Spiritual strength resides high on the list of necessities for the Christian. Without it, the Christian faith is impotent, and Christian teaching falls useless. To be sure, there is no lack of teaching today, considering the plethora of radio, TV and internet resources. The Ephesians had probably the best teaching in the early church (from the ministry of Paul, Apollos, Aquila & Priscilla). But we know from Paul’s teaching that knowledge without love is useless (1 Cor 13:2). Yet without strength, love is mere sentiment. Strength is what is needed to take the knowledge and love and act upon it. Strength is needed in the face of sacrifice. Many Christians know the right thing to do, but they shrink back because of the cost. They have no spiritual strength.

Yes, there is a place for asking the Lord for strength when we are weak, and believing what He has already given us. “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (2 Tim 1:7). But our passage today tells us that it is we who are to “be strong.” There is a part that God will not do for us, which we have to do ourselves. We need to summon the strength that God has given us and it is we that need to use that strength and “be strong.”

Let me be very clear. It is God’s strength that enables us, it is His might that gives us power. But what God does in us will lie stagnate and ineffective if we don’t do something about it. And that is Paul’s point here. He has just taken aim at Christian slave masters, hitting them in the pocketbook, so to speak. Slavery was an economic institution as much as it was a human rights issue in those days. For these new Christians to change the way they treated their slaves would have serious financial and social repercussions. To treat them as fellow-servants of the Lord would be scandalous as well as financially disrupting. It may have meant letting go of debts and grievances. This would not be easy.

Many things God instructs Christians are impossible in mere human strength. When Jesus taught, “Turn the other cheek,” we realize that the life of someone who follows Jesus will require what he doesn’t have in himself. So, we must get our strength from the Lord. But it is we who must get it.

Worn out slogans like, “Let go and let God,” are nice, but we need to be careful. They may provide a good reminder when we are at wits’ end that we can’t do anything apart from Christ. But, the fuller truth is that, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). It is “I” who can do all things, and I can do them because of His strength. So, Christians, be strong!