Pray for the church-4-ii

³⁴ 누가 정죄하리요 죽으실 뿐아니라 다시 살아나신 이는 그리스도 예수시니 그는 하나님 우편에 계신 자요 우리를 위하여 간구하시는 자시니라 ³⁵ 누가 우리를 그리스도의 사랑에서 끊으리요 환난이나 곤고나 핍박이나 기근이나 적신이나 위험이나 칼이랴 ³⁶ 기록된 바 우리가 종일 주를 위하여 죽임을 당케 되며 도살할 양 같이 여김을 받았나이다 함과 같으니라 ³⁷ 그러나 이 모든 일에 우리를 사랑하시는 이로 말미암아 우리가 넉넉히 이기느니라 ³⁸ 내가 확신하노니 사망이나 생명이나 천사들이나 권세자들이나 현재 일이나 장래 일이나 능력이나 ³⁹ 높음이나 깊음이나 다른 아무 피조물이라도 우리를 우리 주 그리스도 예수 안에 있는 하나님의 사랑에서 끊을 수 없으리라. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-- more than that, who was raised-- who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:34-39 ESV)

¹⁴ 이러하므로 내가 하늘과 땅에 있는 각 족속에게 ¹⁵ 이름을 주신 아버지 앞에 무릎을 꿇고 비노니 ¹⁶ 그 영광의 풍성을 따라 그의 성령으로 말미암아 너희 속 사람을 능력으로 강건하게 하옵시며 ¹⁷ 믿음으로 말미암아 그리스도께서 너희 마음에 계시게 하옵시고 너희가 사랑 가운데서 뿌리가 박히고 터가 굳어져서 ¹⁸ 능히 모든 성도와 함께 지식에 넘치는 그리스도의 사랑을 알아 ¹⁹ 그 넓이와 길이와 높이와 깊이가 어떠함을 깨달아 하나님의 모든 충만하신 것으로 너희에게 충만하게 하시기를 구하노라 ²⁰ 우리 가운데서 역사하시는 능력대로 우리의 온갖 구하는 것이나 생각하는 것에 더 넘치도록 능히 하실 이에게 ²¹ 교회 안에서와 그리스도 예수 안에서 영광이 대대로 영원 무궁하기를 원하노라 아멘. ¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:14-21 ESV)

FCF: We tend to forget to pray for the spiritual well-being or unity of the church.

주제: 하나님은 우리가 구하는 것 이상으로 응답하시기에 교회를 위해 우리의 주권자 아버지께 기도해야 합니다.

Theme: Because God answers more than we ask, we must pray to our sovereign Father for the church.

Introduction: What is so common is often taken for granted. For example, air is so important for us to live. We know we can’t live without air. So, we see the importance of air for our survival. However, we don’t think about the importance of air for life before we suffer from a lack of oxygen in high altitudes or for a health reason. All of us are living in an area full of good air. Though the air is invisible, its’ presence is palpable because we freely breathe in and out. No one denies this fact of life. However, only a few thank God for their freedom to breathe in and out fresh air. Do you thank God for the air you breathe in and out, each moment of your life? Do you thank God for food on the table every day? What is so common is quite often taken for granted. Another example is the love of God. God grants all people air, sunshine, rain, trees, water, etc. The Lord Jesus said of God’s general fatherly care for people as follows: 이는 하나님이 그 해를 악인과 선인에게 비취게 하시며 비를 의로운 자와 불의한 자에게 내리우심이니라. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matt. 5:45).

            Even if all people live under God’s universal care of His creation, only a few recognize it and thank God for it. Even many Christians take it for granted and fail to live in the power of God’s love. How about you today? Do you know you live every day as a result of God’s fatherly care and love? Believe it or not, God’s loving care sustains us every day. We often forget this truth, trying to satisfy our constant longing for love. People are willing to live and die for love. They want to love and be loved as well. I see one of its proofs in modern people who spend a lot of money on their pets and pour out their love and care on their pets. They interact with their pets to love and be loved. But their love for pets and from pets can’t fill the voids in their souls. Only God’s love, not the things of this world, can fill them. Not knowing this truth, people wander in the wasteland of consumerism, materialism, and entertainment. Their longing for eternity is inborn, filled only when they encounter divine love in Christ.     

