Contemplative Bible Reading

Ephesians 3:19 (New Living Translation)

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

The Bible bounces back and forth among the concepts of feeling and knowing. This verse uses “experience” and “understand.” This is not a matter of “either…or,” but one of “both…and.” Those are the kinds of things that appear on inspirational poster that folks put on the walls of cubicle farms in the 1990s, but they are real here.

It isn’t enough to feel the love of God. It isn’t enough to know everything in history and the Bible. We should strive for both.

And, more importantly, we should not chastise folks who don’t have the one thing we have. That is the main problem we have. I want others to be the Christian that I am, and I want them to be “my kind of Christian” now (not next year or next week, NOW).

Who am I to tell others… Of course there is no answer to that question. It is difficult to  experience the love of Christ and to fully understand what that means in my life. Sounds like a good thing to request in prayer a few dozen times a day.