Ephesians 3:17

LOVE BASED ON KNOWLEDGE

‘Rooted and grounded in love.’

Ephesians 3:17

Sentimental love is seldom the genuine article, since those who feel most say the least. And the idea that religion should be grounded on sentiment, and reserved for those who ‘have a genius for it,’ is utterly false. It was intended for all men, not merely to gratify natural tastes and aptitudes. It should act at first on the heart as a strong remedy, not as a soporific to lull it into false security. It is hardly a paradox to say that the really good man has very rarely a genius for religion.

If, however, we regard love not as a mere sentiment, but as something more solid to employ St. Paul’s phrase, ‘the root and groundwork’ of the character, we shall find that it is possible to love even that which did not seem at first attractive.

I. Love seeks for further knowledge, and that knowledge frequently produces love. Supposing anyone were to profess devotion to some art—say, music—and we found that he had never taken the trouble to gain any knowledge about it, to learn either to play or sing, to ascertain what were its laws, or how good music could be distinguished from bad. Would you believe he had any real love of music? The first beginning of any sort of love is the desire for further knowledge. Or we may regard the matter from another standpoint—namely, that of knowledge producing love. As a rule our propensity is to despise and to underrate that which we do not understand. Imagine, however, a little knowledge of some pursuit overcoming the initial dislike of it, and further acquaintance with the subject causing enthusiasm. Is it not easy to realise how, with increasing knowledge, when we see it in all its bearings, its breadth and depth, and length and height, that the early enthusiasm turns to a strong abiding passion, and that that which we almost hated before we had knowledge, we have loved in proportion as our knowledge increased? It is the same with persons. ‘Love at first sight’ is not to be compared with the love which is increased by fuller knowledge, for the latter has borne the sternest of tests and is proved true.

II. No knowledge is worth having which is not in some degree based on love.—You cannot teach anything till the learner is either interested or realises its importance to himself; since by so doing he shows a desire to have a mastery of something which he understands to be a prime necessity. Genius is said to be the capacity for taking infinite pains; but this really means that the enthusiasm, the love for what he undertakes, makes the man of genius realise the importance of bringing it as near as possible to perfection.

III. What can be of more importance than the knowledge of God?—Success, wealth, comfort, ease are not the best ends of life. No good man, to whatever religion or philosophy he may be attached, will ever tell you this. The highest ends, they will all agree, are to be true to ourself, to do our duty to our fellow-men, to follow the highest ideals it is possible for us to conceive. And if we realise this, however hard it may be to conceive of the nature of God, we are yet face to face, not with mere abstractions, but with some very concrete realities. You may read your Bible from cover to cover and not discover any theories about God’s essence, transcendence, infinitude. From the wrestling of Jacob at Penuel to the vision of St. John at Patmos one thing is plain—that the mind of man cannot conceive Him in His entirety any more than the eye can see Him. What is revealed is, however, before all things practical. God is Justice, Righteousness, Love. God watches over His people, hears their prayers, is to them as a Father. And to seek God is to strive to carry out those things which both revelation, nature, and conscience declare to be His Will.

The love we are called upon to feel is not beyond our reach. It is the gift of the Father through the Son, and it can become the root and the foundation of the life of each one of us. By it Christ may dwell in your hearts and mine through faith; to the end that, being rooted and grounded in love, we may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Rev. Canon Foakes-Jackson.