The Immeasurable Riches of the Church

When writing his letter to the Church at Ephesus, Paul tells the community that they share in the immeasurable riches and glory of God, both in the present, and in the future.  The Ephesians, like other people in the Mediterranean world, had a very distinct idea of what "glory and riches" were: material possessions, important titles, the acquisition of land, etc.  The Ephesians knew that they did not have "glory and riches" now, so they would have been perplexed at Paul's statement.

Paul explains to the Ephesians that the "immeasurable riches and glory" of God are not like Rome multiplied by 1000, but instead, that through becoming holy and taking upon themselves the mind of Christ, the Ephesians would come to understand the meaning of "immeasurable riches and glory" differently than Rome.  They would understand that what Rome considered to be riches and glory didn't mean anything, and that it would all fall away.  The immeasurable riches and glory of God are intangible: simplicity, compassion, honesty, honor, frugality, etc.

As always, we look to Christ as our model.  God, in Christ, could have had the immeasurable riches and glory of Rome times 1000, but chose to live a simply life as an itinerant preacher.  If God is unchangeable and eternal, then it simply doesn't make any sense that God would literally have immeasurable riches and glory according to the world's understandings in the world to come if God did not have them when God was revealed here on earth.  Any images of God and of Jesus demonstrating immeasurable glory and riches in Rome's image must be understood as Paul intended: as ironic metaphor.

By living holy lives we find immeasurable riches and glory beyond anything that Rome could comprehend.  As the Church, we can experience this now, and in the world to come.