“…And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19
Dear Ones:
If there is one word which could express, and communicate to us, the highest and most eloquently beautiful attribute of God, it is the word “love.” But, this love is not of man’s conception or devising. Peter learned the difference between the love of God, and that of man, when the Lord confronted him three times with the question: “Do you love Me?” (Jn.21:15-17) Just as Nicodemus was faced with the impossibility of being born again, in and of himself, so sinful man is faced with this issue of “love,” without capacity, power, or wisdom to know or live it. This is why the Apostle Paul tells us that “…it passes knowledge,” because it can only come from God. What then IS Love, this love of God?
Let us begin by seeing that this love is not a thing. It is what Scripture calls a “fruit of the Spirit,” the greatest expression of the character and nature of God. This expression, or attribute, is revealed to us in several ways. The first has to do with WHO God truly IS. John, in his first letter, makes the simple statement: “God IS love.” (4:8) Love is the essential nature of God. It is who and what He IS. John tells us, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” (4:9) Though it is impossible to grasp and understand the love of God which passes knowledge, God has revealed to us something of its meaning by its greatest expression towards mankind…the giving of His Son. How is it that the Creator and Redeemer, would stoop so low, as to give His Son from heaven, to die on a cross, to save hopeless, helpless, and sinfully lost mankind? It is in the answer to this question that we begin to see something of the love of God.
If our concepts of true love are to be right, then we need to see again that the love of God is NOT of this world. It has no point of reference in sinful man. John again, in his epistle writes, making this so very clear: “Herein is love, NOT that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (v.10) If we are to begin to understand this love of God, trust Him for it, and live in the reality and power of it, then we need of necessity to see that we do NOT have this love in and of ourselves…it is a gift, even the gift and expression of the Life of Christ by His Spirit. We are not called to fabricate such love, but to receive it by faith.
How then are we to practically know this love, individually and as a church body? Three times in Shekleton’s great hymn on the subject, he writes that he is an “empty vessel,” an “empty sinner.” Being fully persuaded of his emptiness, deprived of this love of God, he then turns his undivided attention to heaven, to God in prayer: “O fill me, Jesus, Savior, with Thy love! Lead, lead me to the living fount above; There may I, in simple faith draw nigh, And never to another fountain fly, But unto Thee..” What is Shekleton saying? He is declaring to God that his need is immeasurable and eternal. And he has NO way of meeting it. He cannot fabricate or replicate this love of God. However, God has given Shekleton a glimpse of this love. With great thirst of heart and soul, he pours forth his prayer, a prayer calling upon the mercy and grace of God to FILL him with this love of Christ. Will God not answer such a prayer? Certainly, for this IS the will of God, that we KNOW and live this love of Christ, by the Spirit.
Dear Father, give us an ever-increasing vision of Thy love, that we might by faith KNOW it, seeking Thee. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad