Jesus commands us to live in His love, which is demonstrated by obedience to Him on the outside, and on the inside we are full of joy. (John 15:9-14) “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. {10} “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. {11} “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. {12} “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. {13} “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. {14} “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
There is only one thing that you have which you can give to God that will glorify Him, that is your life. But when you give yourself fully to Him, seeking to know Him and do His will with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength; then He will glorify you. As we come to know and experience the revelation of God’s Love by looking unto Him we are transformed from glory to glory. (2 Corinthians 3:18) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Paul tells us that through knowing Christ’s Love that we can be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-21) For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, {15} from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, {16} that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, {17} that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, {18} may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height; {19} to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. {20} Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, {21} to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
In verse 19 the passage reads “to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge”, which seems to be a contradiction, but there are two different words used in the original Greek. The first word “to know”, means an intimate knowing, to perceive, to feel, to experience, the word is even used in the way that a man knows a woman. This is a heart-felt intimate knowledge. The second word “which passes knowledge” means head knowledge, or science. God’s Love is beyond human understanding, it is only spiritually discerned because it is the manifested presence of the Holy Spirit.
In verse 18 the phrase “may be able to comprehend” is interesting, the word comprehend is the Greek word katalambano, which means to take eagerly, seize, possess, apprehend, attain, come upon, find, obtain, perceive, overtake. We are to eagerly seek and possess with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height of knowing the love of Christ which is beyond head-knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
(1 John 4:19) We love Him because He first loved us. Notice in the passage above, Ephesians 3:14-21, the progression of events. First Paul prays that according to the riches of His glory, the glory of God is God’s Love revealed to man. This must take place first because God’s Love must be revealed to us first so that we can love Him. Second is the work of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love, strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. Then we are able to receive Christ into our hearts through faith, which grows out of Love. Faith comes from Love, and grows as the heart-knowledge of God’s Love grows.
As we grow in intimate knowledge of the Love of Christ we are filled with all the fullness of God. Because Christ is the greatest revelation of God’s Love, and the greatest manifestation of God’s glory to man. (2 Corinthians 4:6-7) For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. {7} But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:12-19) No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. {13} By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. {14} And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. {15} Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. {16} And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. {17} Love has been perfected among