Believing God’s Love for Us
Knowing God’s love for us is probably the most important aspect of being a follower of Christ. It’s His death on the cross in order to bring us into a relationship with God that illustrates His sacrificial love.
Paul prays that the Christ-followers in Ephesus may be able to grasp the love of Christ - and he even calls this ability “power.” Here’s what he says in Ephesians 3:14-21:*: For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 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. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
In Colossians 3:13 and 14, Paul directs the Christ-followers in Colosse to… “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
BUT notice that Paul starts with this in the verse before this section, verse 12:
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
AND notice WHY Paul says this is important: to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
We all have a hunger for love and honor - we don’t want to be unvalued or dissed. We want to be valued, recognized, appreciated. Practically - when we are not feeling this love of God, we often act out in two ways: by feeling superior to others or by feeling inferior to others. What can we do about that? Help! Timothy Keller gives us insight in his study, Galatians for You, in Chapter 12, “Gospel Relationships”:
“The gospel creates a whole new self-image which is not based on comparisons with others. Only the gospel makes us neither self-confident nor self-disdaining, but both bold and humble” (140):
When we’re feeling defensive, we can preach the gospel to ourselves in the middle of feeling defensive: What you think of me is not the important thing. Jesus Christ’s approval of me, not yours, is my righteousness, my identity, my worth.
Oppositely, when we’re looking down on someone else, we need to remind ourselves of the gospel: What I think of me is not the important thing. I am just as much a sinner, and just as undeserving of Christ’s love for me, as this person.
In other words, we need to ROOT our sense of worth in who we are in and through Christ.
Furthermore, paraphrasing p. 144, Keller states, that we need to be on the lookout for needing others’ approval or for them to need us. And on the other hand, a lack of commitment to others - needing them only for our own satisfaction, and being self-serving in a relationship.
SO, rather than comparing ourselves with those “above” (feeling inferior to them) or “below” (feeling superior to them), we look only at our own responsibility to take what we have and are, and offer it to God as a sacrifice of gratitude for what Christ has done.
This involves an internal daily crucifixion of our sinful over-desires/idols, and a daily heart-adoration of Christ, so that the fruit of the Spirit will be grown in our character.
These words are both insightful and hopeful to me. I want to live knowing God’s love for me and because of that love, love others more truly, deeply, authentically, and beneficially - not for my own gain, but for God’s kingdom and what He desires to accomplish. I also want to daily confront my own sin - especially my tendency to compare myself with others, and replace that with 1 and 2 above. I definitely need the Lord’s help in this, and He is there to help, to even work through me with His Holy Spirit as I yield to Him, for His best for me and others.
I have been greatly encouraged and stretched by this Galatians for You study, and especially this chapter. I find myself needing to re-read it and re-apply it daily!
*BTW, Ephesians is a book in the New Testament of the Bible that is actually a letter from Paul to the church in Ephesus. Note that 3:14-21 refers to chapter 3, verses 14 through 21.
Photo by Matt Bennett
