“that … he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:16-19).
Hard to Accept
You know the famous words, “For God so loved …” (John 3:16). You’ve heard the kids’ song, “Jesus loves me, this I know.” But do you know it? In our text, Paul prays that “all the saints” will grasp this game-changing truth (Eph. 3:14-21). Yet you could all-to-easily dismiss it — as if the message belongs to the watered down, sappy lessons of televangelists and too-easy, pseudo-Christian, bumper sticker religion. Or you might deflect it and hold it at bay, thinking, “Yeah, but he loves everybody.” You can depersonalize it by saying, “Yeah, but God’s love is emotionless goodness, not what we might think of as love.” You might even secretly deny it, believing, “Yeah, but he knows what I’ve done, how flawed I am. I’ve distanced myself too much to ever receive it.”
Far from soft sentimentality, nothing has ever been harder, grittier, or truer than Jesus’ commitment to love you.
God’s love for you is no feel-good idea peddled by ear-ticklers. Far from an empty platitude, his love is rich and full. Far from soft sentimentality, nothing has ever been harder, grittier, or truer than Jesus’ commitment to love you. Here we find our ROOT and GROUND (Eph. 3:17)! If you struggle in your walk with God, your root and ground are a good place to firm that up. As we sing, “When my love to Christ grows weak,” we can go to Calvary, to the garden, to God’s revelation of his love in Jesus Christ.
Hard to Understand
It’s hard to accept because it’s difficult to “comprehend … the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ” (Eph. 3:18–19). Trying to understand how much God loves you — and why he loves you so much — can feel like trying to get your arms around the sea. This love “surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:19), so how can we hope to know it? By God’s power that works in you (3:20)! Paul prays for the Spirit to strengthen us enough to know it (Eph. 3:14-19). To see it and believe it takes a different kind of eyes (Eph. 1:18) because Christ dwells in us “through faith” (Eph. 3:16). Christ’s death shows us God’s love (Rom. 5:8), and the Spirit pours his love into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). By faith, Paul, the persecutor, changed his life based on the love he saw in Jesus’ death. He declared, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
A New Soil to Grow In
Ukraine’s nutrient-rich black humus has been called the world’s most fertile soil. This “magic soil” — called “Chernozem” from the Russian words for “black earth” — offers the ideal land for grain to grow. But where can we find the best soil to nourish a thriving new life? When we’re “rooted” in love (Eph. 3:17), God’s love sustains us and sprouts loving commitment to others (5:2).
A New Ground of Being
God’s love doesn’t just nourish our roots. It grounds us (Eph. 3:17). Where “rooted” uses an agricultural metaphor, “grounded” offers an architectural metaphor. Christ’s love becomes the new foundational reality on which all else in your life gets constructed.
As you trust Christ’s love, it becomes your life’s controlling influence.
It’s an “unfailing love” (Ps. 36:7), a “steadfast love” (Ps. 86:15), the kind of solid rock you want to build upon. It’s a calming love that takes all of life’s noise and turns down the volume. It won’t take our problems away, but “he will quiet you by his love” (Zeph. 3:17). Robertson called this verse the John 3:16 of the Old Testament. In it, “Yahweh joins the people’s singing and soothes them by expressing love” (House). And it’s a love that changes us. As you trust Christ’s love, it becomes your life’s controlling influence. We begin to say with Paul, “The love of Christ controls us” (2 Cor. 5:14). The rest of the passage explains why: “because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor. 5:14–15).