Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 238

Life In Christ –  16

LOVE FILLS US WITH ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD

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Ephesians 3:17-19
(17)  that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
(18)  may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
(19)  and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Love is God’s great transforming power; and one of the primary tasks of the Holy Spirit is to love us so deeply that we are transformed into the image of God. 

The love of Christ that passes knowledge is the key to being “filled with all the fullness of God”. It is not theology, nor self-discipline, but love that takes us to the highest heights of spiritual experience – being filled with all the fullness of God.

God is more than can be known, but not more than can be loved. We can love that which we know only in part (as we soon find out in any deep human relationship) therefore we can love God and be loved by God. 

Now God’s love for us is more than mere sentimentality. It is a life-filling power that is poured into us by the Holy Spirit. 
Romans 5:5
(5)  And hope does not make us ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.

The Scriptures refer to Christians as vessels - as empty objects that are either filled with God’s love, or with God’s wrath (Romans 9:24-27).  We cannot remain empty for long and either the demonic or the holy will fill the spiritual vacuum in the human heart. How then do we get filled with God? Love opens us up to receive God, in all His fullness and power. God is love (1 John 4:8), and therefore it should be no surprise that love is the key to His indwelling. 

Firstly we should be “rooted and grounded in love”. The very foundation of our personality should not be in competitiveness or achievement or status seeking - but rather be in love. The true Christian does not find the ground of his being in the workplace or the ground of her being in many possessions – but rather the deep foundation of life, for the saint, is found in the love of God and fellow man

It is very easy to serve something other than love, to serve lusts or greed or ambition instead. But such service will not create the fullness of God in us. The only way to ascend in the Christian life is through faith, hope and love, not through church politics or any other lesser spiritual foundation.

Love opens up our being and makes us both larger people and better people. God’s love improves us. Have you ever been changed by someone’s love for you, by someone who believes in you and truly cares for you and listens to you?  God’s love is deeper even than that –and more transformational. 

Once we have laid the foundation of a loving life, we need to explore how large the building will be, and know the extent of what God has done for us, or as Paul says: “To be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height.” In other words we need to map out the full extent of the grace of God, to explore His riches and know His kindness toward us.

As we explore the love of Christ, it is then that we begin to truly trust it. We start to realize that His love is unending, and eternal and will still be with us when this world, and all that is in it, has passed away.

Once we trust in God’s love, it is then that it begins to change us most profoundly. It is the love that we “let in” that makes the difference. God pours out His love on many people, but few choose to receive it, and to trust in it, and to let it change them from within.

Baron Von Heugel defined prayer as “letting Jesus into your heart”.  We have to trustingly let God love us as He wishes to love us, to move in us and cause us to rejoice in hope and exult in glory.

Paul knew the difficulty of this, he knew that few Christians really sense the Holy Spirit pouring the love of God into their hearts and transforming them from within into the image of God. So Pal prayed earnestly for it, bending his knees before the Father, humbly beseeching God that we may know His love at depth.

In doing so Paul has left us an example and a prayer, and God has chosen to add it to His Scriptures. If you are a pastor or elder pray that your people know the love of Christ, if you are a parent, pray that your children know the love of Christ.

We cannot change ourselves too much at all, but God can fill us with all the fullness of God, with astonishing personal transformation as we respond to His love, that is unleashed through believing prayer.

Blessings,

John Edmiston <johned@aibi.ph>

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