We are living in a world where conflicts and divisions abound. No doubt the love of Christ is the best solution to the divisive issue in every church. The love of Christ is a powerful solution to our fundamental problems in life. The fullness of divine love in our souls makes us truly happy and fulfilled in life. Paul knew this point well. So, one of his requests in Eph. 3:14-21 is for God to fill their hearts with Christ’s love. We have been studying Paul’s prayer thus far. The overall theme is we must pray to the sovereign Father for the church because God answers more than we ask. We have covered the three points: 1) pray to the sovereign Father, 2) pray for your inner person to be strong, and 3) pray for Christ to dwell in your heart. Today, we will continue the discussion of the fourth point: “Prayer to be filled with the love of Christ.” Last Sunday, we covered the two characteristics of Christ’s love: 1) Christ’s love is foundational and 2) Christ’s love is communal. Before we get to the third point, let me give a summary of the first two points.        

I.               주권자 아버지께 기도하세요.

Pray to the Sovereign Father.

II.             속사람이 강건해 지도록 기도하세요.

Pray for your inner person to be strong.

III.           그리스도께서 마음에 거하도록 기도하세요.

Pray for Christ to dwell in your heart.

IV.           그리스도의 사랑으로 충만해지도록 기도하세요.

Pray to be filled with the love of Christ.

The Apostle Paul's third petition shows us what is the most precious thing we can ask for. Our inner man needs to be strengthened by the power of God. The best way for our inner man to be strengthened is for Christ to make his home and live in our hearts. Therefore, Paul's two requests are connected: the inner man, where Christ dwells, is strong and healthy. The most precious person we can ask for is Christ, and the most precious thing we can ask for is the love of Christ. Paul was praying for these two for the Gentile believers in Ephesus who were experiencing division and discrimination from Jewish Christians. A soul filled with the love of Christ cannot be satisfied with the things of this world. Only the love of God can satisfy our souls. All our emotional and psychological problems can be resolved if our souls are filled with the love of Christ. So, to be filled with the love of Christ is of utmost importance for us to live a sound Christian life.   

Paul's words in v. 17 show Christ’s love as foundational: 너희가 사랑 가운데서 뿌리가 박히고 터가 굳어져서. "Being rooted and grounded in love." To describe the love of Christ, Paul borrows the two metaphors from agriculture and architecture: root and foundation. We know the root supports the life of a plant. It is also the foundation that supports the building. In the same way, Christ’s love is the root and foundation of the believer's life. The foundation of our lives is Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). The foundation of our church is Christ. The foundation of our relationships must also be built on the foundation of Christ's love. When we give ourselves to our neighbors as Christ gave himself to us, our relationships will grow strong. Christ's love is the root of our life. If it is cut off from Christ’s love, our life will wither and die. Christ's love gives us life, enabling us to live a meaningful and blessed life.

Paul’s words in v. 18 show Christ’s love as communal: “모든 성도와 함께 여러분이 그리스도의 사랑의 너비와 길이와 높이와 깊이가 어떠한지를 깨달을 수 있게 되고” "may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth” (New Living Translation). First, Christ's love is shared by the church. The apostle Paul prayed that the Ephesians would come to know Christ's love "with all the saints." Christ's love is the indissoluble glue that unites the churches worldwide, transcending color, culture, social status, nationality, and more. Second, we need God's help to comprehend God's love, because the magnitude of God's love is beyond our intellectual capacity. For us to comprehend the immeasurably great love of Christ on the cross, God must give His power of grace to our souls, and only then can we fathom the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ's love. We can't put the whole ocean in a bowl with a spoon; no matter how hard we try, we may be able to move a tidbit of it around. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can truly taste Christ's love.

Let’s get to my third point, which is Christ’s love is indescribable. Verse 18 and Verse 19 are closely connected. The main verb is the Greek verb “echisxusete,” which may be translated as “you may have strength.” This second-person plural verb has two infinitives, one in v. 18 and the other in v. 19. The one is translated as “comprehend” and the other is translated as “know.” When we are given power through the Holy Spirit, we may be able to comprehend the magnitude of Christ’s love, its breadth, length, height, and depth, and know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Paul uses here the Greek verb “hyperballo” to tell Christ’s love is beyond the ken of human knowledge. This verb means “to attain a degree that extraordinarily exceeds a point on a scale of extent, go beyond, surpass, or outdo.” If we try to weigh the magnitude of Christ’s love on a scale of human science, psychology, politics, literature, art, or music, we will fail to fully comprehend and know it.

