Day 520: Dimensions of His love - Ephesians 3 vs 14 - 21

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 15-17 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, 18 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, 19 that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

20-21 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,  according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21 (English Standard Version)

I wonder if, like me, you find the galaxies and light years scientists speak of to try and describe the vastness of space too much to take in. Some things seem incomprehensible. The apostle Paul speaks of something just as difficult to fully grasp in vs 18. What is that?

He was speaking of the dimensions of the love of Christ. It's breadth, length, height and depth. He was asking God to help these new believers to 'comprehend' something that 'surpasses knowledge'. Perhaps I should rephrase that then, and say that he was asking that they may grasp SOMETHING of the dimensions of Christs' love, because it's a love we can't fully grasp. When believers do grasp something of how great that love is, what is the result? (vs 19)

They are filled with the fullness of God. All that God is fills the life of a man, woman, even a child, who has come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the gospel he wrote, the disciple John said of Jesus: “From His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John 1:16) That’s also something which 'surpasses knowledge' just as much as the dimensions of Christ's love. But the Bible declares that it is true. God lives in the lives of those who are in Christ Jesus. No wonder Paul prays the prayer we read in vs 15-17. It takes the power of God's Spirit in our lives to enable us to grasp how amazing God's glory and grace are. Could it be that we don't pray a similar prayer often enough, for ourselves and fellow believers, that our thoughts of God and salvation don't excite us as much as they should. Is our understanding of God's love too small?

But what is the encouragement Paul gives in vs 20-21 that should help us to not despair of grasping the dimensions of God's glory and Christ's love more fully?

Yes, God is able to answer even our weak prayers in ways that are as abundant as His love. Jesus Himself prayed, in John 17, that His disciples would see the glory that the Father had bestowed on Him. So to ask God that we may more fully grasp how much Jesus loves us, and how wonderful the work of redemption is, is a prayer God will delight to answer. What would the additional encouragement of the words Paul used in vs 14 have been to the people to whom he was writing – and can be for us too?

Remember, he was writing to 'gentiles' – people who were not Jewish. People who may have felt such wonderful promises could not be for them. But when Paul preached in Athens he said to the people: “God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek Him, in the hope that they might feel their way towards Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:26-28) It was always God's purpose to bring people from all nations to His love. Take heart if you feel yourself unworthy of such love. Like myself, you ARE unworthy! But that's why God's love surpasses knowledge. He loves the unworthy, even the unlovely. And it is in Jesus Christ that the fullness of this love is made known to such.