I just finished teaching through the first three chapters of Ephesians and as we finished chapter three we came to Paul’s closing prayer for the first three chapters. After some wonderful theology Paul’s prayer focuses on one thing- that they would understand how much God loves them.
Honestly, it doesn’t seem to fit, but what Paul knew was that if you understand the love of God then everything else fits very nicely, thank you. It’s God’s love that brings all the theology of this book into sharp focus and makes faith possible in the midst of questions we can’t answer. If we could understand the love of God, even a little, it would buffer the pains and arrows of life. It’s that important. In fact, it’s the most important thing.
The atheist will argue with you contending that if God is all powerful and all good we have a problem. From those two parts of God’s nature they try to refute God’s existence, but they are focused on the wrong things. The key thing they must address…the key thing we each must address is the love of God. Does he love us? If so, if there is evidence for God’s love and his resolution of our problem, then I can endure the pains and woes of the difficult days because I know I have a wonderful God who is madly in love with me. It is the most important thing.
So, Paul concludes three amazing chapters with this prayer, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 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, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
To know that God loves you is the most important thing….and he does….he proved it at the cross.
