Love Surpassing Knowledge
Could someone love us with a love so great that it would go above our comprehension? And if there were such a love toward us, how would we respond to that? And if there were such a love toward us, where could we find it? It is wonderful to hear words like, "I love you," I will always love you," or I loved you the moment I laid eyes on you." What wonderful words these are when we hear them from a fellow human being, such as a spouse, a friend, a child, or parent. How this brings on a feeling of contentment, belonging, value, and admission into someone's heart.
The scriptures say much about love, where it comes from, what it looks like, and how to show it. It is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22), indeed the first of nine mentioned, one could say the most important to have. It could be referred to as the chief fruit as is the case in 1 Cor. 13:13, ”But now, faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love." And the apostle John says in 1 John 4:8, "God is love," and the passage continues to how He showed that love in the point of sending His only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
In John 15:9, that same apostle writes, "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you." Christ is the object of the Father's love. He claims to be able to love as God loves. What a staggering, unfathomable, inestimable statement of His love toward us. Did you catch it, the love the Father has for the Son, the One who was in the bosom of the Father, One who is one with the Father, the One who the Father is glorified in, that Son has that same love for us? G. Campbell Morgan says, "What the love of the Father is for the Son, who can tell! The very suggestion fills the soul with the sense of profound depths that cannot be fathomed, of heights that cannot be scaled, with breadths that cannot be encompassed, and of dimensions beyond our knowledge. And that love of God for His Son, is the measure and nature of the love of the Son for His own."
"He who is sent from God speaks the words of God” (John 3:34). This love is as sure as your eyes are seeing this article right now. What great hope, joy, and contentment should this bring us? Alexander MacLaren says, "What sorrow or care or trouble, or temptation would be able to reach us if we were folded in the protection of that strong love, and always felt that it was the fortress into which we might continually resort." Prov. 18:10: ”The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe."
The second verse of A Mighty Fortress is our God, by Martin Luther says it well," Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the Right Man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who That may Be? Christ Jesus, it is He, Lord Sabaoth, His name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle." If God is for you, who can be against you? Bask in the love of God as He foreknew you, He predestined you, He called you, He justified you, and He glorified you!
Elder Randy