Galatians 5:6 says, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.” Our faith works by love. The meaning of the word love here is Agape which means unconditional love. God is the only one that produces Agape, therefore the scripture is referring to faith working in us through an understanding of God’s unconditional love for us. A misunderstanding of God’s love for us causes us to struggle to exercise our faith. In order for our faith to work consistently we always have to understand that God’s love is unconditional. This means that the operative power of our faith is not based on our own performance. The chief strategy of the enemy in attacking our faith is attacking our confidence in God’s unconditional love for us. As such, we have to be careful of what we let into our hearts concerning who God is.
Ephesians 3:17-19 is a prayer that the apostle Paul prays for the saints at Ephesus. We can learn a lot from these prayers that are recorded in scripture. When the saints of old prayed for something it was usually an essential element of our walk with the Lord. In this prayer Paul prays,“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Christ dwells in our hearts through faith that is activated by us being rooted and grounded in an understanding of His love for us.God’s love is not one-dimensional. There is width, length, depth, and height to it; this can only be comprehended through the revelation knowledge of the Holy Spirit. Having only a superficial knowledge of God’s love is like looking at a one-dimensional picture of a real object. How can we know the love of God if it passes knowledge? This sounds like a contradiction. The Greek word that was translated “know” in this verse is “GINOSKO.” It is a verb expressing experiential knowledge. The Greek word that was translated “knowledge” here was “GNOSIS,” a noun denoting the act of knowledge. Simply put, Paul was praying that we would experience the love of God that passes mere knowledge about it. The end result of having understanding and experiential knowledge of God’s love is that we will be filled with all the fullness of God. God’s love is the key that opens the door to everything that God is. 1 John 4:8 says: “God is love” Since a true revelation of God’s love makes us full with the fullness of God, then not being full of God must mean there is a lack of understanding and experiencing God’s love.
1 John 4:18 says: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love”. God’s unconditional love is not just the fuel for your faith, it is also the remedy for all fear. Fear is a direct opposite of faith and it torments the world today. God has given us the power to dispel this fear and it is called perfected love. His love perfected on the cross is our victory in this life. When we keep our eyes on the finished work of the cross we are insulated from all fear. Romans 8:32 says, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” We will never lack any good thing because God freely gives us all things.