Our primary problem is that we look for love in something else other than God. Or many take it for granted. Or others talk the talk of love for God, but deny their talk through their disobedience. Overall, God’s love is ignored in the world. It seems to be praised in the church. But God’s people do not rely on the power of God’s love because they do not know it. Many are not concerned about it. Others misunderstand it as something emotional or sensual. Many of our problems arise from a true understanding of God’s love. Libertines seek erotic love. Legalists try to earn divine love through their performance. Mystics seek divine love in isolation without being involved with their neighbors. Materialists seek love in the things of this world. Some deny God’s love when things are bad. Others ignore God’s love when things go well. In so doing, they love themselves more than God. This causes them to disregard God’s love and love the things of the world.

Truly, we tend to love the things of the world rather than God’s love. Warning against our love for the world, the apostle John says: ¹⁵ 이 세상이나 세상에 있는 것들을 사랑치 말라 누구든지 세상을 사랑하면 아버지의 사랑이 그 속에 있지 아니하니 ¹⁶ 이는 세상에 있는 모든 것이 육신의 정욕과 안목의 정욕과 이생의 자랑이니 다 아버지께로 좇아 온 것이 아니요 세상으로 좇아 온 것이라 ¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world-- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life-- is not from the Father but is from the world (1 Jn. 2:15-16). The apostle James says loving the world is antithetical to loving God: 간음하는 여자들이여 세상과 벗된 것이 하나님의 원수임을 알지 못하느뇨 그런즉 누구든지 세상과 벗이 되고자 하는 자는 스스로 하나님과 원수되게 하는 것이니라. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).

James here tells us that making friendships with the world is making oneself an enemy of God. God deserves the wholeness of our existence. If we love the things of the world, including money, more than God, God’s zeal will be burning and seeking us to love Him wholeheartedly. This is what we learn from the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:3). God is the sole Object who deserves our undivided, single-minded devotion and love. God condemns Israel's spiritual adultery harshly throughout Israel’s history. We can’t serve God and the world. We can’t love God and mammon together.

            When we love God wholeheartedly, we feel sound, holy, and happy. Not only do we know God loves us in Christ, but also we want to know God’s love more and more. The human lovers want to make sure they love each other by seeing, listening to, and talking with each other. Since God’s love is perfect and unconditional in Christ, all His people rest in His love. And it is inexhaustible. God loves all His people equally and perfectly. There are billions of God’s people in the world. Even though all of them may drink from the fountain of God’s love, they can’t exhaust it. The tank of God’s love is inexhaustible. When we are born again and taste divine love in Christ, we come to realize God’s love is too great to comprehend fully. As Paul says, it goes beyond the ken of man’s knowledge. It is indescribable. Human knowledge fails to fathom its magnitude. It is like a drop in the vast ocean of God’s love. Human literature fails to express it fully. There is nothing comparable to the greatness of God’s love in Christ.

The following history of The Love of God and how it became penned by Frederick M. Lehman is adapted from Al Smith’s Treasury of Hymn Histories. Frederick M. Lehman was a California businessman who lost everything through business reverses. He was forced to spend his working hours in manual labor, working in a Pasadena packing house packing oranges and lemons into wooden crates. Mr. Lehman was a Christian who rejoiced in his salvation. He was so moved by a Sunday evening sermon on the love of God that he could hardly sleep. The next morning, the thrill of the previous evening had not left him. As he drove to the packing house, the makings of a song began to come together in his head, with God’s love as the theme.

Throughout the day, as he packed oranges and lemons, the words continued to flow. Perhaps he jotted down words on various pieces of broken crate as he went along. He could hardly wait to get home and commit these words to paper.

Upon arriving home, he hurried to his old upright piano and began arranging the words and composing a melody to fit them. He soon had finished two stanzas and the melody to go along with them, but now what was he to do? In those days, a song had to have at least three stanzas to be considered complete. He tried and tried to come up with a third stanza, but to no avail. The words just would not fall into place. It was then that he remembered a poem someone had given him some time before. Hunting around, he found the poem printed on a card, which he had used as a bookmark. As Mr. Lehman read the words, his heart was thrilled by the adequate picture of God’s love they pictured.

