How Do I Love You? Let Me Count The Ways!

“HOW DO I LOVE YOU? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS!”

EPHESIANS 3:14-19

David P. Nolte

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, wrote the well known words,

“How do I love you? Let me count the ways.

I love you to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love you to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love you freely, as men strive for right.

I love you purely, as they turn from praise.

I love you with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love you with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love you with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love you better after death.”

You have probably seen this picture one similar to it. Note that it says, “I asked Jesus,

‘How much do you love me?’ ‘This much.’ He answered, then He stretched out his arms and

died.”

Think of Jesus asking Browning’s question, “How do I love you? Let me count the ways.”

THERE ARE FOUR WAYS IN THE TEXT TODAY.

Let’s look at the Scripture. “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom

every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according

to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner

man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and

grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and

length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14-19 (NASB).

Consider that: what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth of His love? How does

He love us?

I. HE LOVES US TO THE BREADTH OF HUMANITY:

A. How wide is His love? As wide as the world.

1. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever

believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NASB).

2. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And

if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for

those of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2 (NASB).

B. The hymns say,

1. “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, Like the wideness of the sea; There’s a

kindness in His justice, Which is more than liberty. There is grace enough for

thousands Of new worlds as great as this; There is room for fresh creations In that

upper home of bliss. For the love of God is broader Than the measure of our mind;

And the heart of the Eternal Is most wonderfully kind.” (F. W. Faber).

2. “I am so glad that our Father in Heav’n Tells of His love in the Book He has giv’n;

Wonderful things in the Bible I see, This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me. I am

so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus

loves me, Jesus loves even me.” (P. P. Bliss).

C. Let it be known

1. That His love is wide enough for the worst of sinners.

2. That His love is wide enough for the most stubborn of rebels

3. That His love is wide enough for the most unlovable.

4. That His love is wide enough for the most phony of hypocrites and pretenders.

5. That His love is wide enough for the red and yellow, black and white – for all are

precious in His sight.

6. That while there is a tremendous inclusiveness in His love, there is also

exclusiveness. That is, those who ignore, spurn, reject, or refuse His love have

effectively excluded themselves from the milieu or environment and benefits of that

love.

D. A man, I’ll call him Sam, told this story: “When I was in college I was part of a

fraternity initiation committee. We placed the new members in the middle of a long

stretch of a country road. I was to drive my car at as great a speed as possible straight

at them. The challenge was for them to stand firm until a signal was given to jump

out of the way. It was a dark night. I had reached one hundred miles an hour and saw