What is the love that surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:19)?

But there was something still deeper than this, and which needed to be known along with it. Therefore he adds, "And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that ye might be filled to all the fulness of God." Glorious as all these prospects are, what can compare with His love? The best wine is kept to the last. "To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge." It may seem to be a paradox to say so, but a blessed one. He does not mean that we shall ever know it perfectly. But there may be the knowing more and more of that which surpasses knowledge. He supposes us launched upon that sea where there is no shore: we can never reach the end of His love. Yet he speaks of knowing the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ; "that ye might be filled to all the fulness of God." You could no more get to the end of the love, than you could get to the end of God Himself. Nothing can be more wonderful than such a desire for us, feeble creatures as we are, "that ye might be filled to all the fulness of God." And yet it is for the saints now that the apostle thus prayed; not that we might know ourselves to be Christ's body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all, but practically enlarged entrance by the power of the Spirit into God's fulness. It is the heart's condition, and real growth in communion with God that is before us here; and this most appropriately after the standing has been treated, and before the exhortations as to walk and conduct.

"To know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge." We are to know something which passeth knowledge. It is a paradox. We know that love, and the more we know it the more it passeth our knowledge. Shall we ever know fully the love that passeth knowledge? This ever must be our blessed occupation to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. And what are the consequences? "That ye may be filled unto (not with) all the fullness of God." In the measure in which we know the love of Christ and comprehend the dimensions of this love, in the measure in which we have Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith and are rooted and grounded in love, in that measure shall we be filled unto all the fullness of God.

Finally, the apostle prays (in Ephesians 3:16, 19) “that He would grant you … to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge.” But do we not know it? Are we quite ignorant of it? Nay, it is our security, it is our motive, it is indeed our portion. It has cast out fear. But who can say he knows that which passes knowledge? The brethren of Joseph thought, perhaps, that they knew his love for them. But the test came, and how they wounded his heart by their fears and suspicions as to it! Christ’s love for His people passes knowledge. The manger, the garden, the cross, the throne, all bear witness to its fullness and eternity. But who can fully know its everlasting strength?

What is that? Of God's glory. He brings me back to that centre, and I am at the very centre of the glory in heaven. It is beautiful that He puts me into the centre of all the glory; he goes on, "And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge"; impossible to go beyond that! You may not be able to take it all in, but it has taken me all in.

I cannot realise the thought of infinite space, consequently I can never get out of it, I am lost in it: still, I know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. We are creatures though a new creation; and shall be even in glory. "We know it" and "it passeth knowledge" go together.

The prayer in Ephesians 1 was connected with our being in Christ; here it is with His being in us, and not merely as life, but now as the centre and object of that life. He is the centre of all the Father's thoughts and counsels of eternity. He would bring that centre into our hearts by the power of His Spirit: "That ye being rooted and grounded in love" — in all the love that has been revealed to us in these counsels — "may be able to apprehend with all saints" — for the love of Christ would not leave out one — "what is the breadth and length and depth and height" — of what? Nay, it cannot be defined. If Christ is the centre there is no circumference to that boundless sphere of glory — "all things that the Father hath," that are Christ's according to the Father's will, and the work that has given effect to it, in which all the glory of God the Father has been revealed and made good.

"And to know the love of Christ." This might seem to bring our hearts back from what has been so infinitely beyond us to what is more within our reach. But it is at once to let us know that it passeth all that we can know. His love is as boundless as the vast infinity of God's counsels and revelation of Himself in them. Yet how sweet it is to know that His love surpasses (we have had the word already in Ephesians 1:19, and Ephesians 2:7) knowledge in its greatness. Truly it needed that the inner man be strengthened with might by His Spirit, that we might enter with ever increasing measure into what has no limit or end, "that ye might be filled into all the fulness of God." For thus has He revealed Himself. And dwelling in love we dwell in God and God in us. Every thought of the prayer is so wonderful. But let us not forget the divine resources that are presented to us that there may be a little progress in the appreciation of the thoughts that are revealed, and, in our entrance into them, which alone can fit us for a walk worthy of such a calling.

The result of Christ dwelling in the heart is to root and ground us in love. If Christ, the One in whom, and through whom, all the love of the Father has been made known, is dwelling in our hearts, He will surely fill the heart with a knowledge and enjoyment of divine love.

