- I’ve been convinced neither death, life,
- angels, leaders,
- the past, the future, powers,
- height, depth,
- nor any other creation can divide us from God’s love,
- which
is in Christ Jesus our Master.—Paul,
- angels, leaders,
Christians interpret this verse one of two ways.
- Absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love.
- Absolutely nothing else can separate us from God’s love. We, of course, can get in our own way.
Your interpretation pretty much comes down to whether you believe you can lose your salvation.As I explained in my article on the subject, it comes down to whether we have a true and living relationship with God, or not. If we do: Absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s love. If we don’t: We’re not saved anyway, so this verse isn’t about us.
What people wrongly think could separate us.
Paul listed a few things—death, life, angels, leaders, etc.—which people think might separate us from God’s love. It’s not a comprehensive list; it’s not meant to be. It’s just the main things pagans, or immature Christians who don’t know any better, figure might be factors when it comes to salvation.
Death. Sort of an obvious one: People figure if we’re dead, that’s it; we’re done; we’re beyond God’s reach. They don’t really believe God can raise the dead; they’re not all that sure God raised Jesus from the dead. (Or if he did, Jesus was a special circumstance; they don’t believe God will raise anyone else from the dead.) In their minds, death is absolutely final. But thanks to Jesus’s resurrection, Christians know death is a minor setback, one Jesus easily defeated.
Life. On the flip side, many people—pagans and Christians alike—believe once we’re dead, we’re directly in God’s presence, fully immersed in God’s love. So death isn’t the obstacle: Life is. While we’re alive, all the physical senses, all the worldly distractions, get in the way of God’s love, and dull us to its existence. And might even get in its way. Hence a lot of Christians teach, contrary to this scripture, life—this life—can separate us from God’s love. But ’tain’t so.
Angels. “Angels” has two definitions: Messengers, or spirit beings. I’m not sure which of the two Paul was going with; if we contrast it with leaders he might mean messengers, and if we contrast it with powers he might mean spirits. But whether human people or spiritual people, no person can stop God’s love. No messenger from God can legitimately tell us, “God’s love is dependent on these circumstances, these behaviors, these acts, these beliefs”—for it’s not. God’s love is unconditional. False messengers might try to psyche us into believing we need to earn God’s love, but it’s a lie. Earned grace is an oxymoron.
Leaders, powers. Since Ephesians 6.12 describes “principalities and powers” as not being flesh and blood, Christians assume these two things must refer to certain types of supernatural spirit beings. Not really. They refer to offices—the concept of leadership and power, more so than a flesh-and-blood human leader, or raw physical force. After all, God permits his leaders to bind and loose things on both earth and heaven, and what if, say, some wicked Christian leader threatens to use this power to send you to hell? Well, they can’t. If they go against God’s will—and God’s will is to save us! —their leadership and power doesn’t go that far. All power comes from God, and it can’t override the will of the One who gave it.
The past, the future. God fills time, and it doesn’t get in his way whatsoever. Past events don’t disqualify us from his love; he forgave those sins already. Future events don’t disqualify us either; he forgave those sins already. If we were predestined for destruction, why would he bother to work with us today? He’s not toying with us. He intends to finish what he started.
Height, depth. Hopefully we already know God is everywhere, and don’t need to have it spelled out. But I doubt Paul was speaking of literal height and depth. More like societal height and depth: He was speaking of class and caste. Our greatness, honor, and prominence won’t get in the way of his love. And our lowness, dishonor, and dismissal won’t get in its way either.
Nor any other creation. In essence, nothing. For God created everything. The only uncreated thing in the universe would be God: Only he could withhold his love. And he has absolutely no intention of doing so.
So remain in his love.
Other translations.
Original. Pépeismai gar óti thánatos, úte zoí, úte ángeloi, úte arhaí, úte enestóta, úte méllonta, úte dynámeis, úte úpsoma, úte báthos, úte tis ktísis etéra dynísetai imás horísai apó tis agápis tu Theú tis en Hristó Yisú to Kyrió imón.
Geneva Bible, King James. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
English Standard, New Revised Standard. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
New International. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
J.B. Phillips. I have become absolutely convinced that neither death nor life, neither messenger of Heaven nor monarch of earth, neither what happens today nor what may happen tomorrow, neither a power from on high nor a power from below, nor anything else in God’s whole world has any power to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord!
The Message. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Even more translations are at Bible Gateway.