ROOTED, ESTABLISHED AND FRUITFUL IN THE LOVE OF CHRIST
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. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. —Ephesians 3:17-21
Paul’s desire, as moved to write by the Holy Spirit, was that believers would know the love of Christ. To know this love of Christ will cause a follower of Jesus to be “rooted and established.” Think of a plant you put into the ground. If it did not become “rooted” then it would not become established. Christ’s love and power “roots” us and “establishes us.
As His “holy people,” we are “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.” Again, think of a plant or tree that is rooted and “how wide and long and high and deep” those roots go as it grows. As we are rooted and established in the love of Christ, then we will to “know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
We cannot do this or understand this in our own strength and intellect, but He “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” —Colossians 2:6-8
We are to be rooted in Christ’s love and depend on Him and then we will be established and strengthened in Him. We won’t be like “seed falling on rocky ground” which “refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away” (Matthew 13:20-21). Instead, we will be “like seed falling on good soil” which is like “someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” (Matthew 13:23). The “seed falling on good soil” is fruitful because that person is “rooted and established” in the love of Christ which is seen through their loving obedience (John 14:21). Dear Father, I desire to be rooted and established and growing in the love of Christ so that I may be fruitful and bring You glory. May this be so by the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Your Precious Son Jesus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkHqaBxPoAM&list=PLA8E78FDB329D15BB