We Might Comprehend the Love of Christ

The third of four prayer petitions that the Apostle Paul makes in Ephesians 3:16-19 is that Christians might comprehend the love of Christ in verses 18-19a: 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. In other words, Paul prays for the Christian’s comprehension. While the English reader thinks of “understanding” when he reads the word comprehend, the Greek behind it (katalambano) is much stronger: “to lay hold of so as to make one’s own, to obtain, attain to, to take into one’s self, to seize upon, take possession of.” The concept of “the love of God” is so broad, so wide, so expansive, that it’s necessary to look at its separate dimensions if we are going to have any understanding of it at all.

First, there is the breadth of His love. Breadth is platos in the Greek, which is used figuratively here (and Rev. 20:9) to mean the great expanses of the earth, so the breadth of Christ’s love shows the extent of His love, just how all-encompassing it is. Just as His love extends to both Jew and Gentile (see Ephesians 2:11‑18), God’s love is upon all people without distinction.

Second, there is the length of His love. Length is mēkos, which simply speaks of length and pictures here the duration of Christ’s love; that is, it shows that His love is eternal. The love of Christ for us spans eternity past and eternity future. As we discovered in Ephesians 1:4, God loved us in eternity past: “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Ephesians 2:4 and 7 then tell us of his love in eternity future: “for his great love wherewith he loved us . . . That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” What a beautiful thought God conveyed to Jeremiah the prophet: “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3). As many scientists consider time to be the “fourth dimension,” so it is that God’s love for His people transcends the physical universe to include time itself. Time is a created thing, and so it is that God loved His people before time existed, and he will love them after time ceases.

Third, there is the depth of His love. Depth is bathos, which metaphorically means greatness, immensity, profoundness, inscrutability, and abstruseness. Paul uses this word in Romans 11:33-34 to show that God’s riches are unfathomable, as are His judgments. Paul also uses this word in I Corinthians 2:10, “For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep [i.e., unfathomable] things of God.” So the depth of Christ’s love shows us the condescension of His love; that is, it shows that God has reached down from His level to our level. This dimension is indeed the most wonderful of the four. As Ephesians 2:1‑5 makes vividly clear, it is impossible for man to be any lower or more depraved than he already is. “But God” has reached down and redeemed man through His love and grace. We have often heard the excuse, “Oh, I am too great a sinner to come to God.” But that is utterly impossible! Every sinner is just as depraved as another.

Fourth, there is the height of His love. Height is hupsos, which figuratively means elevation and dignity. This word appears, for example, in James 1:9-10, “Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation,” to mean that “the poor, in contrast to the rich, are lifted up on high by God.” The height of Christ’s love, then, shows the position to which the believers has been elevated; that is, it shows God’s ultimate and final purpose for us. How blessed this is! Not only has Christ’s love come down to us, but it also elevates us to a new and exalted position.