Rooted

“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.” Ephesians 3:17-18.

There are few people who are so rooted and grounded in divine love that they can press into the depths that are in God. It is much more convenient to give in to one’s feelings, which causes human love to rule.

We know that Jesus dwelled in divine love from the moment He came into the world and said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God!” until the moment He drew His last breath on the cross and said, “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.” Paul was also rooted in the love of God. Only a divine love can give expression to such powerful, strong, deep, and bold words as we find written in Romans 8:38-40.

But what is the state of affairs when we look around? Do Jesus and Paul have many followers? Perhaps all it takes is a reprimand to a brother’s or sister’s child for them to get ruffled and for the evil to gush out. An offensive word can discourage a bold soul, perhaps for several days. However, we do see the result of the fervent love of Christ in our midst through people who have forsaken everything, and are striving to live for the others. There are always a few who find the narrow way and walk on it. In their conduct, such people are like huge icebergs that move quietly and majestically over a rough and stormy sea. If they are visible ten meters above the surface, they are approximately ten times as large below the surface. No waves can break them into pieces, and no storm can sink them. This is their re­ward for being rooted and grounded. Those who are not rooted are like a tall and beautiful tree with a large and bulky crown, but with shallow roots. In stormy weather it is blown down and left lying on the ground.

Believers rarely comprehend the fullness and the depths which the work of Christ encompasses. They are too shallow and superficial in their Christian life. The condition for comprehending together with all the saints the width and length and depth and height, is to be rooted and grounded in love; shooting roots down so deep that no storm can blow you down. The trees that are blown down in stormy weather are like someone who gives up, who has lost faith that it is possible to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:36.

Only after we have been properly rooted can we comprehend the deeper things in God together with all the saints. There are two things that have always characterized holy people: they have been separate from all worldliness, and they have a sincere desire for more of God. Holy people have this desire, as we sing: “Give me deeper hunger, give me greater thirst, so that I may ever seek God’s kingdom first;” and, “A yearning, intense and unceasing, is fervently burning in me; dear Master, to Thee to be pleasing; O may Thy work deeper yet be.”

When a young person has been saved and has a personal desire and longing to read through the Bible, it bears witness to the fact that he has a desire to look into the wondrous things of God’s law. Psalm 119:18. It also bears witness to the fact that his roots are beginning to seek the proper sources of nourishment. But, if he is more occupied with the visible rather than the invisible things, and if he seeks fel­lowship and meditates on God’s law out of a sense of duty rather than from a sincere longing, he should understand that he is far from being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ.

The inner state of the bride is defined by a deep desire and an intense longing to enter more deeply into the work of Christ. It is a sad state of affairs indeed, if the desire for heavenly things is barely present, but the desire for, and interest in, the things of this earth is very much alive.

“By this time you ought to be teachers.” Hebrews 5:12. One does not become a teacher on the first day. It takes time to be rooted, and it takes time to bear fruit; but according to God’s just measure, they had been given sufficient time. The church needs godfearing people who can teach others about the way. The church to whom the epistle to the Hebrews is addressed was lacking in this. They had heard God’s blessed words, but they had neglected to care for the roots of their inner life so that they could be established and grow in the love of God.

The greatest and most precious fruit of being rooted in the love of God is to be able to look into the depths of Jesus’ work of salvation. The soul to whom this is revealed can instruct others about the way. Jesus went the whole way. Therefore He can instruct us about the whole way. We can only instruct others in what we know; that is, ac­cording to how far we have advanced on the way. Let us say that the way through the flesh is one hundred miles long but we have ad­vanced five miles. Then we can instruct others with zeal and fire about those five miles, but we are not acquainted with anything be­yond that. If those five miles have not increased after some years, then there is something wrong with the way in which we are rooted—in other words, with our comprehension of, and our devotion to, the love of Christ.

A zealous soul does not need much time to cover five miles, but whether he advances further or not depends on his continuing need and desire. It depends on how he uses the light and the knowledge he has received, according to the law of liberty. He can still have a good conscience despite the fact that he looks little into the perfect law of liberty, simply because his desire is not greater. His roots are not suf­ficiently grounded in love to create the right zeal and need.

After Paul’s description of some of God’s greatness in the elev­enth chapter of Romans, he cries out, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” It is God’s will that the church has an understanding of the width, length, depth, and height of this infinite greatness.

May it be granted to many to fulfill the condition for obtaining such a great blessing.