The Vegemite Principle (Friday Devotional)

 

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

- Ephesians 3:18-19

Have you ever tried Vegemite? The Australian food spread made from brewer’s yeast extract, vegetables, and spices is beloved in its home country, but viewed with a mixture of skepticism and revulsion elsewhere. If you have ever tried it, it was likely as a novelty or even on a dare.

But if you haven’t tried Vegemite, I can’t really explain it to you. I could describe its appearance and texture—black and gooey—but that wouldn’t tell you much. I could compare it to other spreads like peanut butter, Nutella, or marmalade, but that wouldn’t get us very far either. Words fail to convey what only taste can get you to understand. The philosopher David Lewis has referred to this as “the Vegemite Principle”: some things are truly comprehensible only through direct, personal experience.

In the verses above, Paul prays that his readers would comprehend the fullness of Christ’s love, even as he states that such love surpasses knowledge. You can study the Bible for hours on end, memorizing verse after verse, and still miss it. You can learn from the wisest teachers and preachers and still not get it. Trying to learn the love of Christ as an exclusively intellectual exercise is a fool’s errand.

In truth, you learn about the love of the Lord by experiencing it for yourself, by placing your faith in the grace God showed by sending his Son to die on the cross for our sins. You start to understand that love when you see it at work in the world, when you see all the ways the Holy Spirit moves through God’s people to do his will. And you come to comprehend Jesus’ love by applying it to your own life, by imitating him with a life of compassion, holiness, and selflessness.

Trying to intellectually understand God’s love is impossible—you’ll never fully wrap your mind around its breadth and length and height and depth. Similarly, not even the most eloquent orator or brilliant writer could find the words to describe the fullness of his mercy. But that doesn’t mean you can’t know God’s love. You just have to experience it for yourself.