God’s Immense Love

God’s Immense Love

Ephesians 3:18-19

Watch:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lSTBdb_n58

Seeing that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, I have for the past 25 years always given messages of God’s love for us, and our love for God. And then, during 2020 and the initial outbreak of the COVID virus, did a series of message on the topics of faith, hope, and love. All of this to say that I’ve done quite a few messages about love.

And so, as we approach Valentine’s Day, I was wondering what I could possibly talk about, or what I could bring forth that would be new and expand our understanding on this all important quality. And then I realized that I never took it the next step, that is, I never looked at it from the perspective that Paul talks about it in his letter to the Ephesians Church.

And so, I’d like to share with you what I see as the absolute immensity of God’s love for us.

Prior to our verse, Paul is telling them not to lose heart, and that’s because he is praying that Jesus would dwell in their hearts through faith, so that they can be rooted and grounded in His love.

But the question is, why, which is what Paul then goes on to explain in the verses that we’ll be studying today.

(So that they) “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.” (Ephesians 3:18-19 NKJV)

Now, our first take, and what most commentators look at are the dimensions Paul gives to explain this all-encompassing love of Christ in our lives.

But Paul begins with some pretty strong words as to why this is so important.

He begins by saying that they “may be able to comprehend.” This is huge and should be understood in its entirety. The words, “May be able,” is from two Greek words, “ek,” meaning “from out of,” and the word “ischuo,” or “to be strong.”

It is said that this compound word is one of the strongest Greek words for strength, and thus signifies that we were fully able and capable of understanding, doing, or experiencing what is being talked about.

The word, comprehend literally means to eagerly take or to seize something to make it our own. It means to gain control of something and gives the idea of grasping something intellectually.

Maybe this is why the Amplified Bible translates this saying, “That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp.”

Therefore, to grasp the full significance of what Paul is saying was that he was genuinely concerned that we don’t miss Christ’s love for us, and that we then lay hold of its vast expanses and thus live supernaturally within these four dimensions.

We see a similar principle in Joshua when the Lord tells Joshua, “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.” (Joshua 1:3 NKJV) In other words, God had already promised it, but it would take Joshua and the people’s obedience to step out by faith and acquire it.

And the reason it is so important for us to lay hold of this truth about the immensity of God’s love, and not let it go of it is because we have a whole generation, a whole world that is perishing because they don’t know, they haven’t comprehended, they haven’t yet grasped the totality of God’s love towards them, or as Paul states, they don’t know the love of Christ that surpasses anything that humanity can think of when it comes to love.

Again, why is this important. It’s because of what the Lord through the prophet Hosea makes so abundantly clear. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6a NKJV)

What it seems like is that the Ephesian church hadn’t considered and grasped hold of the immensity of Christ’s love for them. A love that is rich in mercy and grace. The Apostle Paul brings this out earlier in his letter.

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Ephesians 2:4-5 NKJV)

And then Paul goes on to say that because of God’s great love He has now, “Raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6-7 NKJV)

It's also a love that describes the very nature and character of Jesus. We see this as He went through humiliation upon the cross where He suffered and died.