Q&A

Q: What does Ephesians 3:17–19 teach about the love of Christ?
A: Ephesians 3:17–19 teaches that the love of Christ is so vast and profound that it surpasses human understanding, yet believers can continually grow in their knowledge and experience of that love.

Q: What does it mean to be rooted and grounded in love?
A: Being rooted and grounded in love means that believers are established and sustained by God’s love through Christ, receiving both spiritual stability and continual nourishment from Him.

Q: How can Christians better understand God’s love?
A: Christians grow in their understanding of God’s love through studying Scripture, fellowshipping with other believers, abiding in Christ, and applying God’s Word in daily life.

I. INTRODUCTION 

This week I would like to turn our attention to a small but powerful passage of Scripture found in the text of Paul’s letter to the Church at Ephesus: 

And that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:17–19). 

At first glance, this particular passage may seem to be expressing the priority of love over knowledge per the last stanza. The preeminence of love over knowledge is certainly expressed in 1 Corinthians 13:1 wherein the great apostle states, If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Elsewhere, in comparing knowledge to love, Paul makes a similar comparison: knowledge puffs up, but love edifies (1 Corinthians 8:1, NKJV). For certain, pursuing knowledge should take a back seat to the priority of love. Love must be the primary pursuit of the believer’s life. 

In this week’s passage, what then does Paul mean when he offers for consideration the love of Christ … surpassing knowledge? Ephesians 3 is not so much a comparison of knowledge to love (as is the case of 1 Corinthians 8:1 and 13:1) as it is a proclamation concerning the mental incomprehensibility of love: the vastness of the love of Christ is unintelligible in ways similar to star gazing. Peering into the sky at night advances the incomprehensibility of the universe more than it does the knowledge of it. The greater a person’s knowledge of the universe becomes—or, in this case, of love itself—the greater is the sober admission of its incomprehensibility! 

What we hope to do with this clarification is to underscore this: the more the believer understands about God’s love, the more he or she is amazed by its vastness! The love of God is mentally unfathomable! Nonetheless, 

The grand goal of this study to help us garner a greater comprehension of the incomprehensibility of the total comprehensibility of the love of God. 

A further extremely important perspective is in order relative to the tension between knowledge and love. In declaring the preeminence of love over knowledge, asserting the converse is improper: that a person in ardent pursuit of knowledge is inevitably unloving. Those who minimize the importance of knowledge relative to spiritual experience often convey this attitude. To illustrate this point metaphorically, someone who eats at the dinner table for three hours a night might not be puffed up at all (physically speaking). In fact, he could be competing in the Tour de France in the morning! The thorough mental and spiritual preparedness of the believer is quite necessary for any especially lofty kingdom assignments—such as serving Christ in a nation’s capital! Those who pursue knowledge are not necessarily unloving. 

Whether the pursuit of knowledge is appropriate or even sinful depends on motives. In the book of Proverbs, the word knowledge appears 40 times, always related to and descriptive of a wise person. Proverbs 1:22 states, “How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?” Later, in Proverbs 1:28–29, knowledge is directly related to finding God: “Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.” These passages are but two that characterize the pursuit of knowledge in a positive light. 

CapMin’s study, “The Essentiality of Knowledge,” fully discusses these proverbs and the Apostle John’s powerful passage (1 John 2:12-14) illustrating the Bible teaching that a believer’s faith in Christ must be as cognitive as it is loving. Consider adding it to your Must Read list. 

Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that in the Christian life the pursuit of love minimizes that of knowledge. 

With this understanding and balance of knowledge to love fully cemented, Ephesians 3:17–19, is a primary descriptor of love, providing the believer with keen insights relative to its profundity and enormity. What follows are four aspects from this passage regarding how God blesses the believer with love. Let us examine each of these great truths. 

II. THE BEDROCK OF LOVE 

And that you, being rooted and grounded in love 

Right before the passage under study this week (in 3:17), Paul states that Christ may dwell in your hearts. Contextually, this is not a soteriological statement, but rather one pertaining to the believer’s sanctification, and that is, Christ would be at home in the heart of every believer. Therefore, we believers are rooted and grounded in love to the degree we allow Christ to dwell in our hearts. Being rooted and grounded are inseparably linked. 

Obviously, these two words, rooted and grounded, are used metaphorically. The former is a botanical word that compares the believer to a plant—rooted in the love of God. Grounded is borrowed from the world of architecture and expresses the idea of being established on a foundation of love. While mixed metaphors may have made your high school English teacher get out her red pen, with these participles Paul communicates excellent theology, implying that love will be a constant source (rooted) and stabilizing force (grounded). Both are gifts from God in the life of the believer. 

How is this so? When we are saved, the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us states Paul in Romans 5:5. 

Second Thessalonians 3:5 asserts that it is the Lord who guides our hearts into the love of God. Accordingly, at salvation the believer is strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man (Ephesians 3:16). He or she is in the position of being filled with all of Christ’s love; therefore, a believer immediately becomes rooted and grounded in love at salvation. Such is the very nature of every true follower of Christ who has been born from above by Him. This incomprehensible love coming from God is a gift bestowed in you! In essence, every believer is a very loving person! Whether the believer has matured to live out this truth is another thing. 

Love (agapé) means “unconditional love” and is used here to refer an imputed characteristic given at salvation rather than an emotion. When we have properly dealt with our sin and our selfishness, this love naturally flows from every believer’s life. We will find ourselves wanting to serve others and sacrifice for them. Even if others have wronged us, we will find the capacity to forgive because God’s love has been bestowed in our hearts by Him. Love then, in this sense, is not a set of conjured or faked emotions. 

