Something that Surpasses Knowledge
By: Alan Smith
Eph 3:17-19
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, 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. (NIV)
I thought that knowledge surpassed all things. You know, like a car on the interstate: the faster I go, the more people I am ahead of. So if this is true of a car, wouldn’t the same statement apply to spiritual things? The more knowledge of God I acquire, the more spiritual I am. Therefore, I can either feel great about myself or I can feel bad about myself, depending on the level of knowledge that I possess. Sometimes I think if I was smarter or if I had all of this knowledge, then I could run in this fast lane of life.
We grow up in a system that teaches us that we are what we know. You know, in school, you may have been either an A student or a C student. This type of grading system leads us to believe that the higher grade we have, the more knowledge we have; thus, the more worth we have to others. We then evaluate ourselves on how much we know and not on how much we love, as noted in the scripture above. I am not against knowledge by any means. I love to learn; however, the measuring of knowledge for the worth of people is so inadequate and untrue. There is something that surpasses knowledge and it is the love of Christ. I call this the greater knowledge of the spiritual world. Would you like to get this kind of love knowledge? It is the key that opens the heavens. Evidently, this is foundational to our faith.
Paul also states in the scripture above that God’s love needs to take root. Since I am a farmer the words “take root” really go for my heart. Seed is a gift to the ground. There is nothing the ground can do to make the seed appear. The ground can only make itself ready to receive the seed. Matthew 13 calls this good ground. I can plant seed but I cannot make it grow. All of this is the same with the love of God. If we will just receive this truth that God really does love us just as we are, this “seed” of love will take root in our hearts, the “ground”. It will then sprout and grow. As the “Son” shines on the ground, the ground will begin to warm. The seed will start to open up the ground as it is trying to stretch itself toward the heavens. What a picture of our hearts? The only thing we can do to receive this spiritual seed is to believe that God really wants to put His love in our hearts. When we ask Jesus into our hearts, the love of God is gently placed inside of us. Sometimes the ground does not give way to the seed, and therefore, the seed will lay dormant, waiting on the rain to soften it. If we will soften our hearts to this truth, then it will sprout and begin to take root. Ezek. 36:26: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (NIV)
What I am trying to say with this thought is let’s try to allow the love of God to grow in us more than all of our learning. Let us make God’s love our “major” in life and knowledge our “minor”. My prayer for us this day is the same as the request of the Apostle Paul: “and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Blessings,
Alan
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