How many of us truly grasp the depth of God’s love, which we often sing about in church? Some of us may not fully understand the width, length, and depth of His love for us because we all grew up receiving love differently. Many of our parents gave us what they themselves received from their parents. Not that they loved us less, it’s just how they learned to love. When we were in the world we had the wrong concept of love. For some, it was hard to believe that anyone could love them because they genuinely cared for them. For others, someone may have told them they loved them, but then abused their love, causing them to distrust anyone. Today, we are going to talk about the dimensions of God’s love for us, a love that truly surpasses all understanding.
We are grateful for God’s unconditional love. He paid such a high price for us that it is sometimes impossible to understand. If we look at Ephesians 3:18-19 it says, “That you, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, length, depth, and height and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fulness of God. So how can we know God’s love which surpasses knowledge? How can we grasp the infinite love of our Savior? God’s Spirit can give us an inner knowledge and experience of it. When we take a look at the width of a river, we know its width by how much it covers the land. God’s river of love is so wide that it covers over our many sins, and it covers over every circumstance in our life, even our failures, so much so His word tells us that all things work together for our good. When we doubt God’s forgiveness or His sustaining power in our lives, we are narrowing the river of God’s mighty love. His love is as wide as the world: For God so loved the world (John 3:16). Now, let us look at the ocean, we will never understand the ocean just by looking at it, we have to sail on it and sometimes jump into its waters to study the depth of it. It’s a scary thing to look at because of the extent and largeness of it. Yet, God Himself is infinite and eternal, beyond man’s full understanding. This is how deep God’s love is for us. It’s deeper than the deepest part of the ocean. This is where He threw our sins, and rebellions to never be remembered again (Micah 7:19). God’s love for us is proved by His actions, not just His words. John 15:13 tells us that “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. Can you imagine the Creator of all of Heaven and Earth calling us friends, but not only that, He willingly gave His life for us. He knew there was no other way for us to be redeemed but only through His sacrifice.
Two of the greatest commandments in the bible are “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and the second like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The Greek word agape (ἀγάπη) is the standard word for love in the New Testament, and maybe you’ve heard that it points to a specific kind of love: a selfless, giving, non-emotional love—opposite the friendship kind of love philia (φιλία). God’s love for us is not measured by what we do or do not do. He just simply loves us. This is the kind of love the world needs, because in reality, we already know we are sinners and need forgiveness. I encourage you to seek God’s agape love with all your heart and allow Him to reassure you that everything will be okay. It’s a beautiful thing to enter His presence knowing He is waiting with arms wide open, ready to fill us with His Amazing Love.
Sources
Comments