I’m reading ephesians today, and since I’m too lazy to go get my regular Bible out of the car, I’m reading from my old King James Version bible. It’s funny how nostalgic it is for me to read the KJV… it always brings up memories of sunday school lol.
In any case, here’s some encouraging scripture for those of you who are saved:
Ephesians 3:16-19 (KJV)
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
We too often forget that love has to be our root… that without a grounding in love, we miss out on the greater things. It’s too easy to get caught up in our day to day lives and forget that our goal as Christians should be to stand out from the crowd “And they will know we are Christians by our love”, as the song goes.
1 Corinthians 13:4-6 (NRSV) says of love: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
I honestly can’t think of a single person I’ve met that’s ever come close to meeting all of those requirements on a regular basis, but that’s the goal… If love is to be the root and the grounding of our faith, then we all need to strive to become more loving every day — and not the sappy “can’t we all just get along” or “happy happy joy joy” kind of love, but the real thing.
Paul defines love not as a feeling, not as an emotion, but as a state of being, as a pattern for living that we must aspire to — not as an afterthought, but as a foundation. This is one of those things we can spend our entire life working on, and never perfect, but the effort will not be in vain.
Chapter 4 is so full I’m going to save it for tomorrow’s post…
