God Is Love

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, . . .” (Ephesians 3:17-18).

Read Ephesians 3:14-19.

Deceptive ideas about God and His love as benign, spineless, insipid, and universally neutral are gaining momentum in the West like an avalanche. In reality, the love of God is active, even fierce. His love cost Him a colossal and incalculable price. The love of God displayed in the gift of Jesus Christ is astonishing and priceless. To equate it with the warm, fuzzy, and indifferent feelings of the “Love is love” mantra is a gross misunderstanding, a perversion, and, frankly, insulting.

When it comes to the disciples of Jesus, we must spend our lives attempting to comprehend the incomprehensible love of God and sharing its Truth. This is why Paul prayed that the Christians in Ephesus “may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18).

Right now, in this life, no matter how much we try to comprehend the love of God, we will only touch the surface. God’s love goes deeper still. In heaven, we will spend all eternity fully comprehending how wide, how long, how high, and how deep the love of God is.

Here and now, however, I want you to recognize three things about God’s love for us in Christ. First, His love is costly. The perfect Son of God, who never committed a sin, whose life was infinitely more valuable than all humanity put together, died for sinners. God gave Himself; there is nothing of greater value.

Second, His love was lavished on those who could never deserve it. If a spouse or a son or a daughter needed you, you would give them the breath in your lungs, wouldn’t you? But would you willingly lay down your life for someone who cursed and reviled you? The Bible says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Finally, God’s love culminates in immeasurable blessing. The apostle John wrote, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1). God doesn’t stop at merely saving sinners—He brings us into His family to make us co-heirs with His Son (see Romans 8:17). Then, He actually changes our nature so that we begin to bear a striking family resemblance (see 1 John 3:9): He makes us just like Jesus!

Prayer: Lord, thank You for Your astounding love. I pray that Your Spirit would empower me to understand it more and more each day and that I would be transformed by the joy and peace it brings. May I bless those around me with Your Truth delivered through an out-of-this-world love. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.