Key Verses:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Romans 8:35a
For the love of Christ compels us- 2 Corinthians 5:14a
The love of Christ has two sides to it. First, it means the love from Christ to us. Secondly, and really, secondarily, the love for Christ. Secondarily, because the love for Christ is based on the love from Christ.
Christ’s love is founded on His Father’s love, and it’s the revelation or the manifestation of it. In the same vein, our love is predicated on Christ’s love, and it’s a display of it. It’s the love of Christ expressed in us, through us, or by us, that the world experiences the love of the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The love expressed in/through/by us has to be clearly divine; has to be the love of Christ, the love “that surpasses knowledge”.
Ephesians 3:19a - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.
The love of Christ can only be accessed, experienced, and expressed by the power of His Spirit working in our inner man. The natural man or mind cannot tap into it, nor give it.
However, it is possible for the natural man to enjoy the physicality of the love of Christ. Judas Iscariot enjoyed this being in the company of Jesus, but he did not “know” this love.
Our prayer has been and still is:
“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”- Ephesians 3:16-19
