Saturday 23 August 2025
And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (v. 19)
Background
One of Paul's most compelling thoughts is in 1 Corinthians 13 where we read in verse 13 that "faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love".
Today's passage in Ephesians reminds us of the centrality of love in Paul’s thinking and how love is the most significant aspect of the Christian life and that the practice of love is more significant than knowledge and, dare I say, more significant than understanding.
If we care about understanding and knowledge, we tend to end up with sharp definitions and a tendency to make judgements about who is right and who is wrong, who belongs and who doesn’t. I know that there is a place for knowledge and understanding in the life of the Church. The life of faith includes a sense of knowledge so that faith makes sense. To focus on love, though, is to put the priority on care, compassion and mercy and to make the practice of faith more blurred and fuzzy rather than sharply focussed. The practice of loving people makes faith perhaps less certain, opens the doors for change on the back of uncertainty and compassion and provides the means and power by which new understandings can be discerned and discovered.
It is no surprise that the need to love is given centre stage in the Christian tradition – it is one of the commands Jesus gave us. It is also no surprise that the capacity to love is often among the first things lost as we struggle to make faith real. To love sacrificially, in my mind, makes us less dogmatic as we follow our gifts of compassion, which may compel us to do things differently and to take risks to care for and reach people. I wonder if dogma has to follow behind practice; that love and compassion lead into those places where God is revealed.
To Ponder:
- We believe in a God who took human form as Jesus as an expression of love for us. Risk-taking and the blurring of boundaries are some of the characteristics of this. Where can we take risks of loving and blurring boundaries to show that we love as God has loved us?
- Why is loving as God loves us so difficult? Can we truly be as self-giving as we believe God to have been when he took human form as Jesus?
Bible notes author: The Revd Malcolm Peacock
The Revd Peacock is Superintendent Minister of the Mid Glamorgan Mission Circuit. He has a deep and abiding interest in Celtic theology and believes those who are minorities or feel themselves marginalised should be given a voice to speak for themselves.