PRAY FOR FULL COMPREHENSION OF GOD’S LOVE

Ephesians 3:18-19-...[that you] may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Paul asked that they might be able to understand together, in community, every dimension of the love of Jesus. Paul wanted them to know it by experience and not just in words.

“In this measurement may you and I be skilled. If we know nothing of mathematics, may we be well-tutored scholars in this spiritual geometry, and be able to comprehend the breadths and lengths of Jesus’ precious love.” (Spurgeon)

What is the width and length and depth and height: This means that the love of Jesus has dimensions, and it can be measured.

“Alas, to a great many religious people the love of Jesus is not a solid substantial thing at all – it is a beautiful fiction, a sentimental belief, a formal theory, but to Paul it was a real, substantial, measurable fact; he had considered it this way, and that way, and the other way, and it was evidently real to him, whatever it might be to others.” (Spurgeon)

The love of Jesus has width. You can see how wide a river is by noticing how much it covers over. God’s river of love is so wide that it covers over my sin, and it covers over every circumstance of my life so that all things work together for good. When I doubt His forgiveness or His providence, I am narrowing the mighty river of God’s love. His love is as wide as the world: For God so loved the world (John 3:16).

“Some of them seem to be so taken up with the height and length that they deny the breadth, and you would think from hearing them preach that Christ came into the world to save half-a-dozen, and that they were five of them… Out on their narrowness! There will be more in heaven than we expect to see there by a long way; and there will be some there with whom we had very little comfortable fellowship on earth who had fellowship with Christ, and who are therefore taken to dwell with him forever.” (Spurgeon)

The love of Jesus has length. When considering the length of God’s love, ask yourself, “When did the love of God start towards me? How long will it continue?” These truths measure the length of God’s love. Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

The love of Jesus has depth. Philippians 2:7-8 tell us how deep the love of Jesus goes: but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. You can’t go lower than the death of the cross, and that is how deep the love of Jesus is for us.

The love of Jesus has height. To see the height of God’s love, ask yourself, “How high does it lift me?” It lifts me to heavenly places where I am seated with Christ. He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6).

Can we really comprehend the width and length and depth and height of God’s love? To come to any understanding of the dimensions of God’s love, we must come to the cross. The cross pointed in four ways, essentially in every direction, because…

· God’s love is wide enough to include every person.

· God’s love is long enough to last through all eternity.

· God’s love is deep enough to reach the worst sinner.

· God’s love is high enough to take us to heaven.

To know the love of Christ: Paul wrote of something we can know. This isn’t speculation, guesswork, emotions, or feelings. This is something to know.

“One of these philosophers kindly says that religion is a matter of belief; not of knowledge. This is clean in opposition to all the teaching of Scripture.” (Spurgeon)

Paul asked God to fill these Christians unto all the fullness of God. The word unto is a better translation than the word with. Paul wanted Christians to experience life in Jesus Christ, the fullness of God (Colossians 2:9), and to be filled to their capacity with Jesus, even as God is filled to His own capacity with His own character and attributes.

“Among all the great sayings in this prayer, this is the greatest. To be FILLED with God is a great thing; to be filled with the FULLNESS of God is still greater, but to be filled with ALL the fullness of God utterly bewilders the sense and confounds the understanding.” (Clarke)

Prompt: Pray Ephesians 3:18-19. Pray that God would fill you with His fullness and enable you to fully comprehend His love.

Based on the Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik.