May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
Paul's bowed-knee prayer asks that believers strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man, with Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith and being rooted and grounded in love, may be able together with all saints to grasp the vast breadth and length and depth and height. What is to be grasped in those dimensions is the love of Christ and of God, infinite and without measure, revealed above all in giving His only Son to die for the world. That grasp is given only as the Spirit renews the understanding, Christ abides within by faith, and the heart is surrendered and purified and established in love. Even earnest minds grasp it only dimly in this life, and study through ages and eternity itself never exhausts it, yet it can be truly experienced and grows ever deeper as Christ is beheld and His love received and shared. Knowing that love which passes knowledge fills believers with all the fullness of God, melts and transforms character into Christ's likeness, and sends them forth to reveal Christ and proclaim His love to the world.
Prayer Setting and Wording
The verse stands inside Paul's bowed-knee prayer to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. In that prayer he asks according to the riches of His glory that believers be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, and that being rooted and grounded in love they may be able with all saints to comprehend breadth and length and depth and height. So comprehending leads on to knowing the love of Christ which passes knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God, to whom be glory in the church by Christ Jesus because He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that is asked or thought according to the power working within. This comprehension is the great privilege of the Christian, shared together and growing toward fullness.
Breadth and length and depth and height name vast, immeasurable dimensions of that love. They can be comprehended only by divine perception given by God, and they lead directly into the next verse's teaching that this love passes knowledge. Human language can describe only its heights and depths, and contemplation gives only a faint conception, yet its vastness can be truly grasped, experienced and enjoyed. In and through Christ, by His blood as ransom and His death bringing life and immortality to light, believers so comprehending are complete in every grace and share His throne as overcomers elevated and pure and one with Christ. When received it forms character after the divine similitude and makes them look upon fellow beings as God's purchased possession, keep the soul in God's love, and not lord it over His heritage.
With all saints means a comprehension shared together with all believers, God's people. Here saints are the meek and lowly in heart to whom Christ manifests Himself, not sinners who transgress His law. This together-comprehending fits the church's need for the different gifts and judgments of its members to work in unity, growing not by bare knowledge of truth but by continual longing for Christ and communion with Him.
Its immediate setting is the revealed mystery that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of promise in Christ. It belongs to instruction about the manifold wisdom of God now made known by the church to principalities and powers according to the eternal purpose in Christ Jesus, in whom there is boldness and access with confidence by faith, and about the fellowship of the mystery hidden from the beginning in God. What is to be understood is to be studied diligently while shunning spiritualistic ideas of God and leaving unrevealed mysteries alone. The truth so revealed to Paul about this love shaped his teaching to represent Christian character correctly, and his message still strengthens the church and warns it against dangers and false doctrines. It also includes the deep truths of the plan of redemption which the rites and symbols of the Jewish economy foreshadow and the gospel unlocks, truths into which even angels desire to look.
The prayer is solemn and to be approached with humble reverent earnestness. It must be read carefully and prayerfully, read to hearers, impressed upon minds, and read most solemnly together with the fourth chapter of Ephesians, calling for reformation in lives, words, works and spiritual understanding. It was Paul's prayer for the church at Ephesus for which he labored much, words of commendation and encouragement and outflowing of apostolic love, precious and large and full. It is for every minister in every conference, whether formally ordained or not, setting forth the privilege of every shepherd gained by earnest travail for souls, heart searching, prayerful seeking, and a religious experience marked by grace and the decided working of God's power with human effort. It belongs as a promise and message to believers now because the end is near, calling for intelligent united world-wide work in a short time to proclaim warning and salvation with no second probation, and revealing the work to be done for everyone saved that Christ be revealed in them, by them and through them.
Conditions for Comprehension
Comprehension is granted when God strengthens believers with might by His Spirit in the inner man according to the riches of His glory. The Holy Spirit renews the understanding so that God's Word, barren to the unrenewed heart, becomes fruitful and life-giving. He teaches and recalls Christ's words and opens the understanding, so what was unclear becomes spiritually understood, giving heavenly light and new courage and joy. This ability does not come from human wisdom or words but from God answering Paul's bowed-knee prayer, with Christ formed within as the hope of glory alone enlarging the mind for it. Faith and prayer help discern these deep things of God, though understanding remains limited and leads on toward knowing love beyond knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God.
Comprehension requires that Christ dwell in the heart by faith through contemplating Him, beholding Him, and ever cherishing Him as best and most honored friend whom none would grieve or offend. It comes through Christ formed within as the hope of glory and His abiding presence enlarging the mind. As He dwells in a heart cleansed from all moral impurity He ennobles and sanctifies the whole nature and makes the person a temple for the Holy Spirit.
Comprehension requires being rooted and grounded in love, with the heart purified from sin and established in Christ's love for this work of grace to take place. Full and entire surrender to Jesus, unreserved surrender, giving self fully to God and seeking to be conformed to His image prepare the soul to taste and receive it. This calls for entire sanctification, perfect conformity to God's will, and building one another up in faith, bringing a growing grasp of truth and deeper love for God and heaven to be brought into work to lead others to praise God.
Comprehension comes not by feeling but by faith in truth that refuses to stagger and cleaves through Satan's obstructing shadow to the light from Jesus. Those who say they do not feel as they want to feel are met by the fullness of the language directing them to take hold of that power by faith in Jesus Christ, as when Moses lifted up his hands and Israel prevailed, so minds are drawn to God and heaven with His righteousness and truth wrought within in following on to know the Lord whose going forth is prepared as the morning. It comes by overcoming uncertainties by faith, by daily experience in co-partnership with Christ, refusing to talk of Satan's power and speaking Christ's language without impatient speech. It comes by constant communion with God through receiving His Word as bread of life and water of salvation, by eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood, and by faith and prayer discerning the deep things of God and opening the deep truths of the plan of salvation.
Comprehension is God's promise to all who are willing for self to be humbled, who realize their weakness and entire dependence upon God, bringing a different standard of Christianity. It belongs with putting away self-love and the desire for supremacy, with cleansing from selfishness and true sanctification, and with contemplating Christ as Life-giver in whom all fullness dwells and beholding Him as personal Saviour. It requires preserving the human machinery as perfect as possible by intelligence, understanding God's laws established in the being, bringing habits into harmony with them and the body into subjection to the noble powers of the mind as a wonderful structure formed by the Infinite Designer kept in harmonious action, giving vigor of health for higher service and making possible that comprehension and knowing the love of Christ as the secret of true happiness. It is given exceeding abundantly above all asked or thought by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, and beside this true knowledge all else is vanity and nothingness.
Comprehension must be searched out by patient persevering diligent seeking that stretches every spiritual muscle and taxes intellect, patience and the whole man, yet still opens to an infinity beyond what is at first only dimly grasped. It requires diligently improving every means of grace so the love of God abounds more and more, with the Christian life taking vigorous stalwart form never standing still but either advancing or retrograding. It comes through humble study of Scripture with understanding quickened by the Holy Spirit, with hearts uplifted to God in faith and hope and continual praise, understanding as much of God's compassion as can be borne and growing as Christ's sacrifice is valued and redemption is sought. It is given to those who search God's Word and with contrite hearts pray for wisdom, for more is still to be known than is known at present and themes worthy of more than passing notice are to be dwelt upon, to come as the latter rain restoring connection with God.
Love to Be Comprehended
What is to be grasped in breadth and length and depth and height is the love of Christ, the love of God, the love of the Father and of Christ, the love revealed in God who is love and in His holy law as an expression of His love, from the High and Holy One that inhabits eternity who changes not. This comprehension belongs to those rooted and grounded in love, shared together with all saints, and leads to knowing the love which passes knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God. It is a possibility and standard of the Christian life, a privilege to taste and know that the Lord is good, receiving as empty vessels filled to overflowing with refreshing showers of grace. That love is an exhaustless fountain and reservoir continually supplied with abundant grace and goodness, so hearts filled with it expand and overflow. Comprehending it should awaken deepest gratitude and melody and intense meditation now, and will fill with wonder through eternal ages, while dulling of sensibility leaves indifference and loss of eternal riches after so much has been done to save.
That love is without measure, without comparison, infinite, a boundless fathomless ocean, an exhaustless fountain and reservoir continually supplied with abundant grace and goodness. All paternal love handed down through human hearts and all springs of tenderness opened in human souls are only a tiny rill beside its boundless ocean. Tongue cannot utter it and pen cannot portray it, it surpasses thought and imagination and the power of human expression, yet it is real and can be known by experience with inexpressible and glorious joy and enjoyed and overflowed from the filled heart. Meditating on it daily, searching Scripture diligently, and summoning every power to comprehend still leaves an infinity beyond, and studying it for ages never fully comprehends it and eternity itself can never fully reveal it. Yet as the Bible is studied and Christ's life and the plan of redemption are meditated upon, these great themes open more and more to understanding.
The dimensions are the length and breadth and depth and height of God's love in giving His Son to die for the world, tangible proof in the gift of His only-begotten Son to bear the world's sin so that whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life. Nothing less than Christ's infinite sacrifice for fallen humanity could express the Father's love for the lost, and only the Son who knew the Father's love could reveal it. That love is infinite and beyond human comprehension and description, amazing even the angels of heaven, calling church and world to behold, contemplate and admire it, that through obedience the fallen may be transformed and become acknowledged sons of God. Those belonging to God as His purchased possession are therefore to glorify Him in body and spirit and faithfully discharge duty.
The vast love is seen at Calvary where Christ, though innocent and excellent, suffered a painful death bearing the weight of the sins of the world. Its depth is seen in laying aside royal glory to become human, enduring Satan's fiercest temptations without yielding or discouragement, descending from highest excellence through successive steps of humiliation, and paying the ransom through a shameful death though human guilt could have separated Him. This love cannot be fathomed apart from the sacrifice at Calvary, and turning from selfishness and dwelling on Christ's spotless character helps grasp its height, depth, length and breadth. Its magnitude lies beyond the full reach of human thought and imagination, surpassing what can be fully known. Contemplating this matchless love should fill and absorb the mind, soften, touch, move and melt the heart, refine and elevate the affections, awaken praise and humble obedience, and completely transform the character. Through His merits humanity may share the divine nature and escape the world's corruption.
The same dimensions also describe the vast scope of God's plan of redemption, divine spiritual truth revealed in Christ, the deep truths and mysteries of God and the vast dimensions of God's knowledge and of Scripture truth. The rites and symbols of the Jewish economy foreshadowed these truths and the gospel unlocks them, and even angels desire to look into them. Their greatness exceeds the reach of human wisdom and words, and human minds grasp only a limited view apart from spiritual-mindedness, faith and prayer discerning the deep things of God. As the Bible's truths are received understanding expands to discern this mystery, which cannot be fully explained in words but is shown in Christlike character, and through meditation on unfathomable riches the soul grows to comprehend salvation more deeply and fully toward being filled with all the fullness of God.
Breaking God's law made the Son's blood necessary to redeem humanity, and Christ is the propitiation not only for believers' sins but for the sins of the whole world. Seeing Him as compassionate tender High Priest leads the sinner to hate the sins that wounded Him and to keep a contrite heart, with wisdom sought from God in earnest prayer beyond what human counsel can teach. Convicted souls set free from slavery of sin and bondage of worldly principles have opened before them themes of thought and fields for action never before comprehended, discerning in Jesus the Redeemer breadth and length and depth and height of love which passes knowledge, infinite wisdom, infinite justice and infinite mercy. Beholding the perfection of His character and contemplating His mission, love, grace and truth charms the soul and meets its great want.
The love surpasses knowledge yet its vastness can be truly grasped, experienced and enjoyed through faith and connection with Christ as members of His body and branches of the living Vine. It is bestowed on those who believe in the Son and known by experience, and it comes through Christ's merits with its vitality circulating through every part of human nature to abide as believers dwell in Christ Jesus, loved by the Father as members of His mystical body of which Christ is the glorified head. Those who do not keep trusting the Lord and keeping His way but walk in sparks of their own kindling, without union with Christ and without His Spirit and mind and the sunlight of His righteousness, do not know this love. God manifest in Christ unburdens this infinite love in lessons clear, full and explicit, with divine compassion beaming and with purity and rich grace rendering Him glorious above creation and crowned with honor. Its presence in the soul inspires gratitude and frees from spiritual weakness, pride, vanity, selfishness and whatever deforms character, while the inexhaustible love and grace fill the heart to overflowing.
The love to be comprehended is measureless, seen in Christ's earthly life, His sacrifice, His work as advocate in heaven, and the mansions He prepares for those who love Him.
Shared Growing Understanding
Comprehension is shared together with all saints and it grows as believers learn of God, give themselves fully to be conformed to His image, and receive His divine love into their hearts and give it to one another by personally tasting it. Knowing Christ's love and power and receiving His attributes brings believers into sympathy with Him and fills them with God's fullness as a present reward and heritage, giving a growing grasp of truth and a deeper love for God and heaven that is brought into work to lead others to praise God for His rich grace. Rooted and grounded in love with Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, this becomes a living experience that grows day by day, making Christians steadfast and persevering so their lives declare the power of Christ's love in a world of selfishness and sin. Those joined to Christ are to go out in His Spirit and with His mind, sharing God's love with the world, and the growth begun in this life will be opened still more fully in the eternal ages.
In this life even earnest thought grasps the full significance of the cross, where shame and glory, life and death, justice and mercy meet, only dimly. The truth in Jesus can be experienced, but its height and breadth and depth cannot be completely explained or grasped, and even after putting every nerve and muscle to the stretch an infinity still lies beyond. Through humble study of Scripture people can understand as much of God's compassion as they can bear, and as they value Christ's sacrifice and seek to know redemption their understanding grows while the subject continues to open into greater depths. Being divested of all selfish ambition enables overcoming temptation and understanding the mysteries of His work, and every branch of the living Vine bears the fruit of the parent stalk.
