Grasping the love of Christ

Ephesians 3:17b-19

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Paul is writing to the Christians in Ephesus. He says we are to “know this love that surpasses knowledge.” Or in other words, to know this love that you can’t know.

Do these two words mean the same thing? We can know about the love of Christ without knowing the love of Christ. We can intellectually know about love or we can experience love.

Paul wants us to experience love. He wants us to know it deeply and intimately. We can’t know it all for it surpasses knowledge.

Surpasses – exceeds any knowledge that we have. We can’t learn all about Jesus’ love for us.

That is encouraging because that means we can dive into the love of Christ today and everyday until the day we die we can never exhaust it. Everyday we can learn something new about the love of Christ for us.

Therefore, we can always know more of the love of Christ. Paul’s prayer was that we could grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. Let’s think about that for a minute.

How wide is the love of Christ?

Matthew 5:43   Jesus said - “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’”

There’s a certain segment of the population that we are willing to love – everyone does. It’s usually the group that loves you. If they love me, I am happy to love them in return. No problem. Jesus says that this is OK for everyone else but as a Christian, our love is going to be wider. We are to go into areas where no one would love someone and we are to love those people. We are to take it as far as loving our enemies. Because when you love your enemies, people will look at you and wonder what’s going on with you? Why would you do that? Then you can say, I’m a Christian.  I’m a disciple of Jesus. They won’t understand what’s going on but you will be known by your …….. love.

John 13:35  “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Paul went on to say grasp long the love of Christ is. So, think about it. How long will Jesus love you? How long will it last? …………  Forever!

Romans 8:35, 37-39   “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

There’s nothing that can make Jesus stop loving you.

Jeremiah 31:3 “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.”

Next Paul says, grasp how high the love of Christ is.

John 13:1   “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

This is just before the Last Supper. Jesus is with his disciples. He has loved them but now he is going to show them the highest form of love. This is the last thing he can do for them and teach them. Do you remember what he does?

He grabs the bowl of water that is reserved for the servants and he washes the feet of his disciples. This is an unbelievable act of servitude. This is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and he is washing the smelly feet of mortal men.

How high is the love of Christ? It is so high that he humbled himself to serving others.

Lastly, Paul says grasp how deep the love of Christ is.

1 John 3:16   “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

The depth of our love can be determined by the degree of sacrifice a person is willing to make. If you want to determine how much someone loves you, observe how often they serve you and sacrifice for you.  You can’t neglect someone you really love.

So, how deep did Jesus love you? He hung on the cross for you. You can’t love any deeper than that. Try to grasp the idea that the King of kings and the Lord of lords chose to die for you.

Pray that Jesus will teach you about his love…. that he will help you experience it firsthand. Not just to intellectually know about his love but that you experience it personally. Take some time to read about his love and meditate on his love for you.

Seek Jesus.  To know him personally.  Not to just know about Jesus.