July 28, 2024
My nephew visited me a couple of weeks ago on his way to Niagara Falls, and while he was here one morning, I played my 80’s playlist on my phone. And I got to thinking, 80’s music to him was like 60’s music to me. 60’s music is from the time I was born until just before I started really noticing music and buying records. But 80’s music is after I graduated high school until just before I turned 30. So, though I may not be as into 80’s music as I am into 70’s music, I do remember it all.
And smack dab in the middle of the 80’s, a band came onto the scene named Huey Lewis and the News. And in 1985 they sang a song that was included in the movie Back to the Future. It opened with these words:
The power of love is a curious thing
It makes one man weep, makes another man sing
Changes a hawk to a little white dove
More than a feeling, that's the power of love [1]
The power of love and the love of power—these are the themes of most of the novels that are written and most of the songs we listen to. The power of love allows weak people to do great things (and it also makes strong people do stupid things sometimes). The love of power can lay waste to entire nations—just look at what Putin is doing to Ukraine right now, or what Assad is doing to Syria. The power of love and the love of power, probably more than anything else, are the forces that shape our lives and our world. [2]
The concepts of love and power, of course, are ways that the Bible describes God.
Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
—Psalm 91:2
I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. I am the One who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.
—Revelation 1:8
Those are just two examples—one from each Testament—about God’s omnipotence. And because the Bible talks so much about God’s power, we might be tempted to think of God in terms of the love of power. But the Bible also talks a lot about God’s love. And while the Bible talks just as much about God’s power, it never makes the claim the God is power. But the Bible does say this:
Let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
—1 John 4:7-8
And so we can’t really talk about God’s love of power. But we can talk about God in terms of the power of love. That’s because the all-powerful God is love. It’s also a fact that we cannot know God if we’re incapable of love. But in ancient Israel and in Jesus Christ, it’s clear that the reverse is not true. Those who do not have power can know God—in fact the powerless are often much better able to know God than those that the world thinks of as powerful.
So the Bible says throughout that God has power and that God is powerful, but the Bible never says that God is power. The Bible also talks about God’s love—unconditional love, even for those who don’t love God in return. The Bible even goes so far as to say that God is love. And so it’s true that we cannot talk about the love of power and say that it describes God. But we can—perhaps we even must—say that the power of love is what God is about.
As Huey Lewis said,
It don't take money and it don't take fame
You don't need no credit card to ride this train
Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel
You won't feel nothin' till you feel the power of love [1]
This life-transforming, all-important power of love is at the center of Paul’s prayer here in Ephesians 3. His prayer is for young Christians—young, in the sense that they are new to the faith, not necessarily that they are teenagers. In the prayer, Paul acknowledges the unimaginable power of God. Then he prays that precisely those unlimited resources will fuel the lives of these people who have recently come to believe.
But what’s the point of this power? Is it so they can lord it over those who think their faith is misplaced? Is it a power that will make their lives victorious over all pain and challenges? No, none of that. Instead he makes a beautiful promise to them that may not make them the envy of their enemies. But it will give meaning to their lives:
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
—Ephesians 3:17
There’s a lot of disagreement these days about what a Christian is. But Paul seems to be answering the question, “What is a Christian?” here in this little prayer. A Christian is someone who carries Christ in their heart. Christians nurture the presence of Christ in their lives and find strength in God’s love.
Did you happen to see Celine Dion sing at the opening ceremony of the Olympics? I think it was the greatest comeback since the resurrection. She sang her own powerful version of a French classic. The opening words to this song say that, even if the blue sky above should fall and the earth beneath us should collapse, I won’t care as long as you love me. This isn’t really a prayer to God, but it could be. It could, in fact, be a response to Paul’s prayer here in Ephesians 3: “I won’t care if the world comes to an end as long as Christ is at home in my heart; no matter what, I am strong because my life is rooted in God’s love.” [3]
To be a Christian, then, is to carry Christ in my heart. No matter what, Christ is there, and by treasuring this presence, by nurturing it, the love of Christ sends its roots throughout my being. Christ begins more and more to inform my thoughts and my words and my actions.
But we need to remember that, though Paul talks about Christ-in-us here, he talks a whole lot more about us being in Christ. The Christ that is in me and the Christ that is in you, and the Christ that is in a person that goes to a different church: these aren’t different Christs, they are the same Christ. For as much as Christ is at home in our hearts, even more, Christ has made a home for us in his heart.
God is love, and though we might think that it is God’s power at work in us to change our lives, more than anything else, it is God’s love that is at work in us. And “God unites those who love one another.” [3] So it is one Christ at home in many hearts, growing love and rooted in the power of the Almighty.
—©2024 Sam Greening
- Huey Lewis and the News, The Power of Love, written by Huey Lewis, Chris Hayes & Johnny Colla, Back to the Future: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack (Chrysalis, 1985).
- N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters (London: SPCK 2002), p. 38.
- “Le ciel bleu sur nous peut s'effondrer, et la terre peut bien s'écrouler, peu m'importe si tu m'aimes… Dieu réunit ceux qui s'aiment.” Édith Piaf, L’hymne à l’amour (Pathé-Marconi, 1950).
