26th July 2024
River Deep – Mountain High
…how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…
Ephesians 3:18 (NIV)
Anyone alive in the 1960s will surely have heard of the Ike & Tina Turner classic River Deep – Mountain High, ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as number 33 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The song idealises human love with the singer claiming that the love for her ‘baby’ is as deep as a river and as high as a mountain.
Yet even though the song seems to suggest that human love is limitless, in reality it is nothing compared to divine love. The love of Christ, as Paul writes in the Header scripture, is immeasurable – higher than the tallest mountain, deeper than the deepest ocean, and wider than the ever-expanding universe. In fact, the only thing that limits it in any way is our lack of ability to fathom it, and so Paul prays that those reading his letter to the Ephesians may, ‘…have power…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…’.
Earlier in Ephesians chapter 3, Paul explains where this power comes from – through the Holy Spirit that dwells inside the followers of Jesus (v.16).
Human love is limited, fallible, selfish and misdirected. The bad news is that no matter how hard we try to love, we will fall short if we rely on our own, imperfect and flawed human love. But the good news is that we, as Christians, have access to perfect, flawless, selfless, limitless divine love. It’s a love that ‘surpasses knowledge’ (v.19), and enables us to ‘…do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…’ (v.20).
To quote another famous song from the 1960s, ‘With a love like that, you know you should be glad, yeah, yeah, yeah.’
Prayer
Almighty Father, thank you for your ever flowing, outpouring gift of divine love, perfectly exemplified in your sending of your precious son, love in the flesh. Now we can truly know what love is and thanks to your gift to us, have the power of his love working within us. Thank you in Jesus’s glorious name, Amen.
Study by Peter Mill
About the writer:
Peter Mill is a minister in Grace Communion International and Co-Regional Pastor for Scotland, Ireland, and Northern England.
Local congregation:
Grace Communion International Central Glasgow
Garnethill Room
Conference Suite
St Andrews West
260 Bath Street
Glasgow G2 4JP
Meeting time:
Sunday 11:15 am
Local congregational contact:
Peter Mill
Email: edinburgh@gracecom.church
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church