“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 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, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19)

Jesus is preparing to go to the cross. He is giving His last instructions to the Disciples. In those instructions, He adds a new commandment. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 10:34-35)

It is through their love, expressed to one another, that the world will know that they are disciples of Jesus Christ. The world will see Jesus in the life of the church when the church expresses to each other the love given by Jesus. Jesus would later tell them, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23) In our obedience to Jesus, we show our love back to Him. It is by this love that we demonstrate love to our Lord, to each other, and to the world, in order to show we are His disciples. As His disciples, we will obey His greatest commandments.

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

The church is to be filled with those who love God through their love for Jesus Christ. This is shown by how we love God, His church, each other, and our neighbors. We know that this is a great challenge because there are many who are difficult to love. Jesus was God’s expression of His love to a world of people hard to love. Yet Jesus showed God’s love on the cross to all of us who are difficult to love.

The Apostle Paul, who had been one difficult to love, had been changed by God and His love. As he wrote to the church at Ephesus, he offered a prayer for the church. A prayer concerning our love as the church. “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, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” (Ephesians 3:17b-19a)

The aim of the prayer is that we “together with all the Lord’s holy people,” will know God’s love. God’s love is to be the foundation of the church, from which we build the church. It also to be how the church is to grow and develop as we mature in our faith in Jesus Christ. We are to learn the greatness of His love. As Paul prays, “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, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” God’s love is beyond our knowledge; therefore, we will always be learning more and more about His love as we actively receive and give His love. The more we do, the more the world will know we are His disciples and the more they may know that God does love them.

In the Love of Jesus,

Michael Block