The Apostle Paul had just finished talking about how he was made a minister of the gospel of Christ according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given him by the working of God’s power. He was extremely humbled by God’s call upon his life, for he had previously been a persecutor and a murderer of Christians. But he gave all the credit and all the glory to God for what the Lord was accomplishing in his life and through his life in bringing the truth of the gospel of Christ to the people of the world.
Ephesians 3:14-21 ESV
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
1. What was Paul’s concern for the Christians?
2. What did he do about it?
3. What is the breadth, length, height, and depth of God’s love?
4. What is “all the fulness of God”?
Paul wasn’t just a preacher of the gospel of Christ. And he definitely was not in it for the money, nor for the fame, which he did not receive other than mostly in a negative way. But he really cared about the people he ministered to. He cared about what was going on in their lives. But a lot of his ministry was spent in jail writing letters to the churches, which are now part of our Scriptures in the New Testament. So he wasn’t always with them in person, and I don’t know how much he had contact with the people individually.
So being someone who cares does not mean you can juggle the time spent in communications with everyone to where you have individual time with each person, especially if your ministry sphere is quite broad. For there are only so many hours in each day, and if you have a family, your responsibilities may be stretched in many different directions. So I am just saying that Paul was probably not in daily communications with every person or every church congregation to whom he ministered.
And the reason I am saying that is because we live in a generation now where we have the possibility of around the clock communications with people we know, and so people may get the idea that some of us are always available when we are not. For if you compare things as they are now to 20 years ago or so, we didn’t have cell phones. And we didn’t have the internet as we now know it. And we didn’t have around the clock news and TV shows, etc. We grew up with one phone in the house. If you missed a call, you missed it. For you had no idea who it was who called.
So, what is my point? My point is that we all have lives of our own and personal responsibilities and jobs and ministries, and some of us are being stretched in multiple directions, so we are not going to be available all the time for all people individually and still get our work done. But that does not mean we do not love the people we are ministering to. Sometimes the love and ministry has to be given more collectively rather than individually, which is what Paul had to do. But what he did showed that he loved them.
For he cared enough about them to inquire as to how they were doing, and to write to them collectively, and perhaps to some individually. And he cared enough to pray for them and to encourage them collectively and to teach them the truth of the gospel, which they needed to hear. And he loved them enough to counsel them in the way that they should go and against the ways they should not go. For they needed this instruction and encouragement and counsel in order to know the ways of the Lord so that they could walk in them and so that they would minister to one another.
And Paul cared enough about them to tell them the truth and to refute the lies so that they would not end up following the lies and reject the truth. So he wanted them to know the vastness of God’s love. And God’s love is not permission for us to keep living in deliberate and habitual sin. God’s love extends so far that he makes certain that we hear the truth and that we are discerning of the lies. And his love tells us that we must forsake our sinful practices and now follow him in obedience to his ways or we don’t have the hope of eternal life with God. And that is great love!
For God is not here just to do for us. He is here so that we will learn to do for him in return for what he has done for us. He is here to instruct us in the ways that we should go and to warn us against following the wrong way. So to be filled with the fulness of God is to love him and to follow him and to obey him and to do what pleases him and to know his will and to do his will and to be sharing the gospel so that others can know him, too. And it is to be loving the people of this world as he loved us by giving himself up for us so that we will now die to sin and live to righteousness, by God’s grace.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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