Love is Central...Love is What is Needed.

That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.--Ephesians 3:17b-19

Many years ago my husband and I opened our house for a bible study on Friday nights.  He would teach the adults and often I would teach the little ones that came.  I do not remember much of what I taught but I remember this one lesson.  I had been reading through Galatians and had reached the fruit of the Spirit.  (Galatians 5) As I studied I realized that there really was one one fruit, love, from which all the other fruit flowed.   In fact, without love, the other fruits would not even exist. God's love shed abroad in our hearts at the moment of our salvation is what enables us to love as He loves.  Without Him...without love...we are nothing but a clanging cymbal.  He is the foundation...without Him no lasting fruit could be grown.  Here is how I demonstrated this to the kids.  I took a black marker and long rectangular blocks from the girls' block box.  On each block I wrote a fruit of the Spirit.  I included an extra block with Jesus' name .  This was the first block I put on the table.  The rest of the fruits were placed on the Jesus block....love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Each child was asked to try to remove the Jesus block without toppling the tower.  It was, of course, impossible.  They understood what that meant and so did I.


Love is central.  Love is what is needed.  Love is the only thing we owe anyone.  Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore, love fulfills the law. When we abide in love...in Him, the fruit grows.  Where love is present, John MacArthur rightly says, sin is absent.  Biblical love is always an action word and it is always self-sacrificing.  It is the highest kind of love...the love of the will...loving others is an act of obedience...It is the greatest commandment and in one sense the only commandment.


Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” 


In order to be rooted and grounded in the love that Paul speaks to here, we first must be rooted and grounded in God.  We must be saved.  His love must be at the very core of our being. We can't comprehend His love until we know Him and we can't know Him until we immerse ourselves in His word.  At salvation His love is poured out in our hearts....that is the only way we can love rightly...by and through His love poured out in our heart.   It is His Spirit that produces this love..it is not something we can grit our teeth and do...it is a love that ALWAYS comes from Him.  It is not external or compelled legalistically...it comes from within...it comes as we desire to be controlled not by our own selfish desires but by His Spirit moment by moment. As we surrender to the Spirit of God by obedience to His word,  He produces this supernatural love in our hearts and uses it to reach those He Himself has placed in our life for that very purpose!  In this way we can love to the limit!  We can love fervently as Peter says...like a rubber band stretched to its breaking point.


If you want to know the breadth, length, depth and height of His love...If you want to know the fullness of God all you need do is ask. BE PREPARED though, because in beginning to understand the depths of his love you will also begin to know with heart knowledge the depths of His sacrifice.  You will begin to identify with Him because you will be walking a path similar to your Master's, who when He walked this earth, was despised and rejected...a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief.  Remember, however, the big picture of what His suffering and death wrought...your salvation and mine.  His darkest hour became His greatest glory. So go ahead and ask...His perfect love will cast out fear and His grace will be sufficient for your every need.  


Ask Him first and foremost to give you a love for His word and a desire to let it root deeply in your heart.


Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.--Jeremiah 15:16


Be like Job who treasured God's word more than His necessary food or like the Psalmist who meditated on them both day and night.  Pray that His testimonies would be the rejoicing of your heart. 


Next, ask Him to answer the prayer found here in Ephesians 1:17 in your own life.  Ask Him to give you the desire to have your life under the control of the Spirit of God. Tell Him that you want to love as He loves.  Spend time with your Father in Heaven.  Renew your mind with His truth.  Receive the word that He ministers to you each day with meekness (no argument) and allow it to work in your heart.  Let Him empty your heart of you and fill it with Him and His love.  Watch Him do this work daily in your life to conform you into His image.... AND as you watch,  may the beauty of the Lord our God be upon you and may HE establish the work of your hands.