Thursday, February 14, 2019

PT-4 "Loves Abundance" (Eph. 3:17b-19a)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/14/2019 10:09 AM



My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  PT-4 “Loves Abundance”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 3:17b-19a



            Message of the verses:  being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,”



            We ended our last SD talking about the words “breadth and length and height and dept” as seen in verse 18 but as John MacArthur states he does not believe that these represent four specific types or categories of love but simply suggest its vastness and completeness. No matter what way we go we can see God’s love.  For instance when we see that Jews and Gentiles in one body, the church we get a picture of the breadth of God.  We can see God’s length in Him choosing us before the foundation of the world, and for that salvation will last for eternity, which has no end.  In Ephesians 1:3 we get an example of God height of love “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”  This can also be seen in Eph. 2:6 “and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  When I think of the depth of God’s love I think of Psalm 40.  “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the LORD. 4 How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. 5 Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count (Psalm 40:1-5).”



            Ephesians 2:1-3 also speak of God’s depth of love:  “1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”



            John MacArthur writes “In what may at first seems a self-contradiction, Paul says that ‘to know the love of Christ…surpasses knowledge.’  Knowing Christ’s ‘love’ takes us beyond human ‘knowledge,’ because it is from an infinity higher source.  Paul is not speaking here of our knowing the love we are to have for Christ but the ‘love of Christ,’ His very own love that He must place in our hearts before we can love Him or anyone else.  We are commanded to love because we are given love.  God always gives before He commands anything in return, and love is one of Christ’s greatest gifts to His church.  Throughout John 14-16 Jesus promises to give love, joy, peace, power and comfort without measure to those who belong to Him.”



            In order for the world to understand the great love that Christ give they would have to be one of His children.  A non-believer cannot understand it because they are not in Christ.  It seems to me that the unbelieving world who has no problem in saying “God is love” only wants to manipulate believers into doing something that they want them to do, but in the end they do not understand God’s love and they surely do not understand His wrath and judgment. The only kind of love that the world understands is I will do something for you as long as you do something for me, and that is not agape love.  Worldly love only lasts until it is offended or rebuffed, but Christ’s love last despite every offense and every rebuff.  Worldly love loves for what it can get, while Christ’s love for what it can give.  What is incomprehensible to the world is to be normal living for the child of God.



            We have two more sub-sections in this chapter on “The Fulness of God,” and hopefully this will only take two days to complete.



            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that God has not commanded me to give love until after He has given me love.  “Love insists we do something.  Feelings follow action.  Feelings are the fruit, not the root, of love.  If you give your enemy something to eat or drink something happens to your feelings.  When you invest yourself in someone, you begin to feel differently toward him or her.”  This comes from the booklet “Love in Action” by David Jeremiah.



My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember the truth of Romans 12:3.



Scripture that goes along with yesterdays quote:  “Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser; teach a just man and he will increase in learning (Proverbs 9:9).”



2/14/2019 10:44 AM

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