He then noticed this writing on the bottom of the card: “These words were found written on a cell wall in a prison some 200 years ago. It is not known why the prisoner was incarcerated; neither is it known if the words were original or if he had heard them somewhere and had decided to put them in a place where he could be reminded of the greatness of God’s love – whatever the circumstances, he wrote them on the wall of his prison cell. In due time, he died and the men who had the job of repainting his cell were impressed by the words. Before their paint brushes had obliterated them, one of the men jotted them down and thus they were preserved.”

The poem he read was: 바다를 먹물 삼고 하늘을 두루마리 삼아도, 이 땅의 모든 줄기 깃펜 삼고 모든 사람 문인 삼아 바다를 다 말리고 하늘 두루마리를 다 쓴다 해도 하나님의 사랑 다 기록할 수 없겠네. “Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made; Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade: To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole Though stretched from sky to sky.” Lehman went to the piano and began to voice the words with the melody he had just written. They were a perfect fit. It was a miracle! The song was published – and remains today – with these words as the last stanza. As he sang in the hymn, 그 크신 하나님의 사랑, 말로도 글로도 형용 못하네. 저 높고 높은 별을 넘고 이 낮고 낮은 지옥에 까지 미치네. 죄로 인해 근심에 눌린 이 영혼 구하려 그 아들 보내셨네. 길을 잃고 방황하는 자녀 화목케 하시고 용서해 주셨네. 오 하나님의 사랑, 얼마나 풍성하고 순수한가. 측량할 없는 강력한 사랑, 영원히 다함이 없네. 성도와 천사의 노래, 하나님 사랑. The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell; the guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win; His erring child He reconciled, and pardoned from his sin; O love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forever more endure. The saints and angels’ song.

The hymn writer certainly attempted to grasp the greatness of God’s love. Through this hymn, we can feel how rich, pure, immeasurable, and strong God’s love is for us in Christ. We can sense the love of Christ when we see the sky, ocean, or earth. We can sense it when we see, hear, speak, and move around. We can sense the love of God when we see the sun rise and set. We can sense it each time we eat and drink. We can sense it when we work each day. We can sense it each time we worship here with our fellow saints in the church. In particular, we can sense the love of Christ when we are pardoned from all our sins and guilt. We can praise God’s love more so when we are in trouble. Then, the question is “Have you known this monstrously enormous, crazy love of God in Christ?” It is God’s self-sacrificing, self-giving love. Do you know what it is like? Can you say what it is like? These questions are related to my second point, which is…  

Christ’s love is experiential. What do I mean by that? The Greek verb used here is “ginosko,” which is normally translated as “to know, perceive, understand, or acquire information.” Paul here is not simply talking about one’s intellectual understanding of what Christ’s love is like. Paul here is talking about the experiential love of Christ. He has experienced it for himself. He has preached it to others. He has thanked God for it. He has praised God for it. Indeed, Christ’s love is foundational for all his ministries and life. Paul has lived in reliance on the power of Christ’s love, knowing that nothing can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus. He has never forgotten God chose him to be a vessel for the Gentile mission while he was ignorantly opposing the work of Christ.

Listen to what he says in 1 Tim. 1:13-15): ¹³ 내가 전에는 훼방자요 핍박자요 포행자이었으나 도리어 긍휼을 입은 것은 내가 믿지 아니할 때에 알지 못하고 행하였음이라 ¹⁴ 우리 주의 은혜가 그리스도 예수 안에 있는 믿음과 사랑과 함께 넘치도록 풍성하였도다 ¹⁵ 미쁘다 모든 사람이 받을만한 이 말이여 그리스도 예수께서 죄인을 구원하시려고 세상에 임하셨다 하였도다 죄인 중에 내가 괴수니라. ¹³ though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost (1 Tim. 1:13-15).

He calls himself as the chief of sinners. He knows how sinful he was before conversion. Christ showed His mercy to Paul when he was going to Damascus to persecute the church of Christ. The risen Christ appeared to him, pardoned his sins, and commissioned him to be His eyewitness to all peoples. While he was yet a sinner, he experienced God’s love revealed in the death of Christ on the cross. So, he said, experiencing from his own case, of God’s love this way: 우리가 아직 죄인 되었을 때에 그리스도께서 우리를 위하여 죽으심으로 하나님께서 우리에게 대한 자기의 사랑을 확증하셨느니라. “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). He knew the transforming power of Christ’s love that changed a church persecutor into a church builder. So, he prays for God to fill the hearts of the Ephesian congregation divided by religious tradition and culture. He was confident Christ’s love filling their souls would resolve their conflicts and divisions in the church.