(V. 18). Christ dwelling in the heart prepares the way for the third great request, that we may be “fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.” God teaches us through our affections, so that the way to this apprehension is not only by faith, but by “being rooted and grounded in love”. Through the work of the Spirit, Christ dwells in our hearts by faith; dwelling there by faith He fills our hearts with love, and love prepares us to apprehend. Further, this love leads us to embrace “all saints”, for the more we enjoy the love of Christ, the more our hearts will go out to all who are loved by Christ.

Then the Apostle desires that we may apprehend “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height”. This would appear to be the whole range of God's “eternal purpose”, already referred to in verse 11. This eternal purpose in its breadth embraces “all saints”, in its length stretches into the age of ages, in its depth reached down to us in all our need, and in its height brings us into a scene of glory.

(V. 19). All this scene of blessedness is secured for us by the love of Christ — the One who “loved the church, and gave Himself for it.” Hence the fourth request is that we may “know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge.” It is a love that can be known and enjoyed, and yet it passes knowing. If we cannot measure the height of glory from which Christ came, or fathom the depth of sorrow into which He has been, still less can we measure the love that has wrought for us, that takes in the vast host of the redeemed, small and great, that is caring for us in our passage through time, and that is coming for us to bring us into the home of love to be there with Him, and like Him, for the gratification of His heart of love. Such love can be known, and yet will forever remain a love that passes knowing.

Verse 19. "And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge," etc. This final petition stands in closest connexion with what precedes it. If spiritual comprehension isa faculty common to all saints, by virtue of which the renewed mind may expatiate safely and at large, amidst the boundless fields of Divine knowledge, spiritual affections also appertain to them, by means of which they are enabled to appreciate the love of Christ. But that love, though known and rested in, surpasses knowledge. Its outward tokens are, indeed, most evident; and are the proofs to which the Spirit ceases not to appeal when cheering and strengthening the fainting heart. But proofs, though infallible, are but pledges of the love they prove. By their means we are brought into acquaintance with it, and, by a steady contemplation of such tokens, we are gradually certified of that which our hearts desire. But it is the nature of all love to be superior to its own demonstration. It is known by use. Occasion quickens and enlarges its practical effect. Thus, in measures as different as the uncounted varieties of spiritual growth and capacity, that which is the common life and solace of all saints, is tasted and enjoyed. Vessels of every description hang upon that Nail (Isa. 22:23-24). Every believer knows the love of Christ; for the Cross is its eternal monument. We love Him in the persuasion of His love. And as that mighty evidence of love is pondered in our hearts, and we think of it not only as the cure of our natural miseries, but as the door of access, likewise, to the sure and never-ending blessedness of the kingdom which we have received by faith, and which is ready even now to be revealed, we perceive that we are held in the embraces of an affection which we shall perfectly enjoy, indeed, but which will be greater than our knowledge to the end.

How wonderful it is that we can know this love which, in its fulness is beyond all knowledge. None can know the intimacy and affection that are peculiar to the Godhead, but still, there are the divine affections that we can and do know, and these have been made known in the Son incarnate and in His wondrous death. Christ’s love has been measured in the depths into which His holy soul entered on the cross, when He sustained and exhausted the righteous judgment of God; but they are depths into which the mind of man can never enter. The love and the depths are unfathomable, yet we can know the love, and do know it in communion with Him who gave Himself for us.

Is it any wonder that Paul writes of the “love of Christ which passes knowledge” as we contemplate the varied aspects of it in the Scriptures mentioned. This precious presentation of the love of Christ (Eph. 3:19) is found among many wonderful things in a prayer that desires that we might “be filled with all the fulness of God.” Dwelling upon the love of Christ which passes knowledge, a love that we well know, but which in its immensity is beyond our comprehension, we shall seek to be here to please the One who loves us, and as supplied by the divine fulness that is necessary to this desired end.

"That ye, 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 passeth knowledge." Herein, O my soul, is a wonderful thing. It falls with the effect of surprise on the mind. It fills the soul with wonder and adoration. But if thou wouldst understand it, thou must dwell upon it with thine eye upwards to Himself. The question is this: What is to enable thee to comprehend that which is measureless? True, it is a paradox; but the answer is, The love of Christ. It is not what may be called knowledge merely, or intelligence generally, or great capacity of mind; but being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. Surely a more blessed thing has never occupied thy thoughts. Linger then in thy meditations over this remarkable truth. Being rooted and grounded in love, mark, is thy intelligence and power in the things of Christ. What a thought! Is it new to thee? See and master it, make it thine own. It is thy wisdom and strength for time and eternity.