Love Beyond Measure

In the 1800s, poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace.* In her most famous poem, Browning expressed her love for her husband in a lyrical and somewhat elaborate fashion. Paul wrote that he wanted the Ephesians “to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Ephesian 3:19) —a love beyond knowledge, beyond our ability to truly comprehend. God’s love for a fallen world is so dramatic that John was moved to say, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1). He asked his readers to “behold” God’s love because that would be the best possible way for them to comprehend a love “which passes knowledge.” Pause to consider that God loves you that much.

God’s love for you is not dependent upon how much you deserve that love or on your performance as a Christian. John wrote that God “first loved us” (1 John 4:19). After sin, God pursued Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, not to threaten or censure them, but to offer them eternal life at infinite cost to Himself.

There isn’t anything you can do to stop God from loving you. That is not to say God approves of everything a person might do.

Love is not license, and love is not blind to eternal realities.

But God’s love is certain and constant.

There is something almost incomprehensible about a love that moves God to create the world, give life to the human family, and allow Jesus to die in the place of sinful beings. It is doubtful that the love of God can be truly understood this side of Jesus’ return, but we can accept God’s love and know it to the best of our capability.

One thing that can be known with certainty is that you are loved by God with perfect love.