Ephesians 3:19

This contemplation comes about through grace, and yet personal effort is helpful, for it separates self from anything that is not God, and if possible, from itself. And that is the supreme union of love. And the Apostle says that it comes about through love …

Next, since further knowledge is also necessary—a knowledge of the mysteries of the humanity—he goes on to know also the charity of Christ. For whatever occurred in the mystery of human redemption and Christ's incarnation was the work of love. He was born out of …

The end-state, however, or fruit of Sacred Scripture is not just anything, but the fullness of eternal happiness. For this is the Scripture in which are the words of eternal life, which was therefore written not only that we might believe, but also that we …

"Knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies"; therefore it is necessary to join charity with knowledge, so that a man may have knowledge and charity together, so that what the Apostle says may be fulfilled: "Rooted and founded in charity, that you may be able to …

We are not to understand it of his fulness as God in himself, but of his fulness as a God in covenant with us, as a God to his people: such a fulness as God is ready to bestow, who is willing to fill them all to the utmost of their capacity, and that with all those gifts and graces which he sees they need.

6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture

This only we know, that the love of Christ surpasses all knowledge. That ye may be filled - Which is the sum of all. With all the fulness of God - With all his light, love, wisdom, holiness, power, and glory.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:82%@v16-21

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,....

We should be ambitious of coming up with the first three; but not of going beyond what is the measure of the stature of other saints. It is observable how magnificently the apostle speaks of the love of Christ. The dimensions of redeeming love are admirable: The breadth, and length, and depth, and height.

And to know the love of Christ - The love of Christ toward us; the immensity of redeeming love. It is not merely the love which he showed for the Gentiles in calling them into his kingdom, which is here referred to; it is the love which is shown for the lost world in giving himself to die. This love is often referred to in the New Testament, and is declared to surpass all other which has ever been evinced; see the Rom 5:7-8, notes; Joh 15:13, note.

Even as God's power exceeds our thoughts (Eph 3:20). filled with--rather, as Greek, "filled even unto all the fulness of God" (this is the grand goal), that is, filled, each according to your capacity, with the divine wisdom, knowledge, and love; "even as God is full," and as Christ who dwells in your hearts, hath "all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him bodily" (Col 2:9).

You are as much responsible for using your judgment as you are for using your hands and your feet. God never did free a conscience from His jurisdiction. Conscience is free, but not before God. You have a right to your convictions as far as I am concerned. But if your convictions are wrong, you have no right to them before God. There are certain things that are Truths of God, and there are others that are contradictions—see that you get fast hold of Wisdom—and that you do not let her go.

You are as much responsible for using your judgment as you are for using your hands and your feet. God never did free a conscience from His jurisdiction. Conscience is free, but not before God. You have a right to your convictions as far as I am concerned. But if your convictions are wrong, you have no right to them before God. There are certain things that are Truths of God, and there are others that are contradictions—see that you get fast hold of Wisdom—and that you do not let her go. There is a tendency, however, on the other hand in certain quarters, to make doctrinal knowledge everything. I have seen, to my inexpressible grief, the Doctrines of Grace made a huge stone to be rolled at the mouth of the sepulcher of a dead Christ. And I have seen sound doctrine, so called, made as a very seal to seal in the dead Christ, lest by any means the energy of His Grace should come out for the salvation of sinners. Oh, what is doctrine, after all, but a throne whereon Christ sits? And when that throne is vacant, what is the throne to us? It is the Monarch and not the throne that we reverence and esteem. Doctrines are but as the shovel and the tongs of the altar, while Christ is the smoking sacrifice. Doctrines are Christ's garments—verily they all smell of myrrh and cassia and aloes out of ivory palaces, whereby they make us glad—but it is not the garments we care for so much as for the Person, the very Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, while I entreat you, (and I hope not to be misunderstood here), while I entreat you to be very jealous and earnest in attaining unto a clear doctrinal knowledge of the love of Christ to His people, yet when you have got it, do not say—"I am the man! I have attained to eminence. I may now sit still and be content." Sirs, this is but the threshold. This is but one of the first arches of a long vista of glorious Truths of God.

THIS Divine measurement is an art of the most desirable kind, as appears from its being the object of most earnest Apostolic prayers. Paul was not content to travail in birth for souls and to become their spiritual parent—but he afterwards exercised the functions of a nursing father, tenderly caring for the souls to whom he had been blessed—and desiring to see them growing up in the faith to the ripeness of spiritual maturity. He was parent, nurse, and tutor—in fact he became all things, as far as lay within his power—to his spiritual children.

