The B L H D Of Christ's Love

On Monday afternoon, on my day off, I took a short break from writing my dissertation and as I returned to it, saw the image above on logos (bible software I use) depicting Ephesians 3:18-19 in a mixture of words and symbols. Seeing those symbols awoke a deep urge to rediscover the Love of Christ afresh. I knew immediately that I had to reread Ephesians. Paul's epistles contain deep and revealing prayers. Back in uni, we always prayed these prayers over one another. It's been over thirty years and I have not stopped praying those prayers. You must try them too. They are often at the beginning of his epistles, except for Ephesians where you have them in chapters 1 and 3.

Now, let's read one of Paul's prayers together. Let's read it slowly and carefully. "...that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17b-19, ESV) To be rooted and grounded means to have a solid foundation. Paul's prayer is not just for you and me, but for "all the saints." He wants everyone to be rooted and grounded in Christ's love. Friends, if we don't follow Paul's logic here, we will not fully comprehend what he is talking about. Paul is saying God's love is deep. So deep we can't even fully know it all. He says God's love "surpasses knowledge." The question then is, how can we be rooted and grounded in something we can't fully know?

Well, to drive this home, let's think of gardens for a minute. I was repotting a few plants over the weekend. I repotted the plants in bigger pots with deeper depths, to allow the root system to go deeper. I know the depths of my new pots. Imagine if I put the plants in the earth, I won't know the depths the roots of the plant could reach because I don't know the depth of the earth in my garden. One of the trees in my neighbour's garden has a root system that is not just deep, but long and wide, it goes beyond their garden, mine, and perhaps the garden of the neighbour on the other side. Although I can't, geologists can measure the depth of the earth in my garden. But no one can measure Christ's love for you and me. It's immeasurable.  Think about that. We don't even have enough vocabulary to describe it. So we say it's indescribable. 

Paul recognises our limitations. He knows we can't fully know Christ's love, so he asks God to give us strength. This strength, located in the Holy Spirit will help us begin to have some sense of the dimensions of this love. This love can be known in the sense of its breadth. It's so wide, we can't wrap our heads around it. It's so long that we don't know where it begins and ends. It's so high, the tallest mountain is dwarfed in comparison. It's so deep that we get lost in its vastness. Then Paul goes on to say something I can't even begin to explain. To be filled with all the fullness of God. Wow. Please don't think Paul is suggesting we can ever be filled with the fullness of God, in the sense that we "contain" God. No, how can that be? The God who makes the whole earth His footstool is too vast for us. No! We are in Him. What Paul is saying is that we become so full of God that from our innermost being, we are saturated and overwhelmed by His love. 

So, when I think of what Paul is describing here, I think he wants us to be empowered by God's Holy Spirit to begin to ponder Christ's love and simply get lost in its vastness. Such that we can't see anything else but His love. Whether you look up, down, right, left, or around, all you see is His love. You are lost in it. Why does Paul want this for us? I am glad you asked. It's partly because he knows that when we are lost in Christ's love, we will not be "discouraged" (Eph. 3:13). We all feel discouraged from time to time, don't we? The antidote to discouragement is being rooted and grounded in His love.

Finally, if you go back to how Paul starts his letter to the Ephesians, you will see how this love works. You and I have been chosen in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless (Eph. 1:4) That's not because we are, it's because Christ is. We are adopted into His family (Eph. 1:5). This same love gave us redemption because He (Christ) died shedding His blood for the forgiveness of our sins (Eph. 1:7). Now forgiven, God lavishes His grace on us. I can't even begin to unpack what His lavish grace means, let's just say it's abounding. Then God made His will known to us and he "marked us with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory." (Ehp. 1:14) Wow. That's our destiny right there. God's worked it all out, so no need to fret about whatever may come your way this week, month, or year. Instead, revel in His lavish grace and love.

Next time you hear those words "God loves you", stop to think of the B L H D of God's love for you. It's beyond comprehension.