To know the love of Christ
Martha Olawale
“And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Ephesian 3:19
What does it mean “To know?” The phrase is so loosely used that even things that fall under guessing pass for “I know!” Knowing is a giant leap from what we think to what we know. It rides above the train of confusion and cannot be moved by innuendos.
If you ask a toddler who is learning how to read the ABC if he/she knows it, you’ll get the alphabet song in response, ending with “Now I know,” even if one or two letters got mixed up or he/she has no idea what they are used for. Knowing something is more than a half-baked truth with a few missing links. Knowing is either all or nothing. You must know to know, and there is no compromise. It means a deeply seated understanding that what you know is accurate and believed. It rests at the core of your existence beyond any doubt.
Coming from a place of not understanding who Jesus was to become a champion of the faith, Paul understood the depth of Christ’s love when he writes in Ephesians 2:19a, “And to know the love of Christ.” With his encounter with Jesus comes the knowledge of His love. Through his personal journey with Him, he knows that nothing he had experienced before, his wealth, education, and position, compares to the depth of Christ’s love.
To know the love of Christ, you must take one step toward Him as Paul did and accept His offer of salvation. From then on, although not complete on this side of Heaven, you will be filled with all the fullness of God, that no one can pull you away from what you know to be absolute truth.
Knowing Jesus sips through every fiber of our being. It’s inseparable or dilutable. The knowledge of Christ’s love rests on the soul of the saved and gives an understanding of who God is. Through the outpouring of His love, we know God does not hold back His goodness. He is gracious but not enabling, forgiving but not condoning, encouraging but not demanding, present but not encroaching. If you walk with Him, He completes you in every way.
