Ephesians 3:19
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Study Note
Study Note
Paul's prayer that the Ephesians might 'know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God' contains one of the New Testament's most audacious formulations. The paradox of 'knowing what surpasses knowledge' reflects the Pauline epistemology of love: the love of Christ is not a proposition to be mastered but a dimension of reality that exceeds all cognitive categories. The goal — 'filled with all the fullness of God' (pleroma) — echoes Colossians 2:9-10 ('in Christ the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and you are filled in him'), suggesting that the prayer's telos is participation in divine life. Gregory of Nyssa's concept of 'epektasis' (eternal stretching forward) draws on this verse's portrait of inexhaustible spiritual progress.
Other Translations
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.
to know also the love of the Christ that is exceeding the knowledge, that ye may be filled--to all the fulness of God;
And to have knowledge of the love of Christ which is outside all knowledge, so that you may be made complete as God himself is complete.
Cross References
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I …
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast …
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all …
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which …
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a …