Jump Start # 1110

Ephesians 3:18 “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

  Understanding…it’s hard to do that. It’s hard to understand how certain people do what they do. The different jobs that we hold is an example of this. My wife is an oncology nurse. I don’t understand how she does it. She’s with cancer patients every day. I’d be sad to see all of that. I’m not sure how she does that. I have a son that works nights in ICU. He sees the worst of the worst. Patients die. He has to take them to the morgue. He deals with intense situations all the time. He’s my son, but I don’t know how he does it. Probably the most asked question about these Jump Starts is, how do you do that every day? How do you come up with something to write every day? I can try to explain, but most won’t understand. I tend to think after a while, those of us that have worked in an area for a long period of time, have a certain knack for it that no one else would.

When we ask, as our verse is driving at, about the love of God, it’s hard to understand. It’s hard to grasp why God loves us. Why does He keep loving us when we keep messing up? Why does He continue to love us, when we fail and disappoint Him? Why?

That’s hard to understand. The technical side would point to the fact that God’s love is a choice and not a feeling. And like a parent, God loves us even when we do things that upset and hurt Him. He will never stop loving us. He cannot love us more than He does. If we went to worship services seven days a week for the rest of our lives, He couldn’t love us any more. He loves us because we are His creation. We belong to Him. We are His children. He wants to love us. He chooses to love us.

Paul, in our passage today, is trying to get the Ephesians to grasp the enormous way God loves us. He uses terms familiar to builders. The breadth, length, height and depth—those are the words of builders. Noah understood those words. God told him how large to make the ark. The finished product was so tall, so wide, so long and so deep. When the temple was built, those words were understood. When the house you live in was constructed, those words were understood. We use those words when purchasing products. We want to know if that TV will fit in our entertainment center, or the couch will fit in the corner where we want it, or if the frig will fit in the space the builders made for it in the kitchen. Height, depth, length and breadth—those are important words to those building and to those interested in fitting things in certain spaces.

Paul is not talking about houses, temples or boats. His discussion is the love of God. How wide, how deep, how long is the love of God. It’s large enough to include all people. There is no one who is not loved by God. Sometimes hardships in life can make a person wonder if God has turned His back, but He hasn’t. There is no one who is not loved by God. There are people that I may not love, but God does. There may be some that I would not designate as my friends, but God loves them. God loves. He loves all people. He loves good people and He loves the bad ones. He loves those who are kind and those who are not kind. He loves those who know Him and He loves those who do not know Him. He loves the ones in prison and He loves the ones in church buildings.

How do you know that? Maybe you life has been one crisis and one disaster after another. Maybe things never seem to go right in your life. Maybe you feel all alone in this big world. Where is God’s love? It’s there. We know He loves all because He said so:

– John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…”

– 1 John 2:2 “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

Why does God love us? Why does God continue to love us? The answer is because He is God. He has chosen to do that.

These thoughts ought to be helpful on long and dark days. You are loved by God. It ought to help you when you feel life has been wrung out of you. You are loved by God. It ought to also be helpful to remember that God loves the person I am mad at, the person that I am ready to have words with, the person that is making my life hard—God loves them. He loved those who drove the nails into Jesus’ hands. He loved those who mocked Him. He loved those who walked away from Him.

Because I am loved by God, like everyone else is, I am not better than others. We can feel that way. We can, like the Pharisee praying the in temple, be glad that we are not like other people, but in reality we are like them. We are loved the same by God.

Because I am loved by God, I have a motivation to let others know that. Many don’t know that. Many have doubts about that. I can show them. I can tell them. I can help them. We are all loved by God, and more, God wants us to spend forever with Him in Heaven.

It’s hard to understand why God loves…but I am so glad that He does.

Roger