith, receives with meekness the implanted word of God powerful to save his soul, and looks intently into the truth (James 1:5-8; James 1:21-25). He holds highly and handles rightly the word of God thus reflected in his character, he will be a man of his word, his yes will be yes and his no will be no.
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as taught abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:7)
Paul writes, "Christ dwells in our hearts through faith, rooted and grounded in love" and he writes "rooted and built up in him and established in the faith." Thus Paul writes we are rooted in both faith and love. Other than than Christ ànd the Holy Spirit dwelling in us he mentions no other rooting or founding than that of faith and love. Our victory will be through faith and faith works through love. Love is the bond that leads to maturity (Colossians 3:14). Faith without love is nothing, thus without loving one another the church exists faithless. Loving one another is a sign we are mature in Christ, seen by what we do to His brethren.* We are to walk as Christ did in this world and he walked in love (Ephesians 5:2). Unity will be preserved through the Spirit, faith, peace, and love (John 17:23; Ephesians 4:3).
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith...
If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:15).
Paul writes of people that will be saved but all their works will be lost. Because they built with things that will be burned up. Truly, on the day of Christ's return, all will be revealed and only that which was built eternal will remain. But what about the trial by fire, do they not reveal what we are building with? It was prophesied of Jesus to come as a refiners fire, refining and purifying (Malachi 3:2-3). Peter writes do not think it strange that a trial has come upon you because it is proving by fire (1 Peter 4:12). Some translations put the proving as a testing of the genuineness of our faith. The storm proves if you built upon sand or not, the trial proves if you are building with things eternal or not.
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God, (Hebrews 6:1)
The building up of the body is so that "we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13, ESV). Paul writes he proclaims Christ and teaching wisdom from God so as to present all mature (Colossians 1:28). Through the knowledge of Him, we grow up into mature adulthood (Ephesians 4:13; 2 Peter 1:4). We are rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as taught (Colossians 2:7).
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14)
I was part of a church that taught children, young people, and adults all together. I didn't feel like I was growing there at all, I was craving some meat but got milk instead. You grow up to become mature, here Paul writes through training, it just doesn't come overnight. I hear people talk like it does, saying things like you are now a new creation in Christ, you should have fruit. But a child John writes knows the Father and that his sin is forgiven. He has inward testimonies of the Spirit that testify he is a child of God and the testimony of blood that his sins are forgiven. He has inward testimony of God but has he grown up to show outward fruit? Paul said he delighted inwardly in the laws of God but outwardly he kept doing the things he hated. Then he writes of the wonderful truths of the teaching of baptism.
rooted and grounded in love... (Ephesians 3:16-17) rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as taught. (Colossians 2:7)
Jesus is the root, and blessed are those who have such a foundation, the ones with washed robs who have a right to the tree of life (Revelation 22:14-16). We are rooted, founded in Christ, in faith and love, being built up in the knowledge of Him, truth in love growing up in him into mature adulthood. Jesus is the foundation stone and no other foundation can be laid that already has been (Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Corinthians 3:11). Jesus appointed skilled master builders like Paul to lay a foundation and he gives gifts to equip the saints for the work of ministry to build up, so children are no longer children, but grow up mature, into the full measure of the stature of Christ. Certainly, this is being conformed to the image of Christ, in which God is working out all things for our good according to that which he purposed in Christ. We are rooted and founded, built up, established, growing up becoming like him.