That love is infinite and exhaustless, beyond utterance by tongue or portrayal by pen, with all paternal love and all springs of tenderness in human souls only a tiny rill beside its boundless ocean. Studying that love for ages never fully comprehends it and eternity itself can never fully reveal it, for even meditating on it every day, searching the Scriptures diligently, and summoning every power and capability to comprehend the Father's love and compassion still leaves an infinity beyond. Yet as the Bible is studied and Christ's life and the plan of redemption are meditated upon these great themes open more and more to understanding, which is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation with enlightened eyes. Even the redeemed will not fully understand the plan of redemption, but through eternity they will gain ever-deepening knowledge of what their salvation cost, with new truth continually unfolding while they retain a clear knowledge of that cost.
Understanding grows through continual longing for Christ and communion with Him, not through bare knowledge of truth, as believers behold His goodness and spotless character and are changed into His likeness to reflect Him in life. Turning from selfishness and dwelling on Christ's spotless character and on the sacrifice made at Calvary helps believers grasp its height and depth and length and breadth, for the love of Christ cannot be fathomed apart from Calvary and it surpasses what people can fully know. Contemplating redemption and beholding Him as the Lamb who takes away the world's sin gives a deeper and broader conception of Christ's love and helps believers appreciate the immense scope of God's plan of salvation joined to knowing His love which surpasses knowledge. As people dwell on God's goodness and mercy and love through study of His word they see His vast far-reaching deep and broad truth more clearly and are changed, with self lost sight of and the heart growing humble and kind and loving.
Those who could not grasp His spiritual words will clearly comprehend as living truth with all saints the length and breadth and depth and height of the love which passes knowledge, no longer saying they cannot comprehend and no longer seeing through a glass darkly but face to face. This comprehension comes after Christ ascended to heaven as Teacher and Advocate pleading that spiritual power be given to believers, so that in the strength of One mightier than all the enemies of God and man they may overcome their spiritual foes by trusting in Him and committing themselves into His keeping. It is given through Christ's abiding presence and experimental knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit abiding forever as pleader and guide and teacher and reminder and witness and comforter and convicter of sin. It comes only through union with Christ by which the feeble finite sinful nature is restored to healthful growth and the life of the Vine becomes the life of the adopted sapling, so that He who has begun a good work performs it unto the day of Christ, perfecting His chosen as complete in Him as members of His body, a part of Himself.
Each soul can grow in breadth and depth and heights of knowledge in spiritual things and be fitted for the higher life, with heights and depths of practical godliness to be brought into life and character. There is much more in God's Word than many have discovered, and more is still to be known than is known at present in the greater lengths and breadths and heights of the knowledge that God alone can give in the deep things of God in the plan of redemption. This fuller comprehension is to come to His people now as the latter rain restoring their fast-failing connection with God, and it is given to those who search God's Word and with contrite hearts pray for wisdom and dwell upon themes worthy of more than a passing notice. Those heights and depths might be reached with less self-indulgence and more consecration to God.
Fullness and Transformed Character
Comprehending breadth and length and depth and height leads on to knowing the love of Christ which passes knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God. This is the true knowledge invited to all, beside which all else is vanity and nothingness, given exceeding abundantly above all that is asked or thought by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. That love is too wonderful to fully comprehend and express, yet not too rich to enjoy and experience, to taste and know that the Lord is good. It is an exhaustless fountain and reservoir continually supplied with abundant grace and goodness and love, received by empty human vessels filled to overflowing with refreshing showers of grace from Christ until hearts expand and overflow. Rooted and grounded in love, believers together with all saints grasp its vastness, and the more it influences them the more Christlike they become.
Knowing that love brings an experience of the cross of Calvary and of sharing in Christ's sufferings. Though its effect on the heart cannot be fully explained, it moves to fervent devotion to Christ's cause. Grasping its length and breadth and depth and height awakens love for God, revealed in Christ's loveliness and His love for sinners, a love that surpasses knowledge yet can be increasingly understood. It melts and subdues the stubborn heart, transforms the sinner into a child of heaven, and drives sin from the heart without compulsion. Through it pride is changed into humility and enmity and unbelief into love and faith.
Contemplating this matchless love, shown when He though innocent and excellent suffered a painful death bearing the weight of the sins of the world, should fill and absorb the mind. Its length and breadth and height and depth are beyond the full reach of human thought and imagination and cannot be fathomed. Such contemplation should touch and melt the soul, soften and move the heart, refine and elevate the affections, and completely transform the whole character, awakening praise and humble obedience. It is a theme of eternal interest calling for deepest emotion, and it is sin to be calm and unimpassioned about it.
Receiving it forms character after the divine similitude and conforms to the image of Christ here. Believers become one in character with Christ, counterparts of the character of God, complete in every grace in and through Christ by His blood as ransom and His death bringing life and immortality to light, sharing His throne as overcomers elevated and pure. Divine perception alone grasps its vastness unto being filled with all the fullness of God. So taught, they look upon fellow beings as God's own purchased possession, keep the soul in the love of God, and do not lord it over His heritage.
It means health that makes a healthy church, gained by cooperating with the Great Physician and keeping the heart guarded. Strengthened with all might by the Spirit in the inner soul, with Christ dwelling in the heart by faith and rooted and grounded in love, the soul holds constant communion with God through His Word as bread of life and water of salvation, eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood for spiritual strength. It receives life-blood from Christ for the heart and nerve power from Christ and the Holy Spirit, is begotten again to a lively hope and imbued with the quickening power of a new nature, and is enabled to rise higher and still higher unto knowing the love of Christ and being filled with all the fullness of God. The true principles of Christianity open a source of happiness whose height and depth, length and breadth are immeasurable, Christ in believers as a well of water springing up into everlasting life, a continual wellspring to drink at will without exhausting the fountain.
This knowing fills with joy and the blessing of God, so service is not gloomy as under a hard taskmaster laying on unbearable burdens. When Christ's name is mentioned it strikes the keynote and awakens response in the heart, leading to thanksgiving and glory and honor and praise to Him that sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Learning to sing that song here prepares for striking the song of triumph with heavenly angels and redeemed saints when changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. It enables diffusing that light, hope and faith to others as the light of the world.
Being sound in the faith under Christ with this comprehension is the opposite of a hard judicial sharp critical faultfinding spirit that climbs into the judgment seat to condemn and sentence others and seeks and strives for first place. It is equally the opposite of the false religion of sentimentalism. It means loving solidly with Christ as leader, strengthened in the inner life with might by His Spirit according to the riches of God's glory, with Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, rooted and grounded in love, grasping with all saints the full measure of the love of Christ which goes beyond knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God.
