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

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

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13:35 By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

1 John 2:7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard.

1 John 2:8 Yet again a new commandment I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

1 John 3:11 For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,

1 John 3:23 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, even as He gave a commandment to us.

I. In John 13, after the Lord Jesus washed His disciples' feet to show them that He loved them to the uttermost (v. 1), He charged them to do the same to one another in love (v. 14); then He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (vv. 34-35):

John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come for Him to depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the uttermost.

John 13:14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13:35 By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

A. The commandment in verse 34 is the new commandment given to us by the Lord in the New Testament, which is different from the old commandments in the Old Testament:

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

1. The New Testament commandments of the Lord (John 14:15, 21; 15:10, 12; 1 John 2:3, 4, 7, 8; 3:22, 23, 24; 4:21; 5:2, 3; 2 John 4, 5, 6) are not merely injunctions; they are His words, which are spirit and life as a supply to us—John 6:63.

John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.

John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

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

1 John 2:3 And in this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

1 John 2:4 He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this one;

1 John 2:7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard.

1 John 2:8 Yet again a new commandment I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

1 John 3:22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

1 John 3:23 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, even as He gave a commandment to us.

1 John 3:24 And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.

1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God love his brother also.

1 John 5:2 In this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments.

1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

2 John 4 I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, even as we received commandment from the Father.

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 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

2. We should love God and His children with the divine love that is conveyed to us through the words of the Lord to become our experience and enjoyment.

B. A way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ is by keeping His new commandment to love one another for the expression of His love that all the people may know that we are His disciples—13:34-35:

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13:35 By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

1. Real love is the issue of enjoying the processed Triune God in the divine dispensing—2 Cor. 13:14.

2 Cor. 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

2. When we are in the fellowship of the divine life (1 John 1:1-3), that is, in the enjoyment of the Triune God, the outcome of this enjoyment is the divine love with which we spontaneously love others; in particular, we love all those who are organically related to our begetting Father (5:1); this love is possible only because we have had the divine birth (John 1:12-13; 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:4, 18).

1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life

1 John 1:2 (And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us);

1 John 1:3 That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

1 John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God, and everyone who loves Him who has begotten loves him also who has been begotten of Him.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name,

John 1:13 Who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness also has been begotten of Him.

1 John 3:9 Everyone who has been begotten of God does not practice sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God.

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 5:4 For everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory which has overcome the world-our faith.

1 John 5:18 We know that everyone who is begotten of God does not sin, but he who has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him.

3. Here we have a triangular love involving God, ourselves, and all those born of God, which is in the organic union with the Triune God who is love (4:8, 16).

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

1 John 4:16 And we know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.

II. The love of God is God Himself; love is the inward essence of God and the heart of God—vv. 8, 16:

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

1 John 4:16 And we know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.

A. The love of God is the source of salvation—John 3:16; Eph. 2:4-5; Titus 3:4-5.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.

Eph. 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

Eph. 2:5 Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

Titus 3:4 But when the kindness and the love to man of our Savior God appeared,

Titus 3:5 Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,

B. God's predestination of us unto the divine sonship was motivated by the divine love—Eph. 1:4-5.

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,

Eph. 1:5 Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

C. The love of God accomplished salvation for us; God's giving of His only begotten Son to us that we may be saved from perdition judicially through His death and have the eternal life organically in His resurrection was motivated by the divine love—John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.

1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him.

1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.

1. In the love of God, the Son of God saves us not only from our sins by His blood but also from our death by His life—Eph. 1:7; Rev. 1:5; Rom. 5:10.

Eph. 1:7 In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses, according to the riches of His grace,

Rev. 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood

Rom. 5:10 For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled,

2. God loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins in His judicial redemption with the intention that we might have life and live through Him in His organic salvation—1 John 2:1; 4:9-10; John 6:57; 14:19; Gal. 2:20.

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous;

1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him.

1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.

John 6:57 As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.

John 14:19 Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live.

Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

3. God's excelling love is seen in His becoming a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins and the propitiation place for us to meet and be infused with God; God as love meets with us and speaks to us in the propitiating, redeeming, and shining Christ so that we can be infused with Him as love, mercy, and grace for His effulgent and radiant glory—Rom. 3:24-25; Heb. 4:16; Exo. 25:17, 22.

Rom. 3:24 Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

Rom. 3:25 Whom God set forth as a propitiation place through faith in His blood, for the demonstrating of His righteousness, in that in His forbearance God passed over the sins that had previously occurred,

Heb. 4:16 Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.

Exo. 25:17 And you shall make an expiation cover of pure gold: two and a half cubits shall be its length, and one and a half cubits, its width.

Exo. 25:22 And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the expiation cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the Ark of the Testimony, of everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.

D. The love of God causes us to obtain salvation (2 Cor. 5:18-20; Matt. 22:3; Acts 5:32; 2 Tim. 3:15) and become His children (1 John 3:1).

2 Cor. 5:18 But all things are out from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

2 Cor. 5:19 Namely, that God in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself, not accounting their offenses to them, and has put in us the word of reconciliation.

2 Cor. 5:20 On behalf of Christ then we are ambassadors, as God entreats you through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, Be reconciled to God.