Before conversion, Paul was a profound theologian. He studied the law of God. He was well-versed in Israel’s Scripture. He studied Israel’s oral traditions. Despite all his knowledge of Scripture, he knew about God. He didn’t know God. J. I. Packer made a distinction between the two phrases “knowing God” and “knowing about God.” The former is related to experiential, relational, and intimate knowledge of God whereas the latter is related to informational, intellectual, or objective collection of knowledge of God. The OT Hebrew uses the verb “yada,” which is often translated “to know.” It is equivalent to the Greek “ginosko.” It is used as an euphemism for having sexual intercourse with, or having sex/marital relations with. In Gen. 4:1, Adam knew his wife Eve and begot Cain. The verb “knew” doesn’t refer to the intellectual understanding of Adam about his wife. It was the most intimate, sexual union between husband and wife. Certainly, it was experiential knowledge.

Christ’s love may sound good and yet theoretical if you have not known it from experience. I often use this illustration to show the difference between experiential knowledge and informational knowledge. You can study the characteristics of fire from books or people. Your family members, who have experienced the hotness of fire, have explained how hot fire is if you touch it. It looks red. It burns things. If you touch it with your bare hand, you will have a serious burn. You may get all the right information on fire. However, you will not understand fully until you put your hand on fire and get the feeling of being burnt for yourself. Some parents warn their little kids not to touch a hot stove. But kids are curious about it. They ignore the warning and touch it and cry out of hurt. They won’t touch it again with their bare hands. Here experience makes a difference.

I have met a lot of Christians born into Christian families. They grew up, having heard about the love of God displayed on the death of Christ on the cross. They can rehearse what it is like scripturally. They have all the right information about it. But one thing seems often missing: their real experience of it. They have heard about it from the Bible or other Christians. But they have never experienced it for themselves. So, their souls are dry. They tend to be intellectual in their pursuit of Christian faith. They have no biblical experience to support what the Bible talks about Christ’s love on the cross. Having an intellectual understanding of Christ’s love on the cross is not equal to having an experiential understanding of it. The difference between the two is real. If you have a right doctrine on God’s love, then you must experience it in your life.

John Wesley said, "정통 또는 올바른 견해는 기껏해야 종교에서 아주 미약한 부분일 뿐입니다. 올바른 성질은 올바른 견해 없이 존재할 수 없지만, 올바른 견해는 올바른 성질 없이 존재할 수 있습니다. 하나님에 대한 사랑이나 올바른 성질 없이 하나님에 대한 올바른 견해가 있을 수 있습니다. 사탄이 그 증거입니다." “Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is proof of this.” Satan knows how great and loving God is. He has an intellectual understanding of God’s love. But he doesn’t have a right temper toward it. He denies it. He attempts to make people reject it.

You may correctly say about God’s love. But your intellectual information on God’s love won’t change you. It won’t make you happy. It won’t make you live a confident and faithful Christian life. On the contrary, Christ’s experiential knowledge makes a difference in your life. If you know it from your personal experiences, you will be more like Christ, being able to forgive others, endure hardships by faith, and stand firm against the temptations of the world. Paul. E. Miller, the author of “A Praying Life,” shared an experience with his daughter Emily. He felt a distance from her even though he attempted to get closer to her. She deliberately stayed distant from her father during her teenage years. After graduating from high school, she had a gap year and went to an orphanage in Guatemala. She grew up in a Christian home, having heard about Christian faith and love. Despite her Christian good upbringing, she never encountered divine love personally. But during her service in the orphanage, she became a new person by experiencing God’s love.

