This morning I looked at Ephesians 3 verse 17 to 19 in search for more understanding on the marvelous love of the Lord.
Now Paul is praying here for the Ephesians for all believers. And he's praying in verse 17 that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. The word "dwell," katoikeo is a word that means to settle down and be at home. When Christ settles down and is at home in your heart, or to put it another way, when Christ has unrestricted access to every area of your life, when Christ is in control... he's not having to be up fixing things in your life...when you're so devoted to Christ and He has unrestricted access to your life, then Paul says you are being rooted and grounded in love.
In other words, you will be solidly, firmly fixed in the love of God when your life is fully yielded to Christ. You will experience that love. That's what Paul meant in Romans 5:5 when he said, "The love of Christ is shed abroad in your hearts." That's what Jude meant in Jude 21 when he said, "Keep yourselves in the love of God." What did he mean? Stay in the position of devotion, dedication and obedience in which you will be rooted and grounded in love. If you want to experience the fullness of God's love, then let Christ have unrestricted access to every area of your life. Keep yourself in the love of God.
And when you do that, verse 18 says, you will be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and you will be able to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. The point is the love that we're talking about here is unknowable. It's unknowable by human reason. The human mind cannot know it, the unregenerate can't know it. It is incomprehensible. It surpasses knowledge. But you can know it, he says, you can know the love of Christ which no one else knows, you can comprehend it in its breadth and its length and its height and its depth when you are rooted and grounded in it. And that happens when Christ has unrestricted access to every area of your life, when Christ fills your life.
How broad is God's love? It's to all who believe. How long is His love? It's from eternity past to eternity future. How high is His love? High enough to enthrone us in the heaven of heavens. How deep is His love? Deep enough to reach to the deepest pit of sin and rescue us. There is the sum of it all.
And this is God's love that leads to verse 20 and you can't really look at this section without verse 20. Verse 20 says, "Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."
What is that? That is a doxology, isn't it? Well what is causing Paul to burst into a doxology? What is causing it is because he has just comprehended as much as is humanly possible the love of God in Christ and he bursts out in praise. He just experienced a downpour of God’s love. And he burst out singing!
Pause a moment. Go back and read again until it registers deep… when devotion for God is deep and all the soul is so yielded to him, you soak up his love that in the natural is incomprehensible. And you get rooted in his love. Wow!