The length and breadth and height and depth of perfect love means entire conformity to the will of God, being imbued with His Spirit, and knowing God working through the life. To comprehend it hungers and thirsts after righteousness and cannot rest until that perfect love is known, longing to be more like Jesus, to reflect His image, to be filled with all the fullness of God, and to rejoice in a whole Saviour who saves from all sin. Gaining it requires striving for heaven with all might for eternal life, doubling diligence to make calling and election sure, enduring a little longer for victory, and exercising living faith that takes hold of glory. It requires complete consecration and exercise of the will, saying I will be a Christian, with earnest effort, ambition, zeal and perseverance as for perishable things, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Mere desires for goodness and holiness, good purposes, and hoping and desiring to be Christians avail nothing if stopping short without resolute carrying out, leaving spiritual dwarfs to whom godliness is a hidden mystery, knowing not Christ, weighed and found wanting and lost; but Christ has made ample provision to satisfy the hungering thirsting soul, whose pure element of love expands the soul for higher attainments and increased knowledge of divine things that will not be satisfied short of fullness, through an educated disciplined mind loving purity and spirituality and growing in grace and knowledge of the truth unto experimental knowledge of Christ.
Calls to Life and Mission
The verse declares the high and exalted privilege of God's people and sets the standard of the Christian life, a possibility that can be attained and must be attained to be children of God. This privilege is reached through faith in God's promises and fulfillment of His requirements, by diligently improving every means of grace so that love abounds more and more in the soul. The Christian life under it must take vigorous stalwart form, never standing still but advancing, leading on to knowing the love of Christ which passes knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God.
It is the privilege and duty of every child of God to obtain this living experience day by day through connection with Christ, then to go forth in His Spirit and with His mind as human agents cooperating with the divine. Those joined to Christ bear to the world the message of God's love to man, that Christ is Advocate, that the bow of promise encircles the throne, and that the Lord waits to be gracious, not setting aside this self-denying and self-sacrificing work but looking to Jesus as the Pattern. This comprehension grows day by day as believers contemplate Christ as Life-giver in whom all fullness dwells and behold Him as personal Saviour, leading to appreciating saving grace, thinking of Jesus, keeping His praise in the heart, speaking of love abundantly expressed for sinners, praising God with heart and soul and voice, abounding in thanksgiving, and lifting up the Christ of Calvary so the world may behold Him.
The work to be done for everyone who is saved is for Christ to be revealed in them, by them, and through them. This is the aim of the solemn work of the gospel minister, to make all see the fellowship of the mystery hidden from the beginning in God. The gospel is to magnify truth through its sanctifying, cleansing, and refining influence, and this work is to be carried out by the whole family of believers united to Christ, not by ministers alone.
For workers together for God this means leaning heavily upon the Mighty One and laboring for unity and for love in order to become a power in the world. Christ's love is broad and deep and full, reaching people of every nationality, race, and class, breaking down divisions and freeing those deceived by Satan. Through redemption all belong to one family with free access to God, brought within reach of His throne and promise.
Those who minister in word and doctrine must reach this growth instead of remaining dwarfs in spiritual things, through being strengthened by the Spirit in the inner man, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, and being rooted and grounded in love. It belongs to unreserved surrender to God and to consecrated lives that are ensamples to the flock, unselfish and blameless, aiming at nothing short of perfection of Christian character. All teachers, ministers, and all in responsible positions must be converted and manifest the principles of the law to an unbelieving world with spiritual discernment, careful choice of words, and care to preserve the fragrance of the Spirit, for if perversity, imperfection of character in spirit or action in family, school, church, or world sets a wrong example and leads others wrong, the soul is separated from God from the quickening discerning influence of the divine mind, and unless converted such should take another calling where they will not act the unbeliever's spirit.
Comprehending the exalted character and office of Christ by experimental knowledge enables Christians to represent Christ in life and character, to reveal received light, to bring forth the fruit God designs from understood truth, and to testify with power to win souls. Meager views of that greatness narrow religious experience, hinder progress in the divine life, and leave religion low, formal, mechanical, and merely verbal. Despite great light, facilities, publishing houses, schools, sanitariums, and privileges and opportunities to reach hearts, results remain small without this deeper solid comprehension, gained by diligently and prayerfully searching Scripture with understanding quickened by the Spirit and hearts uplifted in faith and hope and continual praise, instead of being filled with gloom while dwelling on surrounding darkness and evil.
Believers are to grasp the full breadth, length, depth, and height of the subject before them in order to represent Christ's character through patience, courage, and steadfast integrity. Christian perfection has great height and breadth, so that with God as strength believers develop elevated thoughts, noble aims, clear understanding of truth, and actions free from selfish motives even amid discouragement and temptation. Knowing its greatness means remembering believers are His purchased possession to glorify Him in body and spirit and faithfully discharge duty to Him in sight of the heavenly universe. It means reverencing a personal God who rules in heaven and controls all things, giving all glory to Him rather than finding Him in flower and leaf and tree, in light of measureless love without parallel given tangible proof in the gift of His only-begotten Son to bear the world's sin so whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit worked for restoration, giving the Son as offering for sin with all heaven's resources for uplifting, a love no measure contains and beyond which nothing more could have been done to save and restore humanity. Comprehending this boundless fathomless ocean revealed in Christ's dignity and glory and sacrifice on Calvary to redeem a lost world and purchase eternal life should awaken deepest gratitude and melody in the heart and intense meditation now, and will fill the saints with wonder through eternal ages. After so much done it is terrible to be lost through indifference, for Satan blunts sensibilities to keep souls from comprehending and losing eternal riches.
Daily experience in co-partnership with Christ leads on to knowing this love that passes knowledge, by overcoming uncertainties by faith, refusing to talk of Satan's power, speaking Christ's language without impatient speech, and becoming a savor of life unto life. Christ's presence in thoughts and heart gives resolve to put away sin, while growth joins freely offered grace with cooperation toward being filled with God's fullness and love. Study of Scripture truth whose length, breadth, depth, and height needs eternity to grasp should therefore be serious and fruitful, with meditation on unfathomable riches deepening comprehension of salvation, and teachers presenting truths suited to hearers' good rather than perplexing them with every subject at once.
Its presence in the soul inspires gratitude and frees from spiritual weakness, pride, vanity, selfishness, and whatever deforms character, for beside its broad glory all human greatness becomes insignificant. Christ's life displayed that love in compassion, grace, humility, love, and truth, and every church member must show these to join the triumphant church. Through union with Christ the feeble finite sinful nature is restored to healthful growth as the Vine's life becomes the adopted sapling's life, no longer seeing darkly but face to face in understanding spiritual things. The God who gave Jesus is able to perfect those for whom sacrifice was made until the day of Christ, completing His chosen as members of His body, part of Himself.
The price of redemption reveals what people may become through Christ, for the Father's gift of His beloved Son for fallen men shows a love so deep, broad, and high that language fails and even angels are amazed, calling church and world to contemplation and admiration. Though sin makes men subjects of Satan, faith in His atoning sacrifice and connection with Him make them children of God, as Christ taking human nature elevates fallen humanity to truly bear that name through obedience as transformed acknowledged sons. Through Christ's unconfined power, unsearchable understanding, and wonderful sacrifice this love is comprehended, growing as truth is brought into daily life and Christ abides in the soul.
