And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 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, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17b-19 NIV
In his prayer for the Ephesian church, Paul prays that they would be able to grasp the extent of God’s love. To know this unknowable love. And to be filled completely with Christ, the fullness of God (Col. 1:19).
But, these things are layered onto something else. First, we need to be rooted and established in love. If we are not, we will never understand or really know the depth of God’s love. Rooted and established are agricultural terms. In order for a plant to grow strong it needs to be rooted and established in the growing medium, usually soil. If it is not, then it will never reach its true potential.
And the same is true for followers of Christ. But for us, that growing medium is love, God’s love. We needed to be rooted in love and draw nourishment from it. But even more, all that we do in our daily lives should be characterized by love. It is only when we are living in love that we will be able to begin to truly understand the depth of God’s love.