What happens when you make small things the main things? You lose sight of the big things right? When small things become the main things, the most important things become forgotten things.
It’s easy to lose sight of the most important things. It’s easy to get off track and lose focus. It’s easy to forget the things that used to be most important. What used to have the front row seat in your heart and mind can easily get tossed in the trunk.
It shouldn’t be this way with the love of Christ. The love of Christ is the main thing of Christian theology. It’s an all-important thing. It’s a huge thing. But, how easy is it to lose sight of it? How easy is it to lose sight of the love of Christ?
My wife is a very important piece of my life. So are my kids. I imagine that you have a relative or a significant other or a friend that is really important in your life too. Now my thumb is a pretty small thing. Hold out your thumb and look at it for a second. In contrast to that relationship you just thought of, your thumb is pretty small.
Now put your thumb right in front of your eyeball and try to look at that other person who is so important in your life. What happens when you do this? The small thing you are focused on becomes the main thing and the more important thing becomes distorted or blocked out of your vision all together.
This is essentially what happens when I lose sight of the grandness of the love of Christ. When my desires get out of control I lose sight of the love of Christ. When I seek safety through seclusion or escape through gratification or justification through performance or acceptance through affirmation, I am making small things into main things that become sinful things that distort the massiveness of the love of Christ for me. Look at how massive the love of Christ is for Paul in his prayer for the Ephesian believers.
Look at Ephesians 3:14 – 21…
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in Heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Have you ever thought about how massive the love of Christ is? Last week we began to focus on verse 18 and we learned that Paul prayed that the Ephesian believers would be strengthened to comprehend or experience the love of Christ in community with all the saints. But that’s not all he prays for. He also prays that the Ephesians would have the strength to comprehend or experience the breadth and the length and the height and the depth of Christ’s love.
How do we wrap our minds around the breadth, the length, the height and the depth of Christ’s love? How wide is his love? How long is his love? How high is his love? How deep is his love? Those are the four questions I want us to wrestle with today because I want to see us return to our first love. I want to see us cut through the small things to the main thing. I want us to catch a glimpse of how massive the love of Christ really is.
1: How wide is the love of Christ?
When I think about the width of the love of Christ I think of the times I’ve driven to Colorado. I love the Rocky Mountains. And every time I take a trip to the Rockies I am eagerly awaiting that moment when those mountains come into view. And at a distance that mountain range appears to be a small, thin line against the horizon. And as I get closer and closer that mountain range begins to stretch from one side of the horizon to the other.
This is what the width of the love of Christ is like. At first it appears on the horizon like a thin dark line and then as you get closer and closer it begins to loom higher and higher and wider and wider until that’s all you can see from one side of your vision to the other.
The Psalmist says, “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is God’s steadfast love towards those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Ps. 103:11-12) The width of God’s love is like the distance between the east and the west. It’s limitless. It’s endless. It’s wider than you can ever imagine.
Your sin may loom huge on the horizon of your heart and mind but the love of Christ is wider than that. Your out of control desires may appear to be too big to get a hold of. But the love of Christ is wider than that. The suffering in your life may seem to go on forever and ever but the love of Christ is wider than that. Have you caught a vision for the love of Christ yet? Don’t let the most important thing (Christ’s love) become a forgotten thing.
2: How long is the love of Christ?
This question reminds me of our family vacations. We usually head out to a lake somewhere and inevitably within 15min of the trip one of the kids asks the question “How long till we get there dad?” And my answer is always some version of “We’ll get there when we get there.” And then 15min later I hear the question again. And again. And again. And again.
Over and over again no matter how frustrated I get or how much I threaten consequences for asking again, the question gets asked again and again because the kids are super excited to get there. They’re super excited to experience the lake. Now let me ask this again… How long is the love of Christ? And, in what manner are you asking that question today? Is it full of despair or expectancy? Is it full of fear or joy? Is it full of despondency or longing?
The Scriptures remind us that the length of the love of Christ is eternal. Jeremiah says that, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.” (Lam. 3:22-23) There is no end in sight for the love of Christ. He has loved us from before the foundations of the earth and he will love us throughout all of eternity. There is no variation to the love of Christ. No inconsistency in the love of Christ. It’s not like an irregular heartbeat skipping a beat here and there. It’s a constant and consistent flow.
Your sin doesn’t interrupt the love of Christ. Your rebellion doesn’t stop the love of Christ. Your forgetfulness doesn’t impede the love of Christ. The length of the love of Christ is unbroken, unearned and unstoppable. No evil thing can shorten its reach. And no amount of running can withstand its relentless force. Simply put, the length of the love of Christ is designed to outrun any opponent who tries to take it on. Have you been trying to outrun the love of Christ lately? Don’t let the most important thing (Christ’s love) become a forgotten thing.
3: How high is the love of Christ?
Come back to the illustration of the Rocky Mountains for a minute. As you get closer and closer to the Rockies the width of that mountain range gets wider and wider. But it also gets taller and taller. It gets higher and higher. And then when you are deep inside the Rockies, the height of some of those mountains is absolutely breathtaking. I can literally get lost in the heart of the height of the Rocky Mountains.
It’s the same with the love of Christ. The Psalmist says, “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens.” (Ps. 36:5) I can get lost in the height of the love of Christ. Just when I begin to think that the sufferings of this life are too big to bear, the love of Christ looms larger in the clouds. Just when I think I’ve sinned too greatly, the love of Christ comes into view in all of its immensity.
Christ loved me so much that he was not just willing to go to the cross for me. He was overjoyed to go to the cross for me. Before the stench of my sin reached the nostrils of my Heavenly Father, the love of Christ burst in and overcame it. Before my rebellious heart began beating, the love of Christ drove my Savior to take a beating.
Before I chose to love Jesus, the love of Christ chose to capture me. There is nothing in all of creation that is higher than the love of Christ. No suffering, no sin, no man, no woman and no other created thing can compete with the inexpressible height of the love of Christ. Have you spent time getting lost in the love of Christ recently? Don’t let the most important thing (Christ’s love) become a forgotten thing.
4: How deep is the love of Christ?
We can spend considerable time chopping up what the roots of our sin are. And we can spend a ton of time getting to the root of the fruit in our lives. We can dig deep on that side of the tree and its important to do. But can I just lay something out here that’s super important?
The Scriptures teach us that, “while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:6-8) No matter how deep the wounds of suffering are inside of you, the love of Christ will renew you. No matter how deep the sin runs in your life, the love of Christ runs deeper. No matter how deep the desires of your life are rooted, the love of Christ cannot be uprooted.
The words of a hymn come to mind here. “How deep the Father’s love for us. How vast beyond all measure. That he would give his only Son. To make a wretch his treasure.” The love of Christ is deeper than your most despicable sin. It’s deeper than your darkest fantasies. It’s deeper than your worst failures. It’s deeper than your most horrifying difficulties. It’s deeper than your most shameful rebellion. Have you spent some time plumbing the depths of the love of Christ for you recently? Don’t let the most important thing (Christ’s love) become a forgotten thing.
Conclusion…
One of the songs I used to sing with my kids before bedtime was the song “Jesus loves me”. Will you sing it with me? It goes like this: Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak. But he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Such a simple song with massive implications. The love of Christ is wider than you can imagine. It’s longer than you can measure, higher than you can climb and deeper than you can dig.
Have you caught a vision for the love of Christ yet? Have you been trying to outrun the love of Christ? Have you spent time getting lost in the love of Christ? Are you plumbing the depths of the love of Christ? Don’t let the most important thing (Christ’s love) become a forgotten thing. Let the main thing of your life be the love of Christ.