When Christ settles down in a believer’s life, love grows. Using the metaphor of planting a tree, Paul says that when Christ dwells in our hearts we are “rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. 3:17). Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).

When the world fails to recognize Christians, that means believers lack love for one another. God loves the world and wants to demonstrate that love through His people. That can happen only when Christians yield themselves to the Holy Spirit, are strong in the inner man, and allow Jesus to fill their lives. Then love will burst forth, because it is Jesus’ nature to love. He will show His love if He has an open channel.

Peter echoes those thoughts: “Who through Him [Christ] are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart” (1 Peter 1:21–22).

Before Christians can love people fervently, we must be established in love. Before we can be established in love, we must have a pure heart. To have a pure heart we must resist temptation. To resist temptation we must be strong in the inner man. To be strong in the inner man we must be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

When we are filled with the Spirit, we are not done with our responsibility. That is only the beginning. When Christ settles down in our lives, many things happen. Love is the by–product of this spiritual process: “That you…may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:17–19).

The only way to comprehend the love of Christ is to be rooted and grounded in it. Someone asked Louis Armstrong about jazz, and the famous trumpeter said, “Man, if I got to explain it, you ain’t got it.” That’s how it is with love. If a person has to tell you what it is, you don’t have it.

If you are a parent, and someone tells you, “I really love my little child,” you understand. But children don’t always understand how much a parent can love, because they aren’t parents.

“Comprehend” in the Greek is katalambano, which means “to seize” something and make it one’s own. The only way we can seize the love of Christ and comprehend it, is to be grounded in it.

Christ’s love is so great it is expressed in four dimensions: breadth, length, depth, and height. First–century Christians used the cross as the symbol of Christ’s love. The post points upward and downward (height and depth); the crosspiece points to the horizons (breadth and length).

The letter to the Ephesians itself reveals the extent of Christ’s love. The breadth of Christ’s love reaches to the Jew on the one hand and the Gentile on the other (2:16–18). Its length is eternity past to eternity future. He chose believers “before the foundation of the world…in love” (1:4).

Christ’s love is so deep it reaches down into the pit of sin and spiritual death and pulls us out of it (2:1). The believer is then raised to sit with Jesus in heaven. We have been lifted from the pit to an exalted position in glory (v. 6).

A Christian should understand the dimensions of Christ’s love when faced with what looks like a disastrous situation. Those who do so are able to say to God, “I can’t wait to see how You will show me Your love in this.” Every circumstance is an opportunity for the believer to reveal Christ’s love.

--MacArthur, J. The body dynamic.