Love Is the Foundation, Not the Reward
“…being rooted and firmly established in love…” - Ephesians 3:17b (CSB)
One of the most exhausting ways to live the Christian life is to treat God’s love like a finish line. We assume love is what God gives after we grow enough, obey enough, mature enough, or get our act together. We may not say it out loud, but we live as if God’s love increases when we do well and decreases when we fail.
Paul will not allow that distortion.
He prays that believers would be rooted and established in love. Those are not words for reward. They are words for foundation. Paul is describing something underneath you, not something ahead of you.
Roots are hidden, but they hold everything up. Foundations are often unseen, but they determine whether a structure stands or collapses. Paul is saying the love of Christ is not what you graduate into. It is what you begin with.
This changes everything.
If love is the reward, then Christianity becomes anxiety. You will always wonder if you’ve done enough. You will interpret hardship as rejection. You will swing between pride in your good days and despair in your bad ones.
But if love is the foundation, then obedience becomes different. You are not striving for acceptance. You are living from it. You are not earning God’s affection. You are responding to it.
That is gospel freedom.
Christ did not die to make love possible someday. He died to secure love for sinners now. God’s love is not fragile. It is covenant love. It is rooted in Christ’s finished work, not in your fluctuating performance.
This is why Paul prays for stability. A believer who is not rooted in love will be easily shaken. Fear will drive them. Approval will control them. Shame will haunt them. But a believer established in love is steadied. Even in weakness. Even in failure. Even in suffering. Because the ground beneath them is not self-confidence, but divine love.
Love is not God’s prize for the mature. Love is God’s starting point for the redeemed.
Reflection Question
Where have you been treating God’s love as something to earn instead of something to rest in?
God’s love is not the finish line of faith. It is the foundation of faith.
Prayer
Father, forgive me for living as though Your love must be earned. Thank You that in Christ, love is already secure. Root my heart deeply in Your covenant love so that obedience flows from gratitude, not fear. Steady me in grace and teach me to live as one firmly established in Your love. Amen.
One of the most exhausting ways to live the Christian life is to treat God’s love like a finish line. We assume love is what God gives after we grow enough, obey enough, mature enough, or get our act together. We may not say it out loud, but we live as if God’s love increases when we do well and decreases when we fail.
Paul will not allow that distortion.
He prays that believers would be rooted and established in love. Those are not words for reward. They are words for foundation. Paul is describing something underneath you, not something ahead of you.
Roots are hidden, but they hold everything up. Foundations are often unseen, but they determine whether a structure stands or collapses. Paul is saying the love of Christ is not what you graduate into. It is what you begin with.
This changes everything.
If love is the reward, then Christianity becomes anxiety. You will always wonder if you’ve done enough. You will interpret hardship as rejection. You will swing between pride in your good days and despair in your bad ones.
But if love is the foundation, then obedience becomes different. You are not striving for acceptance. You are living from it. You are not earning God’s affection. You are responding to it.
That is gospel freedom.
Christ did not die to make love possible someday. He died to secure love for sinners now. God’s love is not fragile. It is covenant love. It is rooted in Christ’s finished work, not in your fluctuating performance.
This is why Paul prays for stability. A believer who is not rooted in love will be easily shaken. Fear will drive them. Approval will control them. Shame will haunt them. But a believer established in love is steadied. Even in weakness. Even in failure. Even in suffering. Because the ground beneath them is not self-confidence, but divine love.
Love is not God’s prize for the mature. Love is God’s starting point for the redeemed.
Reflection Question
Where have you been treating God’s love as something to earn instead of something to rest in?
God’s love is not the finish line of faith. It is the foundation of faith.
Prayer
Father, forgive me for living as though Your love must be earned. Thank You that in Christ, love is already secure. Root my heart deeply in Your covenant love so that obedience flows from gratitude, not fear. Steady me in grace and teach me to live as one firmly established in Your love. Amen.
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