Dimensions of God’s Love || Ephesians 3:17-19 || Manna of the Mind #65

Welcome to Day 65 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional series! This series is about taking scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses) and building our understanding of their teachings through their context and connecting scripture. I believe that doing this helps us understand how to be the type of human that God created us to be.

Today, we delve into the profound Ephesians 3:17-19 passage, which invites us to personally experience the vastness of God’s love and share it with others.

Ephesians 3:17-19

17           Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

18           And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

19           May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Comprehending God’s love means understanding how wide, long, high, and deep it is. God’s love is wide, covering the breadth of our experience and reaching out to the whole world. God’s love is found in everything we experience and interact within the world. We have to be intentionally aware of what that love can show up as and what the impact of it means for us in the season we’re in. God’s love is long, extending throughout our lives and into eternity. God’s love is something we experience from our first breath to our last breath and into eternity if we receive salvation from accepting God as our Lord and Savior. God’s love is high, rising to the heights of our celebration. A big part of our responsibilities as Christians is to share the glory of God with the world, as there is no limit to the joy he brings. God’s love is deep, reaching the depths of discouragement, despair, and death. While God wants us to celebrate the joys of our lives, God also meets us at our lows. He walks with us through our frustrations, anxieties, and grief. The resurrection power of Christ is what defeated death, hell, and the grave and raised Jesus into the eternal realm.

Overall, God’s love is complete through Christ. We are complete in our relationship with Christ and through the Holy Spirit. We are made whole. We lack nothing. We have nothing to lose. We have nothing to fear. God’s fullness resides within us, and how we respond to the world is a response to our relationship with God. We must claim that fullness daily by living in touch with the Holy Spirit through faith and prayer. We can ask the Holy Spirit to fully fill every part of our lives and know that he will respond. Invite the Holy Spirit into your relationships to strengthen them. Invite the Holy Spirit into your career to help strengthen the kingdom of God. Invite the Holy Spirit into your community to learn how to live and love as Jesus did.

Judas shares these concerns in John 14:22-23. We’ll focus on Jesus’ response, though.

John 14:22-23

22           Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”

23           Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.”

The disciples expected Jesus to establish an earthly kingdom during his ministry to overthrow Rome. Because that wasn’t what Jesus was about, they found it difficult to understand why he didn’t tell the world about who he was. Using the concept of power and status, which was essential to them, they wanted Jesus to force the kingdom on Earth to take down Rome. That wasn’t what Jesus, God, or our relationship with them was about. Jesus confronted Judas by saying that those who truly loved him would know who he was. Jesus would teach those around him about the message of the Kingdom of God, and they would share the Gospel. Jesus wouldn’t flaunt or boast about who he was or what he could, but let his words, actions, and teachings talk for them. Only some people understood who Jesus really was.

Since Pentecost, the Good News of the Kingdom has been shared with the world, but not everyone wants to hear, receive, or believe it. Jesus shares with us directly the most profound revelations of himself when we genuinely want to know, love, and obey him. I’ve learned so much about the teachings of Christ through my studies for this blog and my work in churches over the past decade. It’s taught me about the intricacies of the Bible, the different contexts of the different books, and the different understandings of how to implement the teachings into the world.

Paul shares with the Colossians how to allow that love to grow in you and spread to the world. Join me in Colossians 2:7, 9-10.

Colossians 2:7, 9-10

7             Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

9             For in Christ lives all the full of God in a human body.

10           So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

Paul uses the illustration of us being rooted in Christ. Just as plants draw nourishment from the soil through their roots, we draw our life-giving strength from Christ. The more we draw our life-giving strength from him, the less we will be fooled or enabled by those falsely claiming to know all of life’s answers. Reading the Bible isn’t just a quick-fix solution for how to gain that strength. There needs to be continual nourishment for our souls to understand and comprehend the teachings and how we can understand them in our everyday lives.

All of God was in Christ’s human body, meaning he was neither another god nor less than God. We have Christ, meaning we have everything needed for salvation and godly living. People search for something to give their life meaning, purpose, and direction. We can find through Christ, but a strange and vague inner vacuum often leaves most people wanting more out of life or feeling incomplete. Only Christ can fill that place.

When you know Jesus Christ, you don’t need to try and connect with God through other religions, cults, or unbiblical philosophies like the Colossian church was doing. Christ alone holds the answers to the true meaning of life because he is life. He is the unique source of knowledge and power for the Christian life. No Christian needs anything to find salvation over what Christ has provided. I need to share that denominations are not a bad thing. I’ve been a part of the United Methodist and Baptist denominations for most of my life, and being with many like-minded believers has been a blessing. However, when the denomination starts to lose focus on the message of Christ or becomes more like a business/political center, we see denominations start to fall apart. However, the denominations themselves will not provide you with what a relationship with God can provide. We don’t believe in the denomination, but we believe in Christ and exact that belief through the denomination.

I will close with these reminders instead of my usual prayer because we need to take these four things into our hearts to internalize what God’s love is about and how to share it with the world.

Take some risks, and God will guide you.

Give more generously, and God will supply what you need.

Love more freely, and God will energize you.

Say “can do” more often – God will amaze you.