Paul's bowed-knee prayer asks that believers strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man, with Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith and being rooted and grounded in love, may be able together with all saints to grasp the vast breadth and length and depth and height. What is to be grasped in those dimensions is the love of Christ and of God, infinite and without measure, revealed above all in giving His only Son to die for the world. That grasp is given only as the Spirit renews the understanding, Christ abides within by faith, and the heart is surrendered and purified and established in love. Even earnest minds grasp it only dimly in this life, and study through ages and eternity itself never exhausts it, yet it can be truly experienced and grows ever deeper as Christ is beheld and His love received and shared. Knowing that love which passes knowledge fills believers with all the fullness of God, melts and transforms character into Christ's likeness, and sends them forth to reveal Christ and proclaim His love to the world.
Prayer Setting and Wording
The verse stands inside Paul's bowed-knee prayer to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. In that prayer he asks according to the riches of His glory that believers be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, and that being rooted and grounded in love they may be able with all saints to comprehend breadth and length and depth and height. So comprehending leads on to knowing the love of Christ which passes knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God, to whom be glory in the church by Christ Jesus because He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that is asked or thought according to the power working within. This comprehension is the great privilege of the Christian, shared together and growing toward fullness.
Breadth and length and depth and height name vast, immeasurable dimensions of that love. They can be comprehended only by divine perception given by God, and they lead directly into the next verse's teaching that this love passes knowledge. Human language can describe only its heights and depths, and contemplation gives only a faint conception, yet its vastness can be truly grasped, experienced and enjoyed. In and through Christ, by His blood as ransom and His death bringing life and immortality to light, believers so comprehending are complete in every grace and share His throne as overcomers elevated and pure and one with Christ. When received it forms character after the divine similitude and makes them look upon fellow beings as God's purchased possession, keep the soul in God's love, and not lord it over His heritage.
With all saints means a comprehension shared together with all believers, God's people. Here saints are the meek and lowly in heart to whom Christ manifests Himself, not sinners who transgress His law. This together-comprehending fits the church's need for the different gifts and judgments of its members to work in unity, growing not by bare knowledge of truth but by continual longing for Christ and communion with Him.
Its immediate setting is the revealed mystery that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of promise in Christ. It belongs to instruction about the manifold wisdom of God now made known by the church to principalities and powers according to the eternal purpose in Christ Jesus, in whom there is boldness and access with confidence by faith, and about the fellowship of the mystery hidden from the beginning in God. What is to be understood is to be studied diligently while shunning spiritualistic ideas of God and leaving unrevealed mysteries alone. The truth so revealed to Paul about this love shaped his teaching to represent Christian character correctly, and his message still strengthens the church and warns it against dangers and false doctrines. It also includes the deep truths of the plan of redemption which the rites and symbols of the Jewish economy foreshadow and the gospel unlocks, truths into which even angels desire to look.
The prayer is solemn and to be approached with humble reverent earnestness. It must be read carefully and prayerfully, read to hearers, impressed upon minds, and read most solemnly together with the fourth chapter of Ephesians, calling for reformation in lives, words, works and spiritual understanding. It was Paul's prayer for the church at Ephesus for which he labored much, words of commendation and encouragement and outflowing of apostolic love, precious and large and full. It is for every minister in every conference, whether formally ordained or not, setting forth the privilege of every shepherd gained by earnest travail for souls, heart searching, prayerful seeking, and a religious experience marked by grace and the decided working of God's power with human effort. It belongs as a promise and message to believers now because the end is near, calling for intelligent united world-wide work in a short time to proclaim warning and salvation with no second probation, and revealing the work to be done for everyone saved that Christ be revealed in them, by them and through them.
Conditions for Comprehension
Comprehension is granted when God strengthens believers with might by His Spirit in the inner man according to the riches of His glory. The Holy Spirit renews the understanding so that God's Word, barren to the unrenewed heart, becomes fruitful and life-giving. He teaches and recalls Christ's words and opens the understanding, so what was unclear becomes spiritually understood, giving heavenly light and new courage and joy. This ability does not come from human wisdom or words but from God answering Paul's bowed-knee prayer, with Christ formed within as the hope of glory alone enlarging the mind for it. Faith and prayer help discern these deep things of God, though understanding remains limited and leads on toward knowing love beyond knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God.
Comprehension requires that Christ dwell in the heart by faith through contemplating Him, beholding Him, and ever cherishing Him as best and most honored friend whom none would grieve or offend. It comes through Christ formed within as the hope of glory and His abiding presence enlarging the mind. As He dwells in a heart cleansed from all moral impurity He ennobles and sanctifies the whole nature and makes the person a temple for the Holy Spirit.
Comprehension requires being rooted and grounded in love, with the heart purified from sin and established in Christ's love for this work of grace to take place. Full and entire surrender to Jesus, unreserved surrender, giving self fully to God and seeking to be conformed to His image prepare the soul to taste and receive it. This calls for entire sanctification, perfect conformity to God's will, and building one another up in faith, bringing a growing grasp of truth and deeper love for God and heaven to be brought into work to lead others to praise God.
Comprehension comes not by feeling but by faith in truth that refuses to stagger and cleaves through Satan's obstructing shadow to the light from Jesus. Those who say they do not feel as they want to feel are met by the fullness of the language directing them to take hold of that power by faith in Jesus Christ, as when Moses lifted up his hands and Israel prevailed, so minds are drawn to God and heaven with His righteousness and truth wrought within in following on to know the Lord whose going forth is prepared as the morning. It comes by overcoming uncertainties by faith, by daily experience in co-partnership with Christ, refusing to talk of Satan's power and speaking Christ's language without impatient speech. It comes by constant communion with God through receiving His Word as bread of life and water of salvation, by eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood, and by faith and prayer discerning the deep things of God and opening the deep truths of the plan of salvation.
Comprehension is God's promise to all who are willing for self to be humbled, who realize their weakness and entire dependence upon God, bringing a different standard of Christianity. It belongs with putting away self-love and the desire for supremacy, with cleansing from selfishness and true sanctification, and with contemplating Christ as Life-giver in whom all fullness dwells and beholding Him as personal Saviour. It requires preserving the human machinery as perfect as possible by intelligence, understanding God's laws established in the being, bringing habits into harmony with them and the body into subjection to the noble powers of the mind as a wonderful structure formed by the Infinite Designer kept in harmonious action, giving vigor of health for higher service and making possible that comprehension and knowing the love of Christ as the secret of true happiness. It is given exceeding abundantly above all asked or thought by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, and beside this true knowledge all else is vanity and nothingness.
Comprehension must be searched out by patient persevering diligent seeking that stretches every spiritual muscle and taxes intellect, patience and the whole man, yet still opens to an infinity beyond what is at first only dimly grasped. It requires diligently improving every means of grace so the love of God abounds more and more, with the Christian life taking vigorous stalwart form never standing still but either advancing or retrograding. It comes through humble study of Scripture with understanding quickened by the Holy Spirit, with hearts uplifted to God in faith and hope and continual praise, understanding as much of God's compassion as can be borne and growing as Christ's sacrifice is valued and redemption is sought. It is given to those who search God's Word and with contrite hearts pray for wisdom, for more is still to be known than is known at present and themes worthy of more than passing notice are to be dwelt upon, to come as the latter rain restoring connection with God.