THIS Divine measurement is an art of the most desirable kind, as appears from its being the object of most earnest Apostolic prayers. Paul was not content to travail in birth for souls and to become their spiritual parent—but he afterwards exercised the functions of a nursing father, tenderly caring for the souls to whom he had been blessed—and desiring to see them growing up in the faith to the ripeness of spiritual maturity. He was parent, nurse, and tutor—in fact he became all things, as far as lay within his power—to his spiritual children. Paul's wise tenderness leads us to an assured confidence that the blessing to pray for, which he suspended his writing of so important an Epistle, must have been of the very highest value. "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." He felt that it was desirable to the very last degree that the saints should not only know themselves to be the objects of Divine favor, but should be well acquainted with its sublime qualities and perfections which he here compares to a fourfold measurement. In this measurement may you and I be skilled. If we know nothing of mathematics, may we be well-tutored scholars in this spiritual geometry and be able to comprehend the breadths and lengths of Jesus' precious love. It may be well at the outset to call your attention to the previous education which the Apostle desires for the saints as a preliminary to their measurement of Divine love. Then the measurement itself which he desires them to practice. And lastly, the practical results which would be sure to follow from their being able to comprehend the love of Christ Jesus our Lord. I. Like a wise and enlightened teacher, Paul desires for the saints that they should receive THAT PREVIOUS EDUCATION WHICH IS NECESSARY BEFORE THEY WILL BE ABLE TO ENTER UPON SUCH A SCIENCE AS THE MEASUREMENT OF CHRIST'S LOVE.

THIS is a part of Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers. It is the closing clause and consummation of it. It mentions the grandest gift for which he prayed. His prayer was like that ladder which Jacob saw, the top of which reached to Heaven and God—and the Apostle at the foot of it was not asleep—but looking up with eager eyes and marking each rising rung of light. Be it ours by sweet experience to ascend that staircase of light! May the Holy Spirit reveal it to us even now!

THIS is a part of Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers. It is the closing clause and consummation of it. It mentions the grandest gift for which he prayed. His prayer was like that ladder which Jacob saw, the top of which reached to Heaven and God—and the Apostle at the foot of it was not asleep—but looking up with eager eyes and marking each rising rung of light. Be it ours by sweet experience to ascend that staircase of light! May the Holy Spirit reveal it to us even now! You must begin to read at the 14th verse—"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named, that"—this is one rung of the ladder. "That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that"— here comes the second rung—one step helps you to reach the next and you are strengthened that you may rise higher and enjoy a further privilege! "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that"—this is the third rung. Oh, that the Holy Spirit may help you at once take a firm footing upon it! "That you, being rooted and grounded in love, 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 passes knowledge." Surely we are at the top of the ladder now, are we not? What a height! How glorious is the view! How solid the standing! How exhilarating the sense of communion with all saints and with the Lord of saints! Yet this is not the top of it! Here is another step—"that you might be filled with all the fullness of God." You see that the prayer begins with the gracious petition that we may be strengthened—"strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, according to the riches of His glory." The objective is that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith.

To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge - It is only by the love of Christ that we can know the love of God: the love of God to man induced him to give Christ for his redemption; Christ’s love to man induced him to give his life’s blood for his salvation. The gift of Christ to man is the measure of God’s love; the death of Christ for man is the measure of Christ’s love. God so loved the world, etc. Christ loved us, and gave himself for us. But how can the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, be known? Many have labored to reconcile this seeming contradiction. If we take the verb γνωναι in a sense in which it is frequently used in the New Testament, to approve, acknowledge, or acknowledge with approbation, and γνωσις to signify comprehension, then the difficulty will be partly removed: “That ye may acknowledge, approve, and publicly acknowledge, that love of God which surpasseth knowledge.” We can acknowledge and approve of that which surpasses our comprehension. We cannot comprehend God; yet we can know that he is; approve of, love, adore, and serve him. In like manner, though we cannot comprehend, the immensity of the love of Christ, yet we know that he has loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; and we approve of, and acknowledge, him as our only Lord and Savior. In this sense we may be said to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. But it is more likely that the word γνωσις, which we translate knowledge, signifies here science in general, and particularly that science of which the rabbins boasted, and that in which the Greeks greatly exulted. The former professed to have the key of knowledge; the secret of all Divine mysteries; the latter considered their philosophers, and their systems of philosophy, superior to every thing that had ever been known among men, and reputed on this account all other nations as barbarians. […]