Love is the bedrock of every true believer. Its unrelenting persistent presence authenticates true conversion. 

Lastly before moving on, worth underscoring here for the sake of clarity is Paul’s overall perspective in this passage: keep in mind what is being taught here by Paul relates not to our love for Christ, but His love for us. Namely, Paul is praying for the believer’s ability to comprehend the greatness of God’s love toward us (cf. Romans 5:8) as we shall further see. 

III. THE BROTHERHOOD OF LOVE 

may be able to comprehend with all the saints 

The phrase with all the saints refers to the need of every believer to be in fellowship with other believers. But remember the object of the comprehension in which Paul is stating with all the saints: fellowship is necessary in order to fully comprehend God’s love! The writer of Hebrews 10:25 echoes this idea when he encourages us, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some. Furthermore, in John 13:35, Christ declares the right the unbelieving world has been given to judge the credibility of the body of Christ by the presence or absence of agapé love. Jesus states therein, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

Accordingly, this critical importance cannot be stressed enough: believers in the Capitol must not forsake assembling together as they must maintain unity and love for one another! How very sad to see so many Members who are flippant about their commitment to the body of Christ in the Capitol. It should come as no surprise because of this lack of fellowship that spiritually isolated believers often are the ones who prematurely leave office: is it not predictable, given what this passage is saying? No wonder they leave asking, “Where’s the love?” 

Receiving the nutrition of God’s love is difficult when solitary believers avoid the very saints that God has put in place in order to keep them sustained and encouraged. Likened to a lone wolf in the cold of winter, believers, perhaps naive to this passage, place themselves in the way of discouragement and even danger. Beloved, do not be counted among them: fulfill your calling in the nation’s capital by staying encouraged by the brethren! 

Avoiding fellowship and Bible study with other believers weakens both the individual and the overall witness of the ministry in and to the Capitol. 

Precisely, your failure to be with all the saints hinders your ability to comprehend the love of God in a place that is often dark, cold, impersonal and full of betrayal. “Several logs burn brightly together, remove one and the glow soon ceases,” stated the late founder of Cru, Dr. Bill Bright. 

How well spoken and fitting! 

Understanding the meaning of comprehension plays back to the introduction of this study. There are no shortcuts to comprehending the love of God. Every believer must become a student of the Word of God in order to comprehend. Again, a good Bible study is designed to achieve both of the aspects of this passage simultaneously: comprehension of the Word and being with all the saints. 

Comprehension comes from being continually immersed in the things of God, especially His Word. Your words were found and I ate them, Jeremiah declared, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I have been called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts ( Jeremiah 15:16). Job testified, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” ( Job 23:12), and the Psalmist tells us that the delight of the righteous person is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:2; cf. 19:9–10; 119:167; etc.). There is no substitute for public servants studying God’s Word together in the capital! 

It is incongruous to say in your district that God has called you to D.C. but then when you’re on the Hill to forsake comprehending His Word with all the others He’s called here! 

Considering this week’s passage, the lack of personal and corporate comprehension of the love of Christ on the Hill is totally understandable if believers forsake the corporate study of the Word of God. 

IV. THE BIGNESS OF LOVE 

what is the breadth and length and height and depth 

Paul now attempts to expand the believer’s mind relative to the enormity of God’s love. In one sense, he is praying that the Ephesians would further comprehend that which is inherently incomprehensible. The following describes the love of God available to us 

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A love which is wide enough to embrace the world
( John 3:16) 

A love which is long enough to last forever
(1 Corinthians 13:8) 

A love which is high enough to take sinners to heaven
(1 John 3:1, 2) 

A love which is deep enough to reach the lowest of the lost
(Philippians 2:8) 

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An unknown prisoner once expressed the infinitude of God’s love this way: 

Could we with ink the oceans fill, 

And were the skies of parchment made, 

Were every stalk on earth a quill 

And every man a scribe by trade; 

To write the love of God above 

Would drain the oceans dry; 

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, 

Though stretched from sky to sky. 

God’s love is really big; it can transform the worst sinner into the strongest and most magnetic of persons for God’s glory. We need try to comprehend that miracle of the moment! 

V. THE BENEFICIARY OF LOVE 

and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge 

Whereas formerly the incomprehensibility and immensity of Christ’s love are delineated, herein they are brought to fore. The phrase, to know the love of Christ, means that at the end of the day the believer must grow in his experiential knowledge and understanding of love. As a believer comprehends God’s love intellectually, he lives it out accordingly. Herein is a love which the believer can begin to comprehend in ways which the unbeliever cannot. 

Lastly, the words surpassing knowledge need careful parsing as alluded to in the introduction. Simply stated, to speak of Christ’s love as surpassing knowledge means that it is so great that one can never know it fully. Again, the wording of this passage does not suggest any disparagement of knowledge. In other words, in this passage, Paul purpose is not the comparison and expression of superiority of love to knowledge (although he does elsewhere); rather, that God’s love is so vast it surpasses a human’s finite ability to ever comprehend it totally. 

VI. SUMMARY 

In order to experience the love of God, the believer must study the Word of God and be in close proximity with other believers. Assembling together not only helps buoy the individual believer in terms of his or her ability to comprehend God’s love on a continual basis in a difficult environment such as the Capitol, but it also facilitates a credible and powerful personal and corporate witness—all to the glory of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.