The psalmist says “All have gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one. The LORD looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.”

God looks on humankind because of God’s boundless love for those who seek after God. The wise who seek after God are given a responsibility to be the hands that hold God’s hands; to be the agents of God’s boundless love. How else would the world know that God is good if not for God’s people seek after God?

Even though people do not seek after God, God seeks after people. 1John4:10 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians calls them to be the people God sought after.

Paul wrote “I pray that, according to the riches of God’s glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.” We see three strings in this passage of scriptures.

First, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power. It is not the kind of a superpower that can stop an Israeli bomber or a Russian drone. If we can have it, it would be great. But we know we cannot accomplish those earthly tasks. Paul’s prayer is for the inner being to be strengthened with power through God’s Spirit.

Secondly, Christ “may dwell in their hearts.” It is to be conscious of Christ’s presence. Our experience of Christ’s indwelling depends on our faith. Without faith we will not rely on him, no fellowship with him, and our lives will not have him in centre. If Christ does not dwell in our hearts through faith, the rest of Paul’s prayer and, the entire Christian life is impossible.

Thirdly, Paul’s petition is for people to be rooted and grounded in love. It is not for power but for the power to know that love. That is to have power to grasp and to know the love of Christ.

Unless we have the power of love and are loved, we cannot understand God’s love. We love and are loved because God first loved us. God’s boundless love is made available to the humankind and to the world through Christ.

Unless one is “rooted and grounded” in Christ’s love, will not be able to understand the love of Christ. If God’s gift of love has been distorted or damaged by a lack of love in our upbringing, it is almost impossible for us to ever understand the love of Christ. Yet, Christ can touch such people with love through those who know Christ in their hearts and spread that love.

Paul is not talking about the love of God in general, but about the love in Christ. That is not our love for Christ, but his love for us. That’s what Paul wants Ephesians to understand. That’s what we need to understand. If we are to live by faith in God, we must be aware of the boundless love of God in Christ.

At times we don’t trust Christ and don’t obey him always because we don’t really grasp how much God loves us. We say we believe it; we sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know.” But do we really know it? We don’t grasp, as Paul describes, “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

The best metaphor that explains God’s boundless love is in the loving of an infant. A love that goes beyond knowledge. Think of a newborn infant cradled in mother’s arms. The baby is loved by the parents, the siblings, the grandparents and so on. But the baby cannot understand that love nor can describe that love until the baby develops some understanding. Indeed, the baby doesn’t even have thoughts about that love. As the infant grows, begins to experience love.

The fact that love cannot be comprehended or explained does not make that love any less real. Indeed, the infant’s experience of love becomes the basis of all later understanding and expressions of love. That is how God’s boundless love works.

Humankind has gone astray from God, yet God revealed God’s boundless love in Christ. You and I are here today because God first loved us.

The gospel is about Jesus’ compassion on an enormous crowd just as his compassion on the small set of fearful disciples on a stormy sea. When the crowd gathered around Jesus on the mountain, he fed them with the loaves and fish, not because they asked for food, but because of his love for the people. God’s love must be an unextinguished flame in the hearts of those who know God’s boundless love. That is how the world may come to know God’s love.

Charles Wesley realising his lost state, experienced God’s love and wrote the words of this hymn.

O thou who camest from above, the pure celestial fire to impart, kindle a flame of sacred love upon the mean altar of my heart.

May we all pray to God to kindle a flame of sacred love on the mean alters of our hearts. When the flame is kindled, we will be God’s hands to share God’s boundless love in the world that is longing for love.