II. Parallel to the first petition, and in substance identical with it, is the second: “that the Christ may make His dwelling through faith in your hearts.” Such, it seems to us, is the relation of verses 16 and 17. Christ’s residence in the heart is to be viewed neither as the result, nor the antecedent of the strength given by the Spirit to the inward man: the two are simultaneous; they are the same things seen in a varying light. We observe in this prayer the same vein of Trinitarian thought which marks the doxology of chapter i., and other leading passages in this epistle.[94] The Father, the Spirit, and the Christ are unitedly the object of the apostle’s devout supplication. As in the previous clause, the verb of verse 17 bears emphasis and conveys the point of St Paul’s entreaty; he asks that “the Christ may _take up His abode_,--may _settle_ in your hearts.” The word signifies to _set up one’s house_ or _make one’s home_ in a place, by way of contrast with a temporary and uncertain sojourn (comp. ii. 19). The same verb in Colossians ii. 9 asserts that in Christ “_dwells_ all the fulness of the Godhead”; and in Colossians i. 19 it declares, used in the same tense as here, how it was God’s “pleasure that all the fulness should _make its dwelling_ in Him” now raised from the dead, who had emptied and humbled Himself to fulfil the purpose of the Father’s love. So it is desired that Christ should take His seat within us. He is never again to stand at the door and knock, nor to have a doubtful and disputed footing in the house. Let the Master come in, and claim His own. Let Him become the heart’s fixed tenant and full occupier. Let Him, if He will thus condescend, make Himself at home within us and there rest in His love. For He promised: “If any man love me, my Father will love him; and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” And “_the_ Christ,” not Christ alone. Why does the apostle say this? There is a reason for the definite article, as we have found elsewhere.[95] The apostle is asking for his Asian brethren something beyond that possession of Christ which belongs to every true Christian,--more even than the permanence and certainty of this indwelling indicated by the verb. “The Christ” is Christ in the significance of His _name_. It is Christ not only possessed, but understood,--Christ realized in the import of His work, in the light of His relationship to the Father and the Spirit, and to men. It is the Christ of the Church and the ages--known and accepted for all this--that St Paul would fain have dwelling in the heart of each of his Gentile disciples. He is endeavouring to raise them to an adequate comprehension of the greatness of the Redeemer’s person and offices; he longs to have their minds possessed by his own views of Christ Jesus the Lord.