What is the love that surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:19)?

In Ephesians 3:19, Paul prays for believers to “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (ESV). This prayer seems paradoxical. How can we know a love that surpasses knowledge?

Paul’s prayer begins with him kneeling before “the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Ephesians 3:14–15, ESV). Paul prays for believers “to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth” of Christ’s love (Ephesians 3:16–18, ESV). Love for God and others is a result of genuine faith (Matthew 22:34–40; Mark 12:28–34; Luke 10:25–28).

When Paul prays for believers to “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19, ESV), he is speaking about a love that transcends the ordinary limits of human understanding. This love of Christ is unlike any other type of love. It encompasses the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the relationship we have with Him through faith (see Galatians 2:20). In our present earthly lives, we can know and experience God’s love for us in Christ, even though we can never fully comprehend it.

Scripture abounds with passages about the immeasurable nature of God’s love. In Romans 8:38–39, Paul is confident that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (ESV). John mentions the “kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1, ESV). Both passages correspond to knowing “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” in Ephesians 3:19.

Sacrificial love is the highest and supreme form of love. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, ESV). This element of sacrifice is key to understanding the love of Christ: it is love manifested in action, particularly in the Lord’s humiliation, torture, death, and burial. And He died for us “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8).

The love of Christ in Ephesians 3:19 is a kind of love that is greater than we can ever understand. This love is vast, immeasurable, and undeserved. It inspires gratitude, humility, and reciprocal love: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). As we grow in our understanding of the love of Christ, we also grow in our capacity to love others. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35 ESV).

Let us embrace the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. It is our duty and privilege “together with all the Lord’s holy people” to grasp the love of God as shown in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:18).