“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.“–Eph. 3:17-19
The Dimensions of the Love of Christ! It is broad as humanity, “for God so loved the world” (Jn 3:16, cp 1Jn 3:16); the length God’s love had no date of origin, and shall have none of conclusion. God is Love (1Jn 4:8, 16), it continues ever, indissoluble, unchangeable, a perpetual present tense. Its height–as the Flood out-topped the highest mountains, so that Love covers our highest sins. It is as high as the heaven above the earth. Its depth–Christ our Lord descended into the lowest before He rose to the highest. He has touched the bottomless pit of our sin and misery, sorrow and need. However low your fall, or lowly your lot, the everlasting arms (Deut 33:27) of His love are always underneath.
The Apostle talks by hyperbole, when he prays that we may attain to a knowledge of the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. We cannot gauge Christ’s love, but we can enjoy it. Probably the only way to know the love of Christ is to begin to show it. The emotionalist, who is easily affected by appeals to the senses, does not know it; the theorist or rhapsodist does not know it, but the soul that endeavours to show the love of Christ, knows it. As Christ’s love through you broadens, lengthens, deepens, heightens, you will know the love of Christ, not intellectually, but experimentally (1Jn 4:11, 1Jn 4:12; 1Jn 4:20, 21).
But you say, “there are people in my life whom I cannot love.” Granted, but you must distinguish between love and the emotion or feeling of love. You may not be able to feel love at the outset, but you can be willing to be the channel of Christ’s love. I cannot love, but Christ is in me, and He can. Is it too much to ask that all this should be realized in ourselves and in others? No, because God is already at work within us by His Holy Spirit, and He is able to do infinitely beyond all our highest requests or thoughts. Ask your furthest, think your highest, and the Divine Love is always infinitely in advance.
We thank Thee, O God, for the infinite love which Thou hast given us in Jesus Christ. We have no measure for its heights and depths, its breadths and lengths. Teach us with all saints to know more because we love more. AMEN.–F B Meyer
