Jeffrey Dahmer killed at least 17 young men, primarily in Wisconsin and Ohio. After taking a bible course in prison he sought conversion to Christianity. He met with a Church of Christ minister, Roy Ratcliff, and was baptized in prison in May 1994. If God could love and forgive someone like Jeffrey Dahlmer, the Milwaukee Monster after all of the hideous things he had done, he can love and forgive anyone. God’s amazing love is that he loves us regardless of our behavior. We cannot make God love us by being good. He loves us unconditionally no matter what we do and whether we love him back or not. What is even more amazing is that God calls us to love others the same way.
This was Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus (3:14-19), “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
A. Paul Prays for a NEW POWER in the Inner Person
1. The Power to love others with God’s love begins with prayer! Paul prayed that everyone would know this love and experience the saving presence of Christ in them. Then Paul asked God to enable them to experience this power fully at work in them – Christ’s ruling presence.
2. The place we need this power is in our inner being (man). The inner man is the control center from which we understand life and make choices.
3. The portion of strength God gives is His Glorious Riches.
B. Paul Prays for A NEW UNDERSTANDING of Christ’s Love
Paul asks God to help them grasp how vast Christ’s love is. Understanding Christ’s love is like trying to define a color to someone who has never seen that color. Paul is trying to encourage them to love Jesus more intimately since only by experiencing his love can they become people who can love like Him.
As Corrie Ten Boom said, “There is no pit too deep that His love is not deeper still.” There is nowhere we can go to get away from His love. Do we love like this? Can we love like this? Yes, by the power of Christ’s Holy Spirit.
C. Paul Prays for A FRESH FILLING of God’s Fullness
Paul wanted them to know Christ’s love in a way that surpassed general knowledge. He wanted them to have intimate knowledge of Christ’s love. He wanted them to be filled and transformed by it. This is what transforms us into mature Christians.
Do you know this love of God, or have you only heard of it? Would you like to experience it? Confess your need for Jesus to save you and receive him as your Savior and you will experience his love for you. If you already know him as your Savior ask him to fill you with a fresh filling of his Holy Spirit so you may love everyone as he does.
