The Vast Dimensions of God's Love



- this is from our Wednesday Night Ephesians Study I am currently teaching at church. Some of this I will post on Facebook, but the full text of this snippet is on the Warriors of God Forums in the "Voice of the Watchman" Bible Study Forum. I will put a link to the full text on Facebook. This blessed me, and I hope it blesses you:
We may comprehend (katalambano), which is to seize the knowledge and fully possess it. We are to fully possess the personal knowledge of the love of Christ.
He makes it clear that the fullness of his love has depth of dimensions. It is not the shallow human love that is usually selfish in nature, but it has width, and length, and depth and height. Some would argue that height and depth are the same thing, but they are opposite ends of the same plane.
We are “rooted” and “grounded” in this love which Paul is praying about, and that is our foundation of our spiritual temple of God which Jesus (and the Holy Spirit) inhabits (for those reading this on Warriors of God, read up above this in Ephesians to understand the context - it is for the teaching at church who has already gone over it). OUR FOUNDATION IS LOVE.
In fact, the word ‘rooted’ shows that the foundation goes deep as in with a tree. The tree with the deep roots that is connected into a good water supply shall grow the most and be able to weather the storms. You see this imagery in Psalm 1. Psalm 1:1-3 (NKJV) “ 1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. “
So, our foundation base is firmly grounded and rooted deeply in the love of God.
BUT NOW, THAT LOVE IS EXPANDED BEYOND JUST THE BASE OF OUR BEING AND EXPANDS TO HEIGHT, DEPTH, WIDTH, AND LENGTH. This love is now growing in us and the prayer is that we will personally and experientially know this multi-dimensional love of CHRIST.
You see, Jesus Christ loves both to the highest heights when you are walking in Him and He also loves you when you fall to your lowest of lows. Those are opposite directions, but the LOVE OF GOD is found in both of those. See, God is love and He loves those who are fallen (Romans 5:8-10) and those who are low as well as those who He has elevated in that love to great heights (Ephesians 2:6).
Ephesians 2:6 (NKJV) “ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, “
Even those who have strayed thinking that their way is best who has been living in the filth of the world and thrown away all the good things of God that was in their lives as the Prodigal Son did, God still loves them and when they decide to come home and turn to come back, the Father will run to meet them out of purest love for his child and will restore what the child had thrown away in love (Luke 15:20-24).
Luke 15:20-24 (NKJV) “ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry. “
His love is wide and goes far. It does not matter your background or ethnic heritage or what denomination if any that you come out of, for God loves us all. Jesus Christ gave His life for you and for me… one and all (Romans 10:12-13).
Romans 10:12-13 (NKJV) 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
It has been said that the love of Christ is wide enough to include each and every person, and indeed the Word makes it clear that it is not God’s will that any should perish but all should come to repentance, and that Jesus died for the sin of the whole world out of God’s love for us all (John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9). IT TRULY IS DEEP AND WIDE. It is deep enough to reach down to the lowest sinner and wide enough to get us all no matter where we come from if we will but use this faith and receive God’s love and salvation.
John 3:16 (NKJV) “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. “
2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV) “ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. “
It is long enough (length) to take us all the way to Heaven. Jesus Christ (according to Hebrews 12:2) is the author and “finisher” of our salvation. His love is not only sufficient to bring to us the new birth and redeem us out of sin, but to keep us all the way to Heaven.
Hebrews 12:2 (NKJV) “ looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. “
It reaches past obstacles and it even goes past this life through death. It will take someone at the lowest depths and bless them if they will by faith receive it to the highest heights.
This is God’s infinite, and therefore unknowable love that Paul is praying that God reveals so that they (as all of who are saved) should come to intimately know it. Knowing the unknowable is something that only the Holy Spirit can do in us by opening it up to us. The thing about love is that it is ever expanding if you by faith open yourself up to be filled with it. It will make more room in your life for more love and it can always expand as you grow in the Lord and your faith.
