General Subject:Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

Message Six The Lord’s New Commandment Given to Us— That We Love One Another

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Outline

V. The church life for the organic building up of the Body of Christ is a life of brotherly love—4:7-8; 2 John 5-6; John 15:12, 17; Rev. 3:7; Eph. 5:2; cf. Jude 12a:

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God, and everyone who loves has been begotten of God and knows God.

1 John 4:8 He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.

2 John 5 And now I ask you, lady, not as writing a new commandment to you but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

2 John 6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that you walk in love.

John 15:12 This is My commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you.

John 15:17 These things I command you that you may love one another.

Rev. 3:7 And to the messenger of the church in Philadelphia write: These things says the Holy One, the true One, the One who has the key of David, the One who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens:

Eph. 5:2 And walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

Jude 12 These are the hidden reefs in your love feasts, feasting together with you without fear, shepherding themselves; waterless clouds being carried off by winds; autumn trees without fruit, having died twice, rooted up;

A. The one who loves God and the brothers is enjoying the divine life; the one who does not love is abiding in the satanic death—1 John 3:14; cf. 2 Cor. 11:2-3.

1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. He who does not love abides in death.

2 Cor. 11:2 For I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God; for I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

2 Cor. 11:3 But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your thoughts would be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity toward Christ.

B. Just as the Lord Jesus laid down His soul-life that we might have the divine life, we need to lose our soul-life and deny the self to love the brothers and minister life to them in the practice of the Body life—1 John 3:16; John 10:11,17-18; 15:13; Eph. 4:29—5:2; 2 Cor. 12:15; Rom. 12:9-13.

1 John 3:16 In this we know love, that He laid down His life on our behalf, and we ought to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers.

John 10:11 I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

John 10:17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.

John 10:18 No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. This commandment I received from My Father.

John 15:13 No one has greater love than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for building up, according to the need, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Eph. 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.

Eph. 4:31 Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and clamor and evil speaking be removed from you, with all malice.

Eph. 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ also forgave you.

Eph. 5:1 Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children;

Eph. 5:2 And walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

2 Cor. 12:15 But I, I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent on behalf of your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved less?

Rom. 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

Rom. 12:10 Love one another warmly in brotherly love; take the lead in showing honor one to another.

Rom. 12:11 Do not be slothful in zeal, but be burning in spirit, serving the Lord.

Rom. 12:12 Rejoice in hope; endure in tribulation; persevere in prayer.

Rom. 12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality.

C. We need to lose our soul-life by not loving the world with its pleasure; instead, taking in God and expressing God as love in the church life of brotherly love should be our joy, amusement, entertainment, and happiness—1 John 2:15-17; Matt. 16:25-26; cf. 2 Tim. 3:4; Psa. 36:8-9.

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him;

1 John 2:16 Because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.

1 John 2:17 And the world is passing away, and its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Matt. 16:25 For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.

Matt. 16:26 For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul-life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul-life?

2 Tim. 3:4 Traitors, reckless, blinded with pride, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

Psa. 36:8 They are saturated with the fatness of Your house, / And You cause them to drink of the river of Your pleasures.

Psa. 36:9 For with You is the fountain of life; / In Your light we see light.

D. Brotherly love in the church life is expressed practically in our caring for the necessities of the needy saints without any self-serving purpose or outward self-display; in the sharing of material things with the needy saints, the grace of the Lord's life with His love flows among the members of the Body of Christ and is infused into them—1 John 3:17-18; Matt. 6:1-4; Rom. 12:13; 2 Cor. 8:1-7.

1 John 3:17 But whoever has the livelihood of the world and sees that his brother has need and shuts up his affections from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

1 John 3:18 Little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue but in deed and truthfulness.

Matt. 6:1 But take care not to do your righteousness before men in order to be gazed at by them; otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in the heavens.

Matt. 6:2 Therefore when you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be glorified by men. Truly I say to you, They have their reward in full.

Matt. 6:3 But you, when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

Matt. 6:4 So that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

Rom. 12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality.

2 Cor. 8:1 Furthermore we make known to you, brothers, the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia,

2 Cor. 8:2 That in much proving of affliction the abundance of their joy and the depth of their poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality;

2 Cor. 8:3 That according to their power, I testify, and beyond their power, of their own accord,

2 Cor. 8:4 With much entreaty they besought of us the grace and the fellowship of the ministry to the saints;

2 Cor. 8:5 And this, not as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us through the will of God.

2 Cor. 8:6 So we entreated Titus that, even as he began before, so also he would complete for you this grace as well.

2 Cor. 8:7 But just as you abound in everything, in faith and in word and in knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love in you from us, abound in this grace also.

E. Loving to be first in the church is versus loving all the brothers—3 John 9.

3 John 9 I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not receive us.

Morning Nourishment

1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers...

Matt. 16:24-25 ...If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.

We need to love the brothers. The reason for this is that the church life is a corporate life, a life that involves the brothers. If we lose our brotherly love and if we no longer love one another, what will become of the church life? The answer is that the church life will disappear. Where there is no brotherly love, the church life is finished. Actually, brotherly love is the church life...The church life is a life of brotherly love.

In 1 John 3:14... to pass out of death is to pass out of the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of [satanic] death into the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of [the divine] life. This took place in us at our regeneration... Faith in the Lord is the way for us to pass out of death into life; love toward the brothers is the evidence that we have passed out of death into life. To have faith is to receive the eternal life; to love is to live by the eternal life and express it. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 154, 236-237)

Today’s Reading

Several verses after the revelation of Christ as the rock and the believers as stones for God’s building, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). To take up one’s cross means to bear one’s cross. Verse 25 continues, “For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.”... Please notice that in verse 24 we are told to deny the self, and then in the next verse we are told that we need to lose our soul-life for the Lord’s sake. Hence, the self in verse 24 is clearly the soul-life in verse 25. We should not save our soul-life. Rather, because the soul-life is the self, we must deny it and lose it.

If we are to realize the church life, we must take the path of denying our self, losing our soul-life, bearing the cross, and following the Lord Jesus. To reiterate, we must first know Christ in an adequate way so that we can realize the building of the church. Then if we are going to realize the building up of the church and live the church life, we must always apply the cross of Christ to our soul-life, our self, and follow Him. The way to follow the Lord is simply to walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4), for in resurrection the Lord is the Spirit in our spirit (2 Cor. 3:17; 2 Tim. 4:22). Hence, if we are to follow the Lord, we must know how to walk, live, and do things in the spirit.

The more you follow the Lord, the more you will long to have fellowship with other saints; the more you deny your self, the more you will love the brothers; the more you bear the cross, the more you will want to be in the church. This is a spiritual law. If you love the Lord, you will love other saints. If this morning you prayed to the Lord in a living way, you will find a way to contact the brothers at some point during the day. Whenever you meet the Lord, the Lord will turn you to the brothers. (CWWL, 1963, vol. 2, pp. 322-323)

God’s intention in His creation of man was that man would take Him in and express Him. Taking in God and expressing God should be man’s joy and amusement. Man’s happiness and entertainment must be God Himself, and this is not an objective God but a subjective God. To take God in and to live God out is man’s joy...God created man with the need for amusement, but our amusement must be God Himself...God Himself is the unique fulfillment of our need for entertainment. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 1, “The Exercise of the Kingdom for the Building of the Church,” pp. 103-104)

Further Reading: CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, “Serving in Coordination and Washing in Love,” ch. 2; CWWL, 1977, vol. 2, “The Spirit and the Body,” ch. 16

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