Love to Be Comprehended
What is to be grasped in breadth and length and depth and height is the love of Christ, the love of God, the love of the Father and of Christ, the love revealed in God who is love and in His holy law as an expression of His love, from the High and Holy One that inhabits eternity who changes not. This comprehension belongs to those rooted and grounded in love, shared together with all saints, and leads to knowing the love which passes knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God. It is a possibility and standard of the Christian life, a privilege to taste and know that the Lord is good, receiving as empty vessels filled to overflowing with refreshing showers of grace. That love is an exhaustless fountain and reservoir continually supplied with abundant grace and goodness, so hearts filled with it expand and overflow. Comprehending it should awaken deepest gratitude and melody and intense meditation now, and will fill with wonder through eternal ages, while dulling of sensibility leaves indifference and loss of eternal riches after so much has been done to save.
That love is without measure, without comparison, infinite, a boundless fathomless ocean, an exhaustless fountain and reservoir continually supplied with abundant grace and goodness. All paternal love handed down through human hearts and all springs of tenderness opened in human souls are only a tiny rill beside its boundless ocean. Tongue cannot utter it and pen cannot portray it, it surpasses thought and imagination and the power of human expression, yet it is real and can be known by experience with inexpressible and glorious joy and enjoyed and overflowed from the filled heart. Meditating on it daily, searching Scripture diligently, and summoning every power to comprehend still leaves an infinity beyond, and studying it for ages never fully comprehends it and eternity itself can never fully reveal it. Yet as the Bible is studied and Christ's life and the plan of redemption are meditated upon, these great themes open more and more to understanding.
The dimensions are the length and breadth and depth and height of God's love in giving His Son to die for the world, tangible proof in the gift of His only-begotten Son to bear the world's sin so that whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life. Nothing less than Christ's infinite sacrifice for fallen humanity could express the Father's love for the lost, and only the Son who knew the Father's love could reveal it. That love is infinite and beyond human comprehension and description, amazing even the angels of heaven, calling church and world to behold, contemplate and admire it, that through obedience the fallen may be transformed and become acknowledged sons of God. Those belonging to God as His purchased possession are therefore to glorify Him in body and spirit and faithfully discharge duty.
The vast love is seen at Calvary where Christ, though innocent and excellent, suffered a painful death bearing the weight of the sins of the world. Its depth is seen in laying aside royal glory to become human, enduring Satan's fiercest temptations without yielding or discouragement, descending from highest excellence through successive steps of humiliation, and paying the ransom through a shameful death though human guilt could have separated Him. This love cannot be fathomed apart from the sacrifice at Calvary, and turning from selfishness and dwelling on Christ's spotless character helps grasp its height, depth, length and breadth. Its magnitude lies beyond the full reach of human thought and imagination, surpassing what can be fully known. Contemplating this matchless love should fill and absorb the mind, soften, touch, move and melt the heart, refine and elevate the affections, awaken praise and humble obedience, and completely transform the character. Through His merits humanity may share the divine nature and escape the world's corruption.
The same dimensions also describe the vast scope of God's plan of redemption, divine spiritual truth revealed in Christ, the deep truths and mysteries of God and the vast dimensions of God's knowledge and of Scripture truth. The rites and symbols of the Jewish economy foreshadowed these truths and the gospel unlocks them, and even angels desire to look into them. Their greatness exceeds the reach of human wisdom and words, and human minds grasp only a limited view apart from spiritual-mindedness, faith and prayer discerning the deep things of God. As the Bible's truths are received understanding expands to discern this mystery, which cannot be fully explained in words but is shown in Christlike character, and through meditation on unfathomable riches the soul grows to comprehend salvation more deeply and fully toward being filled with all the fullness of God.
Breaking God's law made the Son's blood necessary to redeem humanity, and Christ is the propitiation not only for believers' sins but for the sins of the whole world. Seeing Him as compassionate tender High Priest leads the sinner to hate the sins that wounded Him and to keep a contrite heart, with wisdom sought from God in earnest prayer beyond what human counsel can teach. Convicted souls set free from slavery of sin and bondage of worldly principles have opened before them themes of thought and fields for action never before comprehended, discerning in Jesus the Redeemer breadth and length and depth and height of love which passes knowledge, infinite wisdom, infinite justice and infinite mercy. Beholding the perfection of His character and contemplating His mission, love, grace and truth charms the soul and meets its great want.
The love surpasses knowledge yet its vastness can be truly grasped, experienced and enjoyed through faith and connection with Christ as members of His body and branches of the living Vine. It is bestowed on those who believe in the Son and known by experience, and it comes through Christ's merits with its vitality circulating through every part of human nature to abide as believers dwell in Christ Jesus, loved by the Father as members of His mystical body of which Christ is the glorified head. Those who do not keep trusting the Lord and keeping His way but walk in sparks of their own kindling, without union with Christ and without His Spirit and mind and the sunlight of His righteousness, do not know this love. God manifest in Christ unburdens this infinite love in lessons clear, full and explicit, with divine compassion beaming and with purity and rich grace rendering Him glorious above creation and crowned with honor. Its presence in the soul inspires gratitude and frees from spiritual weakness, pride, vanity, selfishness and whatever deforms character, while the inexhaustible love and grace fill the heart to overflowing.
The love to be comprehended is measureless, seen in Christ's earthly life, His sacrifice, His work as advocate in heaven, and the mansions He prepares for those who love Him.
Shared Growing Understanding
Comprehension is shared together with all saints and it grows as believers learn of God, give themselves fully to be conformed to His image, and receive His divine love into their hearts and give it to one another by personally tasting it. Knowing Christ's love and power and receiving His attributes brings believers into sympathy with Him and fills them with God's fullness as a present reward and heritage, giving a growing grasp of truth and a deeper love for God and heaven that is brought into work to lead others to praise God for His rich grace. Rooted and grounded in love with Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, this becomes a living experience that grows day by day, making Christians steadfast and persevering so their lives declare the power of Christ's love in a world of selfishness and sin. Those joined to Christ are to go out in His Spirit and with His mind, sharing God's love with the world, and the growth begun in this life will be opened still more fully in the eternal ages.
In this life even earnest thought grasps the full significance of the cross, where shame and glory, life and death, justice and mercy meet, only dimly. The truth in Jesus can be experienced, but its height and breadth and depth cannot be completely explained or grasped, and even after putting every nerve and muscle to the stretch an infinity still lies beyond. Through humble study of Scripture people can understand as much of God's compassion as they can bear, and as they value Christ's sacrifice and seek to know redemption their understanding grows while the subject continues to open into greater depths. Being divested of all selfish ambition enables overcoming temptation and understanding the mysteries of His work, and every branch of the living Vine bears the fruit of the parent stalk.
