For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
A street preacher at the Island in Pigeon Forge, TN. would stand on the sidewalk with a mic and speaker and share the gospel as people walked into the shopping/entertainment area. My wife and I often walked that path along the river, so we heard him speak quite often. One night an angry heckler yelled back at him some derogatory comment about Jesus and to go away. The preacher, in a soft, caring, saddened voice said something like, "How can you hate Jesus when all He ever did was love you so much that He left His throne in Heaven, took on a human body and suffered and died on the cross for you? He never did anything to you but love you and yet you hate him?"
Paul in this passage is telling us that understanding how much God loves us is essential to our growth which he describes as "to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." He says that it is this love that roots us and establishes us. I saw a picture on Facebook today of a young man holding his newborn baby in his arms. This would have been a precious picture deserving of a heart emoji except for the fact that this young man, once an active member of the church youth group went to college, forsook the faith and has lived an ungodly lifestyle and is living with this woman, not his first, and now has a child. He, like Eve, bought the devil's lie that God didn't truly love him and was keeping him from something good, so he forsook the love of Christ in search of what God was withholding from him. Understanding how much God loves us is essential to our establishment, roots - our perseverance.
We have a tendency to view God through His other attributes such as truth, holiness, justice and wrath, immutability, omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, eternality, creativeness and others, all of which make Him who He is, but we see love sometimes lower down on the list or at best equal to all the others. The fact of the matter is that the love of God trumps all His other qualities. When Moses asks to see Him, God introduces Himself as the God who is rich in grace abounding in love. When Jonah runs from the Ninevites it's not because of fear but rather because he knows that God is "abounding in love"(Jonah 4:2) and that will trump the judgement that the Ninevites so desperately deserved.
When we read our Bible and go through the difficulties of life, the love of God needs to be the lens we filter these things through. God is giving us counter-cultural rules for living because He knows these lead to flourishing on account that He loves us and wants the best for us. When we don't get the job or the promotion we want it's because He loves us and has something better for us. And the ultimate love is that when we leave this world, He has been preparing an eternal home for us and waits to welcome us who believe with open arms. How can you not love a God like that?
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