Saturday, August 22, 2009

Breadth, Length, Depth and Height of Love

For a few weeks I had been thinking of Eph. 3:19 and specifically "How is it possible to know that which surpasses knowledge?" Then a couple of days ago, my friend Allan asked me what were my thoughts on verse 18 and the breadth, length, etc. This made me decide to write on these verses.

Eph 3:17-19 "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

The first thing we see here concerning the love of God is that it requires Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith. God is love and it is His love that is shed abroad in our hearts starting with our new birth. As we partake of this love and are rooted and grounded in it, we are made able to comprehend it.

Next we need to know what is the breadth of this love. God's love extends to all of His creation and to man in a greater measure because we were created in His image. His love causes Him to give freely to all His creatures what they need (Psalm 145:16;Psalm 104:14-21; Matt. 5:44-45). The highest expression of this love was the gift of His only-begotten Son, who died to redeem man from the curse of sin. The breadth of this redeeming love is stretched as wide as the arms f Christ upon the cross and take in all who will shelter there.

The length of this love is actually from everlasting to everlasting. All who believe in Christ are loved in Christ by the Father and made partakers of that love. The love of the Father for the Son is before time and will continue long after time itself has passed away (John 17:20-26). It is this perfect love which is shared among the Trinity that Christ brought to earth and enabled us to receive. It is an eternal love and we are eternal recipients of it, as even in all eternity we will willingly return to the Father the love that He has poured into us. This love also bears with a life time of our struggles and shortcomings as we are prepared for glory.

The depth of this love is great. It brought the sinless Savior down from a holy heaven into a defiled world. He who knew no sin became sin for us. The abyss of love met the abyss of human depravity and filled the void. Not only did Christ come to earth and even sink down into the death of the cross, but (as my friend Allan reminded me) He descended into Hades and returned triumphant bringing souls in train. His love has gone as deep as depth is.

The height of this love follows closely on the depth. not only does it find us where we are, but it draws us up to Him. It causes us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and to be partakers of His divine nature. Eventually we will be there in heaven with Him having been transformed by this love. His love will have taken us to the highest place, near Him and with Him for all eternity.

To really understand this love is beyond our human capability. That is why it is said to surpass knowledge, but the more we realize its breadth and length ad depth and height we can manifest this love. As we do this we are filled with the essence of God Himself, which is love. When we deal with other people we need to remember this love. It is wide, they are included in its scope. It is long, both long-suffering and enduring. It is deep and will undergo much for those it loves. It is high and it will take all who exercise it up to it's fountain head in God above. That is the love that we should show others, praise God!

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