I would like to quote a part of her testimony here: "식탁에 앉아 눈앞의 컴퓨터 화면을 바라보면서 문득 하나님 생각이 떠올랐습니다. 아버지가 저를 사랑하신 방식은 저에 대한 하나님 사랑의 본보기였습니다. 다른 사람들과의 관계, 스포츠, 음악 등 제 삶의 모든 영역에서 하나님을 무시했던 모든 시간들이 떠올랐습니다. 좋을 때는 하나님을 무시했고, 힘들 때는 하나님을 원망했습니다. 하지만 제가 한 어떤 일도 그리스도의 사랑에서 저를 분리시킬 수 없었습니다. "그러나 우리가 아직 죄인 되었을 때에 그리스도께서 우리를 위하여 죽으심으로 하나님께서 우리에 대한 자기의 사랑을 확증하셨느니라"(롬 5:8, NIV). 전혀 합당하지 않은 제가 영생이라는 가장 큰 선물을 받게 된 것은 하나님의 사랑과 그분의 은혜 덕분입니다. 저는 아버지의 사랑을 받았습니다. 지상의 아버지는 제가 하는 일이 아버지를 사랑하게 만드는 것이 아니라는 것을 간단한 웹페이지를 통해 보여주셨습니다. 그분은 제가 딸이기 때문에 저를 사랑하십니다. 제가 무례했다고 해서 아버지의 사랑이 저에게서 멀어지지는 않았어요. 저에게 이것은 하늘에 계신 아버지의 저에 대한 사랑을 보여주는 작은 그림이었습니다. 제 마음은 종종 그렇게 추악하고 사랑할 수 없는데 어떻게 그렇게 많은 사랑을 받을 수 있는지 완전히 이해하지 못할 것입니다. 은혜는 정말 놀라운 이유가 여기 있는 것 같습니다. “As I sat at the table, gazing at the computer screen in front of me, my thoughts came to God. How my dad loved me was an example of God’s love for me. My thoughts raced to all the times I had ignored God, in my relationships with other people, in sports, in music, all areas of my life. When times were good, I ignored God, but when times were hard, I blamed God. But nothing that I did separated me from the love of Christ. “But God demonstrated his own love for us in this; While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8, NIV). I, completely undeserving, receiving the greatest gift of all, eternal life, because of God’s love and His grace upon me. I have the love of a father. My earthly father showed me through a simple web page that it isn’t what I do that makes him love me. He loves me because I am his daughter. My disrespect didn’t push his love away from me. For me, this was a small picture of the love that my heavenly Father has for me. I will never fully comprehend how I can be loved so much, when my heart is often so ugly and unlovable. But I guess what’s makes grace so amazing.  

She was a nominal Christian who loved the things of this world. As her dad said, "그녀는 남자친구, 친구, 외모, 스포츠, 옷 등 현대 미국 십대들의 삶의 아이콘이 지배하는 들판 한가운데 홀로 서 있었습니다.예수님은 희미해져 가는 어린 시절의 기억이었습니다. 그녀를 위한 저의 기도는 너무나 나약하고 무력해 보였습니다." “she was standing alone in the middle of a field dominated by the icons of modern American teenage life: boyfriends, friends, appearance, sports, and clothes. Jesus was a fading childhood memory. My prayer for her seemed so weak, so powerless.” But God answered his weak and powerless prayer for Emily. Her quest for popularity was replaced with love for God and neighbor. She became a new person in Christ who would live a new life with a new purpose. This is what Christ’s love on the cross does. We must pray to experience it more and more.

Fourth, Christ’s love is God-filling. Paul’s request for us to be filled with Christ’s love intends us to be filled with the fullness of God. Why are we to experience the magnitude of Christ’s love more and more? It is for us to be filled with the fullness of God. We see here a prayer for the filling of Christ’s love should lead us to experience the fullness of God. Then, what is the fullness of God? The fullness of God is the totality of everything God is such as His attributes, His character, His perfection, His holiness, His power, His love, compassion, grace, righteousness, and so on. The fullness of God is His complete nature; it is what God is. The Bible mentions the “fullness” (Greek “pleroma”) of God in a few different senses. Let’s briefly discuss three of the most direct references to the fullness of God, found in Colossians and Ephesians.

In Col. 2:9, Paul says, 그 안에는 신성의 모든 충만이 육체로 거하시고. “For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” This text affirms the truth that Christ is God. The totality of all that God is and God does dwells in the incarnate Christ. Everything true of God is true of Jesus Christ. Paul speaks of another wonderful truth in the following verse Col. 2:10: 너희도 그 안에서 충만하여졌으니 그는 모든 정사와 권세의 머리시라. “and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” The NLT conveys the gist of this verse as follows: "그러므로 여러분도 모든 통치자와 권세를 다스리는 머리이신 그리스도와의 연합을 통해 완전해졌습니다." “So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” We are complete in Christ. We find our completeness in Christ. Christ, who is the fullness of God in bodily form, makes us whole by the power of His crucifixion and resurrection.

