Ephesians 3:19

“… and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Paul’s prayer continues in this verse.

after exhorting us to grasp the dimensions of the love of Christ, he now prays that we will know this love that surpasses knowledge.

Paul is piling up illustrations of the magnitude of Christ's love for us. He is encouraging us to test the greatness of this love.

Paul wants to know this love that surpasses knowledge. As indicated in the previous verse, we only know love through experience and in relationship. We cannot truly know love as a theory.

so Paul is praying that we will know this limitless love of God; that we will know it in our spirit, deeply within.

We know this surpassing love by walking with Jesus everyday. When we worship, play, love other people, serve Jesus, and do the everyday stuff of life, we see the love of God in new facets each day. Today it might be seen in the forgiveness of my sin. Tomorrow I might receive a needed help from a christian brother or sister. Another day I might be in a position to speak a word kindness.

it is in these daily experiences of the transformative power of the gospel that we get a grasp of this love beyond knowledge.

even if we cannot find words to explain it, we know that we love God and that he loves us.

again Paul uses overflowing language to try to get a handle on our relationship with God. We are filled to all the fullness - not just some of the fullness of God.

God does not want us to miss out on any part of himself. He wants us to have all of him.

sometimes we gain an unbalanced or lopsided picture of God. We might focus on His power, but overlook His vulnerability, on His holiness but overlook His grace, on His might but overlook His gentleness.

God wants us to have the full revelation, the complete package of who He is. He wants us to relate to him as He is, not a distorted or incomplete image.

this phrase, “filled to the measure” occurs several times in Ephesians. It speaks of spiritual maturity. This maturity is such that our fleshly nature has been overcome as we surrender ourselves to Christ.

As we grow in the fullness of God, we become so aware of who God is and of his desires, that we can pray with authority and conviction, and know that our prayers will be answered.

it is false humility to pray, “Let your will be done, Lord,” when we should be praying from confidence in God’s will. The goal of being filled to the measure of God’s fullness is that we have become one in spirit with Him, and we can trust Him to show us how to pray.

We can speak declaratively in decrees and proclamations because we know what God has said in His Word. Rather than praying for God’s purpose is to unfold, we declare victory in the spiritual realms because we are a son or daughter of the Most High and we have been given His authority.

to be filled with all the fullness of God means that we are like Christ. We can show God’s love to people. We can call them into the kingdom to follow Jesus. We can lay hands on the sick and have them healed. We can pray for, and experience, miracles.

as we grow in the gifts and the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we become filled with both the power and the character of Christ.

so the result of knowing the love that surpasses knowledge and being filled with all the fullness of God is that we become like Jesus.

Key points in this verse:

• We can know God’s love which surpasses knowledge

• The love of God is experienced in our day to day life

• as we grow in our experience of God’s love, we are filled with all the fullness of God

• The fullness is about spiritual maturity in which we become like Christ