What Real Love Is

October 7

Although there were Jewish and Gentile believers at Ephesus, Paul addresses this letter essentially to the Gentile converts; perhaps because he believes that they, more than Jewish believers who have known of and understood the acts of the Living God far longer, required grounding in the fundamental nature of the new Lord they’ve received.

It is not surprising that a profound focus of Paul’s dissertation on the character of God is His love. In Ephesians 3:17-19 he says, “I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your lives will be strong in love and be built on love. I pray that you and all God’s people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide and long and high and deep His love is.

“Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray you will be able to know His love, so you may be filled with the fullness of God.” Paul begins his prayerful discourse by saying it is by faith that Christ will live in the hearts of the Ephesians and it is by building on His love that their faith and their lives will be strong. Paul reveals that it is through the power of understanding His love that believers in Christ can begin to fathom the magnitude of His love.

Paul explains that the Lord’s love is greater than anyone can know, for no one can fathom its length and height and depth on his own but once that insight is attained, the person of faith can begin to grasp the fullness of God. Until the love that brought Jesus to the cross is understood, there is no aspect of the Godhead that a man can grasp. Until a mere mortal grips the truth of Deity dying that man may live, neither Jew nor Gentile can understand what real love is.