The song, “The Love of God” comes to mind, for God’s love is infinite as He is. You can have that love for yourself for it is deep enough and wide enough to include you if you will just take it by faith. It is long enough to keep you all the way as you continue to walk in faith and keep yourselves in the love of God. Jude 1:21 (NKJV) “ keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. “
You see here in this prayer the need to know an attribute of God that we can never fully know on our own. However, we can know God’s love in an intimate, personal way by the presence of the Lord in our lives. God is love, and if God makes His permanent residence (abode) in us, so does the love of God dwell in us also. We have this by faith (who God gave a measure of faith to all of us to use as well).
1 John 4:8 (NKJV) “ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. “
John 4:23 tells us that God is Spirit; Leviticus 20:26, Psalm 99:9, 1 Peter 1:16 tells us that God is holy; and 1 John 1:5 tells us that God is Light (see also John 1 and 3); and here in 1 John 4:8 we learn that God is love and these are all attributes of the same One God. You cannot separate God’s character or nature of holiness and love.
All of these attributes can only be known to us (mankind) as God reveals Himself to us. We understand as His presence and Holy Spirit reveals the truth of His character to us. When we walk daily in the Spirit, we pray daily and put ourselves on the altar (Romans 12:1-2) to put to death the carnality in our lives and have our minds renewed as the Spirit reveals God in all these attributes in our lives, including love.
Agape LOVE is another attribute of God which passes natural human understanding according to this in Ephesians 3:19. In Philippians 4, we are told that we can know the peace that passes all understanding, and here this is the love of Jesus the Messiah which passes all understanding for it is literally of YAHWEH (GOD).
Interestingly, those are both attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit which the Holy Spirit produces inside of the Saints. Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV) “ 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. “
Peace is also mentioned as being part of the Kingdom of God along with joy (which above goes between love and peace) and righteousness in the Holy Spirit in Romans 14:17. Romans 14:17 (NKJV) “ for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. “
“Know” here is the Greek ginosko, while knowledge here is of course is the Greek gnosis (where the word Gnostic comes from). The knowledge is the knowledge of human ability that comes from science and the teaching of others, etc. But the “ginosko” is a more personal understanding. It is more than just knowing things (even so-called secret knowledge of demonic origin the mystics would say makes them superior), but it is a personal, intimate understanding of the love of God given because we are literally the habitation of the Lord. He lives inside us and He is love. He shares that love with us, which gives us an intimate knowledge that goes beyond any other kind of natural (or other) knowledge. It is an understanding that comes from Jesus Christ’s presence inside of us. It is a spiritual, intimate knowing of the Lord and His love because He has shared it into our innermost being.
Ginosko is used for “knowing your wife”, which is to be sexually intimate with her. It is the bonding of a man and woman sexually which has a spiritual content to it. It is a word for intimacy. Here, it is used not sexually, but in a way that is just as intimate spiritually with God. We can “know” the love of Jesus Christ intimately and experience it personally where we are made one with the Lord in a spiritual (not sexual) sense.
1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV) “ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. “
We can intimately know this agape love of God that flows in and through us because we are ONE SPIRIT with the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ.
Faith, love, and spiritual knowledge (which far surpasses natural knowledge) of that love is the way to be FILLED WITH ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD. It is a doorway to the deeper things of God and having more and more of the Lord to fill our lives.
Ephesians 3:18-19 (CJB) “ 18 so that you, with all God’s people, will be given strength to grasp the breadth, length, height and depth of the Messiah’s love, 19 yes, to know it, even though it is beyond all knowing, so that you will be filled with all the fullness of God. “ –Complete Jewish Bible Translation
May 29, 2013
Jim

© 2013 by James Coldiron and Voice of the Watchman Ministries
aka FireStorm or firestorm005 on Warriors of God
For questions of comments, please feel free to post a reply here on Warriors of God. I will respond to Facebook also, but it is much better on the forums. Thank you.
