Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund
Week 21: Chapter 20 — The Exploding Heart
Read Chapter 20 of Gentle and Lowly. Primary Scripture: Ephesians 3:14–19; John 17:24–26.
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The final chapter of the book's main argument builds to a crescendo, asking what the heart of Christ ultimately points toward: a love so vast it can only be described as surpassing knowledge. Come ready to be overwhelmed.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Ephesians 3:18–19 prays that believers would "comprehend... the breadth and length and height and depth" of the love of Christ and "know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge." Ortlund lingers on the paradox: you are being asked to know what you cannot fully know. What does it mean to grow in knowing a love that exceeds the capacity of knowledge?
2.The chapter uses the phrase "exploding heart" to describe Christ's love — a love so large it cannot be contained in any single chapter, any single metaphor, or any single lifetime of experience. How have the twenty chapters that preceded this one begun to enlarge your sense of the size of Christ's heart for you?
3.John 17:24 records Jesus praying to the Father: "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory." Christ's deepest desire for his people is not merely their forgiveness but their presence with him in glory. What does it mean that Christ wants you with him? How does this move beyond the transactional into the relational?
a.John 17:26 says Christ shares the love the Father has for him with his people. You are invited into the love that exists within the Trinity itself. How does that make you feel?
b.Does this feel too good to be true? What specifically makes you hesitant to fully receive it?
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