The apostle Paul conveys the same idea in the final purpose clause of v. 19: 이는 하나님의 온갖 충만하심으로 여러분이 충만해지게 하려는 것입니다. “that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  At the end of his lengthy prayer, Paul makes a purpose statement of all his requests previously mentioned in vv. 14-19a. He climaxes with 19b that his readers “may be filled with all the fullness of God.” None of us can achieve the fullness of God in the sense of becoming equal with God. Rather, being filled with all the fullness of God describes Christ’s indwelling us through the Holy Spirit. Christ is in us and we are in Him. We are eternally and mysteriously united with Him. We are one with Christ. As a result, 우리는 하나님의 성품에 참여하는 자들이 된 것입니다. we become “partakers of divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). The riches of God are available to us. God by His grace, fills us with the infilling of the Holy Spirit, enabling us to live more like Christ, in whom the fullness dwells (Eph. 5:18-20). A never-ending source of life and satisfaction and spiritual abundance—this fountain of living water is the fullness of God within our souls.

Francis Foulkes, a commentator, expresses the gist of Paul’s final clause in v. 19 as follows: "그[바울]는 궁극적으로 그들이 하나님의 어떤 속성이나 하나님의 선물, 즉 사랑도, 지식도, 힘도 단독으로 또는 함께 받지 않고, 그가 기도할 수 있는 가장 높은 것, 즉 하나님의 완전한 내주만을 받을 수 있도록 기도합니다.. . . 물론 영원하신 하나님은 그분의 죄 많은 피조물 중 어느 한 사람이나 모든 사람의 능력으로 제한될 수 없으며, 동시에 바울은 하나님의 백성이 그분이 그들의 삶에 가져오고자 하는 자신의 충만함(eis)으로 충만해지는 것 이하를 위해 기도하고 싶지 않습니다." “He [Paul] thus prays ultimately that they may receive not any attribute of God, or any gift of his, not love, not knowledge, not strength, alone or in combination—but no less than the very highest he can pray for, the full indwelling of God. . . . Of course the eternal God can never be limited to the capacity of any one, or all, of his sinful creatures; at the same time Paul does not want to pray for anything less than that God’s people may be filled to (eis) the very fullest of himself that he seeks to bring into their lives.”

The goal of every Christian is to be filled wholly with God. The ultimate goal of all our prayers is to be filled with God. When Christ and His love dwell in our souls, we can experience the presence of God in our hearts. However, if we are filled with ourselves even after much prayer, we must examine whether we pray amiss. We must learn to pray until we are filled with the presence of Christ and His love in our hearts. Most of our prayers stop before we experience the fullness of God. So, we often fail to experience the transforming presence or love of Christ in our lives. C. H. Spurgeon urges us to fill the storehouses of our hearts with Christ’s love as follows: 어떤 도시가 곧 포위될 것이라는 소식을 듣고 포위 기간 동안 사람들에게 식량을 공급하라는 명령을 받았다면, 나는 기근을 대비해 즉시 풍성한 창고를 마련해야 합니다. 그러므로 여러분이 하나님의 사랑 안에 계속 있기를 원한다면 지금 하나님의 사랑을 많이 갖고 더 많은 사랑을 위해 기도하십시오.오, 하나님의 사랑을 알 수 있는 한 많이 알기 위해서!욕심을 내고, 배고프고, 그것을 탐내십시오. 땅에 기근이 올 것을 알면 창고와 곡식창고를 채우는 사람처럼 그것을 저장하고, 당신의 영혼을 가득 채우십시오. “If I were told that a city was about to be besieged, and if I were commanded to keep the people supplied with provisions during the siege, I should lay in a plentiful store at once to provide for the famine. So, if you desire to continue in the love of God, have much of the love of God now and pray for more of it. Oh, to know the love of God as much as ever it can be known! Be greedy, be hungry, be covetous after it. Store it up; fill your soul full of it as a man would fill his storehouses and granary if he knew that a famine would be in the land.”

The purpose of salvation is for God to fill us with Himself. In one sense, the absolute fullness of God is unknowable for finite creatures like us. However, in His grace, God chooses to communicate with His creatures, offering them new life in Christ, indwelling them by the Holy Spirit, and ultimately filling them with His fullness. A powerful image from C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters illustrates this well. In this fictional book, an elder demon is writing to his young nephew, attempting to explain God’s grand plan for humankind: "인간을 향한 하나님의 사랑과 섬김이 완전한 자유라는 모든 이야기는 단순한 선전이 아니라 놀라운 진실이라는 사실을 직시해야 한다. 하나님은 정말로 우주를 그분의 작은 복제품, 즉 그분이 그들을 흡수했기 때문이 아니라 그들의 의지가 그분과 자유롭게 일치하기 때문에 그분의 삶이 질적으로 그분과 같을 피조물로 채우기를 원한다." “One must face the fact that all the talk about His [God’s] love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His.”

