COMPREHENDING THE MAGNITUDE -- Tomorrow:
"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." (Ephesians 3:17-19)
" . . . that ye, being rooted and grounded in love . . ."
Eventually, the sun of opposition will rise upon the people of God. If their roots are not deep in the soil of grace, or, to put it another way, if they are not in active fellowship with Christ, they will wither and die. This is the meaning of Christ's words in the parable of the Sower. "And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: but when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away . . . "And in a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away" (Mark 4:5-6, 16 17, NASB).
Notice the area in which believers are to be "rooted and grounded (established, NIV)." The soil from which mature strength is drawn is "love." This is "love" in the objective sense, rather than the subjective sense. To put it another way, this not a love we develop, but which we receive -- the love of the Father and the Son for us. It is the love to which Jesus referred in the fourteenth chapter of John. "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be LOVED BY MY FATHER, and I WILL LOVE HIM, and will disclose Myself to him . . . Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and MY FATHER WILL LOVE HIM, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him" (v. 21,23). In these words, the love of God and Jesus is presented as conditional: "He who loves me . . . If anyone loves me and keeps my words."
We are grounded by experiencing God's love, not by loving God. This in no way minimizes our love for God, and its absolute indispensability. However, it is ever true, "We love, BECAUSE He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Mature love from us is not possible apart from the perception of His love for us.
Further, it is His love that makes us unmoveable. No wonder Paul shouted, "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:38-39).
Our apprehension of Divine life, which comes by perceiving the love of Christ (Eph 3:19), is what makes us stable. That is how faith saves the soul (Heb 10:39). It lays hold of the salvation provided by Divine love. God is endeared to those who appropriate His salvation through faith, and shows that endearment by stabilizing them in His love.
The strong implication of this text is that life in Christ can only flourish in the soil of spiritual love. Where this is not present, profession is empty and vain, and people are weak and insipid. It is unfortunate that most churches are not noted for a love for God, the Lord Jesus, and the truth, That simply means such people are not strong. They are not grounded, and Christ is not dwelling in their hearts by faith.
Mind you, Christ dwelling in the heart is the means of appropriating this benefit. Behind that lies the strengthening of the Holy Spirit, which allows Christ to dwell in our hearts. Further, the Holy Spirit operates through our faith, to make us "more than conquerors" in the devil's domain.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, I ask for grace to see Your love more clearly, and to love You more strongly and consistently. I am persuaded that I will be stabilized in that love.