That love is infinite and exhaustless, beyond utterance by tongue or portrayal by pen, with all paternal love and all springs of tenderness in human souls only a tiny rill beside its boundless ocean. Studying that love for ages never fully comprehends it and eternity itself can never fully reveal it, for even meditating on it every day, searching the Scriptures diligently, and summoning every power and capability to comprehend the Father's love and compassion still leaves an infinity beyond. Yet as the Bible is studied and Christ's life and the plan of redemption are meditated upon these great themes open more and more to understanding, which is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation with enlightened eyes. Even the redeemed will not fully understand the plan of redemption, but through eternity they will gain ever-deepening knowledge of what their salvation cost, with new truth continually unfolding while they retain a clear knowledge of that cost.
Understanding grows through continual longing for Christ and communion with Him, not through bare knowledge of truth, as believers behold His goodness and spotless character and are changed into His likeness to reflect Him in life. Turning from selfishness and dwelling on Christ's spotless character and on the sacrifice made at Calvary helps believers grasp its height and depth and length and breadth, for the love of Christ cannot be fathomed apart from Calvary and it surpasses what people can fully know. Contemplating redemption and beholding Him as the Lamb who takes away the world's sin gives a deeper and broader conception of Christ's love and helps believers appreciate the immense scope of God's plan of salvation joined to knowing His love which surpasses knowledge. As people dwell on God's goodness and mercy and love through study of His word they see His vast far-reaching deep and broad truth more clearly and are changed, with self lost sight of and the heart growing humble and kind and loving.
Those who could not grasp His spiritual words will clearly comprehend as living truth with all saints the length and breadth and depth and height of the love which passes knowledge, no longer saying they cannot comprehend and no longer seeing through a glass darkly but face to face. This comprehension comes after Christ ascended to heaven as Teacher and Advocate pleading that spiritual power be given to believers, so that in the strength of One mightier than all the enemies of God and man they may overcome their spiritual foes by trusting in Him and committing themselves into His keeping. It is given through Christ's abiding presence and experimental knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit abiding forever as pleader and guide and teacher and reminder and witness and comforter and convicter of sin. It comes only through union with Christ by which the feeble finite sinful nature is restored to healthful growth and the life of the Vine becomes the life of the adopted sapling, so that He who has begun a good work performs it unto the day of Christ, perfecting His chosen as complete in Him as members of His body, a part of Himself.
Each soul can grow in breadth and depth and heights of knowledge in spiritual things and be fitted for the higher life, with heights and depths of practical godliness to be brought into life and character. There is much more in God's Word than many have discovered, and more is still to be known than is known at present in the greater lengths and breadths and heights of the knowledge that God alone can give in the deep things of God in the plan of redemption. This fuller comprehension is to come to His people now as the latter rain restoring their fast-failing connection with God, and it is given to those who search God's Word and with contrite hearts pray for wisdom and dwell upon themes worthy of more than a passing notice. Those heights and depths might be reached with less self-indulgence and more consecration to God.
Fullness and Transformed Character
Comprehending breadth and length and depth and height leads on to knowing the love of Christ which passes knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God. This is the true knowledge invited to all, beside which all else is vanity and nothingness, given exceeding abundantly above all that is asked or thought by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. That love is too wonderful to fully comprehend and express, yet not too rich to enjoy and experience, to taste and know that the Lord is good. It is an exhaustless fountain and reservoir continually supplied with abundant grace and goodness and love, received by empty human vessels filled to overflowing with refreshing showers of grace from Christ until hearts expand and overflow. Rooted and grounded in love, believers together with all saints grasp its vastness, and the more it influences them the more Christlike they become.
Knowing that love brings an experience of the cross of Calvary and of sharing in Christ's sufferings. Though its effect on the heart cannot be fully explained, it moves to fervent devotion to Christ's cause. Grasping its length and breadth and depth and height awakens love for God, revealed in Christ's loveliness and His love for sinners, a love that surpasses knowledge yet can be increasingly understood. It melts and subdues the stubborn heart, transforms the sinner into a child of heaven, and drives sin from the heart without compulsion. Through it pride is changed into humility and enmity and unbelief into love and faith.
Contemplating this matchless love, shown when He though innocent and excellent suffered a painful death bearing the weight of the sins of the world, should fill and absorb the mind. Its length and breadth and height and depth are beyond the full reach of human thought and imagination and cannot be fathomed. Such contemplation should touch and melt the soul, soften and move the heart, refine and elevate the affections, and completely transform the whole character, awakening praise and humble obedience. It is a theme of eternal interest calling for deepest emotion, and it is sin to be calm and unimpassioned about it.
Receiving it forms character after the divine similitude and conforms to the image of Christ here. Believers become one in character with Christ, counterparts of the character of God, complete in every grace in and through Christ by His blood as ransom and His death bringing life and immortality to light, sharing His throne as overcomers elevated and pure. Divine perception alone grasps its vastness unto being filled with all the fullness of God. So taught, they look upon fellow beings as God's own purchased possession, keep the soul in the love of God, and do not lord it over His heritage.
It means health that makes a healthy church, gained by cooperating with the Great Physician and keeping the heart guarded. Strengthened with all might by the Spirit in the inner soul, with Christ dwelling in the heart by faith and rooted and grounded in love, the soul holds constant communion with God through His Word as bread of life and water of salvation, eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood for spiritual strength. It receives life-blood from Christ for the heart and nerve power from Christ and the Holy Spirit, is begotten again to a lively hope and imbued with the quickening power of a new nature, and is enabled to rise higher and still higher unto knowing the love of Christ and being filled with all the fullness of God. The true principles of Christianity open a source of happiness whose height and depth, length and breadth are immeasurable, Christ in believers as a well of water springing up into everlasting life, a continual wellspring to drink at will without exhausting the fountain.
This knowing fills with joy and the blessing of God, so service is not gloomy as under a hard taskmaster laying on unbearable burdens. When Christ's name is mentioned it strikes the keynote and awakens response in the heart, leading to thanksgiving and glory and honor and praise to Him that sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Learning to sing that song here prepares for striking the song of triumph with heavenly angels and redeemed saints when changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. It enables diffusing that light, hope and faith to others as the light of the world.
Being sound in the faith under Christ with this comprehension is the opposite of a hard judicial sharp critical faultfinding spirit that climbs into the judgment seat to condemn and sentence others and seeks and strives for first place. It is equally the opposite of the false religion of sentimentalism. It means loving solidly with Christ as leader, strengthened in the inner life with might by His Spirit according to the riches of God's glory, with Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, rooted and grounded in love, grasping with all saints the full measure of the love of Christ which goes beyond knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God.