- this is from our Wednesday Night Ephesians Study I am currently teaching at church. Some of this I will post on Facebook, but the full text of this snippet is on the Warriors of God Forums in the "Voice of the Watchman" Bible Study Forum. I will put a link to the full text on Facebook. This blessed me, and I hope it blesses you:
Ephesians 3:18-19 (NKJV) “ 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—Paul is ending this prayer by asking that you (those at Ephesus who he is writing to) along with all the Saints (those who are saved or the redeemed holy ones, and that is us) will be able to comprehend this love that he is praying that they are filled with and have their foundation upon that same love of God.
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. “
We may comprehend (katalambano), which is to seize the knowledge and fully possess it. We are to fully possess the personal knowledge of the love of Christ.
He makes it clear that the fullness of his love has depth of dimensions. It is not the shallow human love that is usually selfish in nature, but it has width, and length, and depth and height. Some would argue that height and depth are the same thing, but they are opposite ends of the same plane.
We are “rooted” and “grounded” in this love which Paul is praying about, and that is our foundation of our spiritual temple of God which Jesus (and the Holy Spirit) inhabits (for those reading this on Warriors of God, read up above this in Ephesians to understand the context - it is for the teaching at church who has already gone over it). OUR FOUNDATION IS LOVE.
In fact, the word ‘rooted’ shows that the foundation goes deep as in with a tree. The tree with the deep roots that is connected into a good water supply shall grow the most and be able to weather the storms. You see this imagery in Psalm 1. Psalm 1:1-3 (NKJV) “ 1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. “
So, our foundation base is firmly grounded and rooted deeply in the love of God.
BUT NOW, THAT LOVE IS EXPANDED BEYOND JUST THE BASE OF OUR BEING AND EXPANDS TO HEIGHT, DEPTH, WIDTH, AND LENGTH. This love is now growing in us and the prayer is that we will personally and experientially know this multi-dimensional love of CHRIST.
You see, Jesus Christ loves both to the highest heights when you are walking in Him and He also loves you when you fall to your lowest of lows. Those are opposite directions, but the LOVE OF GOD is found in both of those. See, God is love and He loves those who are fallen (Romans 5:8-10) and those who are low as well as those who He has elevated in that love to great heights (Ephesians 2:6).
Ephesians 2:6 (NKJV) “ and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, “
Even those who have strayed thinking that their way is best who has been living in the filth of the world and thrown away all the good things of God that was in their lives as the Prodigal Son did, God still loves them and when they decide to come home and turn to come back, the Father will run to meet them out of purest love for his child and will restore what the child had thrown away in love (Luke 15:20-24).
Luke 15:20-24 (NKJV) “ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry. “
His love is wide and goes far. It does not matter your background or ethnic heritage or what denomination if any that you come out of, for God loves us all. Jesus Christ gave His life for you and for me… one and all (Romans 10:12-13).
Romans 10:12-13 (NKJV) 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
It has been said that the love of Christ is wide enough to include each and every person, and indeed the Word makes it clear that it is not God’s will that any should perish but all should come to repentance, and that Jesus died for the sin of the whole world out of God’s love for us all (John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9). IT TRULY IS DEEP AND WIDE. It is deep enough to reach down to the lowest sinner and wide enough to get us all no matter where we come from if we will but use this faith and receive God’s love and salvation.
John 3:16 (NKJV) “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. “
2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV) “ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. “
It is long enough (length) to take us all the way to Heaven. Jesus Christ (according to Hebrews 12:2) is the author and “finisher” of our salvation. His love is not only sufficient to bring to us the new birth and redeem us out of sin, but to keep us all the way to Heaven.
Hebrews 12:2 (NKJV) “ looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. “
It reaches past obstacles and it even goes past this life through death. It will take someone at the lowest depths and bless them if they will by faith receive it to the highest heights.
This is God’s infinite, and therefore unknowable love that Paul is praying that God reveals so that they (as all of who are saved) should come to intimately know it. Knowing the unknowable is something that only the Holy Spirit can do in us by opening it up to us. The thing about love is that it is ever expanding if you by faith open yourself up to be filled with it. It will make more room in your life for more love and it can always expand as you grow in the Lord and your faith.
