Strength to Receive

In Ephesians 3:16-19 Paul prays that the church would be “strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”

There is so much in these verses, but I want to focus one particular aspect: why does Paul pray that believers would have strength to know and receive the love of Jesus?

We don’t likely even have a category for needing strength to experience and understand love. Love is tender and comforting and pleasant. We think of strength as being necessary for bearing a burden or doing a difficult task, not for receiving love. So what is going on here?

We can be sure of this: it is not that the love of Christ is burdensome. Rather it is that it is too great–too magnificent, too perfect, too effusive, too unconditional–for an unstrengthened heart and mind to comprehend. Paul says that the love of Christ “surpasses knowledge”! He is praying that we would understand that which cannot be understood, that we would comprehend the incomprehensible! So of course we need the help of Christ to understand and receive the love of Christ.

And amazingly, Jesus offers that help through the Holy Spirit. He wants us to know his love. He wants to receive it and live in it. So he gives us the means to experience it.

I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.