I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 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.
-Ephesians 3:16-19
When I finally allow myself time to just sit and be still (which happens less frequently than I'd prefer), I try to grasp what Paul hopes we'd understand about the love of Christ as he writes in Ephesians. Christ's love for us is a love that surpasses knowledge (Eph. 3:19), a love that came to Earth to seek and save that which is lost (Luke 19:10), a love that laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16), and a love that washed us from our sins in His own blood (Revelation 1:5).
Christ loves us with a radical love. When we began this blog last September, our focus was on how we could love others radically. But in trying to love others with such love, I confess that I sometimes forget that God loves me radically. If I don't acknowledge how great his love is for me, it will be impossible for me to love others. John 15:12, our blog's signature verse, reads, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you," and with that directive, the Lord explains how we are to love others. If we are to love them as God has loved us, we must love those who hate us, lay down our lives for others, and love with a love that is not of this world. We will never be perfect at loving others while we live in this world, but we must continue to strive after that radical love that God Himself shows us.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
-1 John 4:7
Farrell, I think you honed in on what is most difficult, to grasp the love that He has for each of us....if we could begin to grasp that, we would overflow with love for others reflexively! Thank you for that thought....it's something to pray about, and Paul realized that!
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