2022-5丨General Subject：Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

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

I. “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility”—Eph. 6:24:

Eph. 6:24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility.

A. Grace is needed for us to live a church life that fulfills God's purpose and solves God's problem with His enemy—1:2; 3:2, 8, 10-11; 4:7, 29.

Eph. 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Eph. 3:2 If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God which was given to me for you,

Eph. 3:8 To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel

Eph. 3:10 In order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church,

Eph. 3:11 According to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Eph. 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

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. 6:24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility.

1. Love in 1:4 refers to the love with which God loves His chosen ones and His chosen ones love Him:

Eph. 1:4 Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love,

a. It is in this love that God's chosen ones become holy and without blemish before Him.

b. God first loved us, and then this divine love inspires us to love Him in return.

c. In such a condition and atmosphere of love, we are saturated with God to be holy and without blemish, just as He is.

2. According to 3:17, we may be rooted and grounded in love, and according to verse 19, we can know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ; as God's cultivated land, we need to be rooted for our growth, and as God's building, we need to be grounded for our building up—1 Cor. 3:9.

Eph. 3:17 That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Eph. 3:19 And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.

1 Cor. 3:9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's cultivated land, God's building.

Morning Nourishment

Eph. 6:24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility.

1:4 Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love.

Grace [is] the enjoyment of the Lord...Grace is needed for us to live a church life that fulfills God’s eternal purpose and solves God’s problem with His enemy. The enjoyment of the Lord as grace is to those who love Him [Eph. 6:24]. For the proper church life we need to love the Lord in incorruption, that is, in a condition which is incorruptible. Our love for the Lord must be incorruptible, immortal, and imperishable. Such a love is genuine and sincere. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 562)

Love in Ephesians 1:4 refers to the love with which God loves His chosen ones and with which His chosen ones love Him. It is in this love, in such a love, that God’s chosen ones become holy and without blemish before Him. First, God loved us. Then this divine love inspires us to love Him in return. In such a condition and atmosphere of love, we are saturated with God to be holy and without blemish as He is. In this love, a mutual love, God loves us, and we return this love to Him. It is in this kind of condition that we are being transformed [and] are being saturated with God. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 32-33)

The first instance of in love is in Ephesians 1:4...[and] could modify God’s choosing of us, our being holy and without blemish before God, or God’s predestinating of us [in verse 5].

Since God has chosen us, we should be one with Him and cooperate with Him by affording Him every opportunity to sanctify us and perfect us to be without blemish. This requires that we be in a condition of loving God with the divine love. Even though God is almighty and omnipotent, He does not have a way to make us holy and without blemish if we do not cooperate with Him by being in the proper condition. In order to be sanctified and perfected, we need to be ones who are continually loving God in His divine love. As we remain in this love, we are in a condition of love that affords God the best opportunity and sufficient time to come into us to sanctify us in every way and make us without blemish.

Because the divine love will never be corrupted, to love the Lord with this love is to love Him in incorruptibility. This condition, loving the Lord with the divine love, is constituted of the divine life incorporated with our being and will remain forever. All Christians say that they love the Lord. However,... not many can truthfully say, “Lord, I love You in a condition and situation that is altogether incorruptible.” In order to be able to say this, we must love the Lord according to Himself—according to His plan, good pleasure, desire, and economy.

The next instance of in love is in Ephesians 3:17: “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love.”...We are God’s cultivated land and God’s building (1 Cor. 3:9). As God’s cultivated land, we need to be rooted for our growth, and as God’s building, we need to be grounded for our building up... In order for the believers to be rooted for growth in life and grounded for building up, they must be in a condition of love. This love is not ours; it is the divine love. God’s love becomes the love by which we love Him. While we are loving Him with this love, we are in love in the sense of being in a condition of love. As our experience confirms, when we are in this condition of love, we are being deeply rooted and grounded for growth and building up. The Lord is waiting for us to give Him the opportunity to deeply root and ground us. We often hinder Him from doing this because we love Him according to our natural tendency. We need to love Him according to His good pleasure. We should repent and pray, “Lord, help me to love You not according to my preferences but according to You, Your heart’s desire, and Your plan.” (CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 551, 553-554)