The song, “The Love of God” comes to mind, for God’s love is infinite as He is. You can have that love for yourself for it is deep enough and wide enough to include you if you will just take it by faith. It is long enough to keep you all the way as you continue to walk in faith and keep yourselves in the love of God. Jude 1:21 (NKJV) “ keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. “
You see here in this prayer the need to know an attribute of God that we can never fully know on our own. However, we can know God’s love in an intimate, personal way by the presence of the Lord in our lives. God is love, and if God makes His permanent residence (abode) in us, so does the love of God dwell in us also. We have this by faith (who God gave a measure of faith to all of us to use as well).
1 John 4:8 (NKJV) “ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. “
John 4:23 tells us that God is Spirit; Leviticus 20:26, Psalm 99:9, 1 Peter 1:16 tells us that God is holy; and 1 John 1:5 tells us that God is Light (see also John 1 and 3); and here in 1 John 4:8 we learn that God is love and these are all attributes of the same One God. You cannot separate God’s character or nature of holiness and love.
All of these attributes can only be known to us (mankind) as God reveals Himself to us. We understand as His presence and Holy Spirit reveals the truth of His character to us. When we walk daily in the Spirit, we pray daily and put ourselves on the altar (Romans 12:1-2) to put to death the carnality in our lives and have our minds renewed as the Spirit reveals God in all these attributes in our lives, including love.
Agape LOVE is another attribute of God which passes natural human understanding according to this in Ephesians 3:19. In Philippians 4, we are told that we can know the peace that passes all understanding, and here this is the love of Jesus the Messiah which passes all understanding for it is literally of YAHWEH (GOD).
Interestingly, those are both attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit which the Holy Spirit produces inside of the Saints. Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV) “ 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. “
Peace is also mentioned as being part of the Kingdom of God along with joy (which above goes between love and peace) and righteousness in the Holy Spirit in Romans 14:17. Romans 14:17 (NKJV) “ for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. “
“Know” here is the Greek ginosko, while knowledge here is of course is the Greek gnosis (where the word Gnostic comes from). The knowledge is the knowledge of human ability that comes from science and the teaching of others, etc. But the “ginosko” is a more personal understanding. It is more than just knowing things (even so-called secret knowledge of demonic origin the mystics would say makes them superior), but it is a personal, intimate understanding of the love of God given because we are literally the habitation of the Lord. He lives inside us and He is love. He shares that love with us, which gives us an intimate knowledge that goes beyond any other kind of natural (or other) knowledge. It is an understanding that comes from Jesus Christ’s presence inside of us. It is a spiritual, intimate knowing of the Lord and His love because He has shared it into our innermost being.
Ginosko is used for “knowing your wife”, which is to be sexually intimate with her. It is the bonding of a man and woman sexually which has a spiritual content to it. It is a word for intimacy. Here, it is used not sexually, but in a way that is just as intimate spiritually with God. We can “know” the love of Jesus Christ intimately and experience it personally where we are made one with the Lord in a spiritual (not sexual) sense.
1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV) “ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. “
We can intimately know this agape love of God that flows in and through us because we are ONE SPIRIT with the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ.
Faith, love, and spiritual knowledge (which far surpasses natural knowledge) of that love is the way to be FILLED WITH ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD. It is a doorway to the deeper things of God and having more and more of the Lord to fill our lives.
Ephesians 3:18-19 (CJB) “ 18 so that you, with all God’s people, will be given strength to grasp the breadth, length, height and depth of the Messiah’s love, 19 yes, to know it, even though it is beyond all knowing, so that you will be filled with all the fullness of God. “ –Complete Jewish Bible Translation
May 29, 2013
Jim
© 2013 by James Coldiron and Voice of the Watchman Ministries
aka FireStorm or firestorm005 on Warriors of God
For questions of comments, please feel free to post a reply here on Warriors of God. I will respond to Facebook also, but it is much better on the forums. Thank you.