What do you pray for? Do you pray to be filled with God? Does your prayer make you filled with the presence, will, and moral character, especially the love of God? Remember all your prayers should lead to the filling of Christ and His love in your soul so that you may freely conform yourself to the image of Christ. This is the ultimate purpose of your Christian life, including your prayer life.  

Conclusion: If you feel you are poor, unlovely, or socially marginalized, how do you want to be treated by others? Like everyone else, you want to be treated with dignity and respect. You want to be loved and accepted because of who you are as a person, not because of what you are not or what you do not have. Jesus Christ loves everyone with an unconditional love. It is not a love based upon looks or performance or status but upon need—a need that all individuals share … whether they recognize it or not. Let me describe a probable common scene of the hospital’s emergency room. The late shift at the hospital’s emergency room was busy as usual. People from all walks of life were in desperate need of its services. First there was Frank. Frank was brought in because of another drug overdose. A pathetic figure, Frank had tried unsuccessfully to take his own life.

Next was Linda, who fell into the trap of using her body to gain popularity with the boys. Not surprisingly, one of her boyfriends had passed on a sexually transmitted disease that would be with her for life. Linda was there to get some relief, again. John, on the other hand, was a model father and husband—a good and faithful man. John’s life was now hanging in the balance due to a terrible car accident. Next was Julie, who was brutally beaten by her drunken husband. She was shivering with terror. She had no place to flee. The hospital’s emergency room was filled with all kinds of patients who needed care based on their needs. The doctor on call that night was equipped to handle any medical emergency. He moved from room to room, giving the same quality of care to each of his patients: to Frank, to Linda, to John, and to Julie. He did not look at the bank accounts of his patients before he treated them. He did not notice the color of their skin. He did not judge them for the reason they had come to the emergency room. He was there to care for them, to comfort them, to help them recover. The doors to the emergency room were opened to anyone who had an emergency.

The sole reason for the emergency room is to provide a place where people who need care can receive it. In the same way, God is there for all of us—men, women, boys, and girls—who are not only sick with sin but also dead in sin, in need of a doctor who can save us and give us eternal life. That Great Physician is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But Jesus Christ did not die for the “good” man. He died for those who could not help themselves. He died for those whom no one else could or would die for. He died for you and me. Have you ever experienced the love of Christ, which is foundational, communal, indescribable, and God-filling? It is available to all of us. Since all of us need it every day, we can pray for God to fill our souls with Christ’s love on the cross so that we can lay the foundation of our lives and churches on Christ’s love, love one another, experience it more and more, and fill our hearts with God. God is certainly pleased when we pray for the infilling of Christ’s love in our hearts.

Our prayer for Christ’s love filling our souls is an indication of our love for Christ. Since God loved us in Christ, we can love God and one another in Christ. When we love Christ with all our beings, we can glorify and enjoy Him most. Let’s constantly pray to live every day with confidence in Christ’s love. Each time we breathe in and out, we can sense the love of Christ. We can experience Christ’s unfailing, unchanging, and unending love. Surely, we can say along with the prophet Jeremiah: ²² 여호와의 자비와 긍휼이 무궁하시므로 우리가 진멸되지 아니함이니이다 ²³ 이것이 아침마다 새로우니 주의 성실이 크도소이다 ²⁴ 내 심령에 이르기를 여호와는 나의 기업이시니 그러므로 내가 저를 바라리라 하도다. ²² The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; ²³ they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him" (Lam. 3:22-24). God’s covenantal love is unfailing and loyal in Christ. It is new every morning. So, let’s hope in Christ because His love never fails.

Benediction: ²⁰ 우리 가운데서 역사하시는 능력대로 우리의 온갖 구하는 것이나 생각하는 것에 더 넘치도록 능히 하실 이에게 ²¹ 교회 안에서와 그리스도 예수 안에서 영광이 대대로 영원 무궁하기를 원하노라 아멘. ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:20-21)