The Love of God

For any mere mortal to even attempt to fully describe the love of God to another would seem to be a defeating task from the onset, as there are no words in any language known to man to adequately describe “the love of God”. Nonetheless, since He has made His love known to me in such a spectacular way by saving my very soul and lavishing on me His mercy and grace when I was in such a state of low esteem and seemingly completely unlovable, I’m going to put some of my thoughts on the subject to print anyway.

We use descriptive adjectives such as; amazing, wonderful, marvelous, and awesome in a futile endeavor to lift the definition of God’s love to what we feel would be an utmost elevation. The truth is; God’s love cannot be elevated any higher than God has already placed it. It’s much like the name of Jesus. We simply cannot give more power to that name as God has already given Him all power. (Matthew 28:18)  We cannot add to Jesus’ supremacy as He has already been given supremacy in everything. (Colossians 1:18)  And so it is with God’s love. It’s there and we can do nothing to make it more faithful, more everlasting, or any more inclusive.

Paul writing to the Ephesians said; “I pray that you may have the power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge” Galatians 3:17b-19a)  God’s love is just that huge…it surpasses all earthly knowledge.

I believe that F.M. Lehman came close to grasping how wide, long, high and deep the love of God is when he penned his thoughts in the third stanza and chorus of his song titled, “The Love of God”:

“Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade,    

To write the love of God above, would drain the ocean dry,

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, tho stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure, how measure-less and strong,

It shall forever-more endure the saints’ and angels’ song.”  

Oh how I wish at times that those words had originated from my lips. I get misty eyed every time I sing those words as I realize the intensity of emotion F.M. Lehman must have felt as he wrote those words so full of truth in his futile attempt to describe God’s precious love.

For years I prayed to have the power that Paul spoke to the Galatians about and I strove hard to grasp and to know the depth, the breadth, the height, and the width of this eternal love God had for me. Then one morning in a worship service, I was given that power and I did grasp and I did know this love that transcends all earthly knowledge. God in His infinite wisdom has indeed left all Christians a way to grasp and to know in the most intimate way possible His love for each and every one of us. I’ve experienced it and now I want to share with you how you too can experience it as well:

This coming Sunday when the Communion portion of the worship service begins, and the bread and the cup are passed… and you take your portion; as you renew your Covenant with God, look down through tear filled eyes at what you are holding in your hands, and realize that you are in fact being given the opportunity to grasp the love of God in your very hands. You are indeed being given the power to know how wide… and how long… and how high… and how deep… this love of God is. You can, you really can know this love that passes all understanding.

My thanks to Michael, a brother in Christ, who is my corrective grammarian.

To purchase a copy of his book, “Keeping Covenant with God – Living by the Blood of Jesus”

Bing or Google: ISBN-10: 146101073X