The length and breadth and height and depth of perfect love means entire conformity to the will of God, being imbued with His Spirit, and knowing God working through the life. To comprehend it hungers and thirsts after righteousness and cannot rest until that perfect love is known, longing to be more like Jesus, to reflect His image, to be filled with all the fullness of God, and to rejoice in a whole Saviour who saves from all sin. Gaining it requires striving for heaven with all might for eternal life, doubling diligence to make calling and election sure, enduring a little longer for victory, and exercising living faith that takes hold of glory. It requires complete consecration and exercise of the will, saying I will be a Christian, with earnest effort, ambition, zeal and perseverance as for perishable things, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Mere desires for goodness and holiness, good purposes, and hoping and desiring to be Christians avail nothing if stopping short without resolute carrying out, leaving spiritual dwarfs to whom godliness is a hidden mystery, knowing not Christ, weighed and found wanting and lost; but Christ has made ample provision to satisfy the hungering thirsting soul, whose pure element of love expands the soul for higher attainments and increased knowledge of divine things that will not be satisfied short of fullness, through an educated disciplined mind loving purity and spirituality and growing in grace and knowledge of the truth unto experimental knowledge of Christ.
Calls to Life and Mission
The verse declares the high and exalted privilege of God's people and sets the standard of the Christian life, a possibility that can be attained and must be attained to be children of God. This privilege is reached through faith in God's promises and fulfillment of His requirements, by diligently improving every means of grace so that love abounds more and more in the soul. The Christian life under it must take vigorous stalwart form, never standing still but advancing, leading on to knowing the love of Christ which passes knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God.
It is the privilege and duty of every child of God to obtain this living experience day by day through connection with Christ, then to go forth in His Spirit and with His mind as human agents cooperating with the divine. Those joined to Christ bear to the world the message of God's love to man, that Christ is Advocate, that the bow of promise encircles the throne, and that the Lord waits to be gracious, not setting aside this self-denying and self-sacrificing work but looking to Jesus as the Pattern. This comprehension grows day by day as believers contemplate Christ as Life-giver in whom all fullness dwells and behold Him as personal Saviour, leading to appreciating saving grace, thinking of Jesus, keeping His praise in the heart, speaking of love abundantly expressed for sinners, praising God with heart and soul and voice, abounding in thanksgiving, and lifting up the Christ of Calvary so the world may behold Him.
The work to be done for everyone who is saved is for Christ to be revealed in them, by them, and through them. This is the aim of the solemn work of the gospel minister, to make all see the fellowship of the mystery hidden from the beginning in God. The gospel is to magnify truth through its sanctifying, cleansing, and refining influence, and this work is to be carried out by the whole family of believers united to Christ, not by ministers alone.
For workers together for God this means leaning heavily upon the Mighty One and laboring for unity and for love in order to become a power in the world. Christ's love is broad and deep and full, reaching people of every nationality, race, and class, breaking down divisions and freeing those deceived by Satan. Through redemption all belong to one family with free access to God, brought within reach of His throne and promise.
Those who minister in word and doctrine must reach this growth instead of remaining dwarfs in spiritual things, through being strengthened by the Spirit in the inner man, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, and being rooted and grounded in love. It belongs to unreserved surrender to God and to consecrated lives that are ensamples to the flock, unselfish and blameless, aiming at nothing short of perfection of Christian character. All teachers, ministers, and all in responsible positions must be converted and manifest the principles of the law to an unbelieving world with spiritual discernment, careful choice of words, and care to preserve the fragrance of the Spirit, for if perversity, imperfection of character in spirit or action in family, school, church, or world sets a wrong example and leads others wrong, the soul is separated from God from the quickening discerning influence of the divine mind, and unless converted such should take another calling where they will not act the unbeliever's spirit.
Comprehending the exalted character and office of Christ by experimental knowledge enables Christians to represent Christ in life and character, to reveal received light, to bring forth the fruit God designs from understood truth, and to testify with power to win souls. Meager views of that greatness narrow religious experience, hinder progress in the divine life, and leave religion low, formal, mechanical, and merely verbal. Despite great light, facilities, publishing houses, schools, sanitariums, and privileges and opportunities to reach hearts, results remain small without this deeper solid comprehension, gained by diligently and prayerfully searching Scripture with understanding quickened by the Spirit and hearts uplifted in faith and hope and continual praise, instead of being filled with gloom while dwelling on surrounding darkness and evil.
Believers are to grasp the full breadth, length, depth, and height of the subject before them in order to represent Christ's character through patience, courage, and steadfast integrity. Christian perfection has great height and breadth, so that with God as strength believers develop elevated thoughts, noble aims, clear understanding of truth, and actions free from selfish motives even amid discouragement and temptation. Knowing its greatness means remembering believers are His purchased possession to glorify Him in body and spirit and faithfully discharge duty to Him in sight of the heavenly universe. It means reverencing a personal God who rules in heaven and controls all things, giving all glory to Him rather than finding Him in flower and leaf and tree, in light of measureless love without parallel given tangible proof in the gift of His only-begotten Son to bear the world's sin so whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit worked for restoration, giving the Son as offering for sin with all heaven's resources for uplifting, a love no measure contains and beyond which nothing more could have been done to save and restore humanity. Comprehending this boundless fathomless ocean revealed in Christ's dignity and glory and sacrifice on Calvary to redeem a lost world and purchase eternal life should awaken deepest gratitude and melody in the heart and intense meditation now, and will fill the saints with wonder through eternal ages. After so much done it is terrible to be lost through indifference, for Satan blunts sensibilities to keep souls from comprehending and losing eternal riches.
Daily experience in co-partnership with Christ leads on to knowing this love that passes knowledge, by overcoming uncertainties by faith, refusing to talk of Satan's power, speaking Christ's language without impatient speech, and becoming a savor of life unto life. Christ's presence in thoughts and heart gives resolve to put away sin, while growth joins freely offered grace with cooperation toward being filled with God's fullness and love. Study of Scripture truth whose length, breadth, depth, and height needs eternity to grasp should therefore be serious and fruitful, with meditation on unfathomable riches deepening comprehension of salvation, and teachers presenting truths suited to hearers' good rather than perplexing them with every subject at once.
Its presence in the soul inspires gratitude and frees from spiritual weakness, pride, vanity, selfishness, and whatever deforms character, for beside its broad glory all human greatness becomes insignificant. Christ's life displayed that love in compassion, grace, humility, love, and truth, and every church member must show these to join the triumphant church. Through union with Christ the feeble finite sinful nature is restored to healthful growth as the Vine's life becomes the adopted sapling's life, no longer seeing darkly but face to face in understanding spiritual things. The God who gave Jesus is able to perfect those for whom sacrifice was made until the day of Christ, completing His chosen as members of His body, part of Himself.
The price of redemption reveals what people may become through Christ, for the Father's gift of His beloved Son for fallen men shows a love so deep, broad, and high that language fails and even angels are amazed, calling church and world to contemplation and admiration. Though sin makes men subjects of Satan, faith in His atoning sacrifice and connection with Him make them children of God, as Christ taking human nature elevates fallen humanity to truly bear that name through obedience as transformed acknowledged sons. Through Christ's unconfined power, unsearchable understanding, and wonderful sacrifice this love is comprehended, growing as truth is brought into daily life and Christ abides in the soul.