Matt. 22:3 And he sent his slaves to call those who had been called to the wedding feast, yet they would not come.

Acts 5:32 And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.

2 Tim. 3:15 And that from a babe you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and we are. Because of this the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

2 Thes. 2:16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope in grace,

2 Thes. 2:17 Comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.

Heb. 12:6 For whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives."

F. God has poured out His love in our hearts with the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5), who has been given to us, as the motivating power within us, so that we may more than conquer in all our tribulations (8:37 and footnote 1).

Rom. 5:5 And hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Rom. 8:37 But in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us.

Rom. 8:37 footnote 1: Because of God's unchanging love for us and the fact that Christ has accomplished everything on our behalf, neither tribulation nor persecution can suppress or defeat us; rather, in all these things we more than overcome and conquer through Him who loved us.

Jer. 31:3 Jehovah appeared to me from afar, saying, / Indeed I have loved you with an eternal love, / Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.

Rom. 8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers

Rom. 8:39 Nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

III. In 1 John 2:7-8, relating to the Lord's commandment in John 13:34, the apostle John says, “Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard. Yet again a new commandment I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining”:

1 John 2:7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard.

1 John 2:8 Yet again a new commandment I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

A. The commandment regarding brotherly love is both old and new: old, because the believers have had it from the beginning of their Christian life; new, because in their Christian walk it dawns with new light and shines with new enlightenment and fresh power again and again—1 John 2:7-8; 3:11, 23; cf. John 13:34.

1 John 2:7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard.

1 John 2:8 Yet again a new commandment I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

1 John 3:11 For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,

1 John 3:23 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, even as He gave a commandment to us.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

B. The fact that the old commandment is new is true in the Lord, since He not only gave it to His believers but also renews it in their daily walk continually; it is true also in the believers, since they not only have received it once for all but also are enlightened and refreshed by it repeatedly.

IV. In 1 John we see that the practice of the divine love is the outcome of our enjoyment of the Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit, the One who is mov-ing and working within us as the anointing in the fellowship of the divine life to saturate us with all that the Triune God is, with all that He has done, and with all that He has obtained and attained—1:3; 2:3-11, 27:

1 John 1:3 That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

1 John 2:3 And in this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

1 John 2:4 He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this one;

1 John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. In this we know that we are in Him.

1 John 2:6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.

1 John 2:7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard.

1 John 2:8 Yet again a new commandment I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

1 John 2:9 He who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.

1 John 2:10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him;

1 John 2:11 But he who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1 John 2:27 And as for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him.

A. If we would experience and enjoy the divine love and have it become the love by which we love others, we need to know God experientially by continuously living in the divine life—vv. 3-6; Phil. 3:10a.

1 John 2:3 And in this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

1 John 2:4 He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this one;

1 John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. In this we know that we are in Him.

1 John 2:6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.

Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

B. In order to practice the divine love as a virtue of the divine life, we need the divine life that has been sown as the divine seed (1 John 3:9; 2:29 and footnote 7) into our being; we also need the divine Spirit (3:24); the divine life is the source, and the divine Spirit is the One who actually carries out the matter of loving others.

1 John 3:9 Everyone who has been begotten of God does not practice sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God.

1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness also has been begotten of Him.

1 John 2:29 footnote 7: John's writings on the mysteries of the eternal divine life stress very much the divine birth (3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18; John 1:12-13), which is our regeneration (John 3:3, 5). It is the greatest wonder in the entire universe that human beings could be begotten of God and sinners could be made children of God! Through such an amazing divine birth we have received the divine life, which is the eternal life (1:2), as the divine seed sown into our being (3:9). Out of this seed all the riches of the divine life grow from within us. It is by this that we abide in the Triune God and live out the divine life in our human living, i.e., live out the life that does not practice sin (3:9) but practices righteousness (2:29), loves the brothers (5:1), overcomes the world (5:4), and is not touched by the evil one (5:18).

1 John 3:24 And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.

C. We should love God and His children with the divine love and not with our natural love, which must be put on the cross; one difference between God's love and our natural love is that it is very easy for our natural love to be offended.

D. Our living in the love of God toward one another is the perfection and completion of this love in its manifestation in us—4:11-12; 2:5.

1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God has loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:12 No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

1 John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. In this we know that we are in Him.

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.

F. Loving one another is a sign that we belong to Christ (John 13:34-35); if we desire to have the ability to influence people concerning the Lord and to bear fruit, we must have love for one another and become one in the church life; the best way for us to bear fruit is to love one another by taking Christ as our person and life (v. 35; 17:21, 23).

John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13:35 By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 17:21 That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.

John 17:23 I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.

G. The genuine preaching of the gospel is a matter in fellowship (Phil. 1:5) because it is a matter of the Body; the branches of a tree bear fruit in a way of fellowship (John 15:5, 12, 17); the more we live in the Body life and have the reality of the Body life, the more we will be fruitful.

Phil. 1:5 For your fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now,

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

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.

H. The condition of the vital groups in the church life is that of loving one another in oneness and with one accord; for the practice of the vital groups, the saints need to be trained how to have fellowship that is altogether based on oneness and one accord—Acts 1:14.

Acts 1:14 These all continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

I. In the church life of brotherly love (Rom. 12:10; 1 Thes. 3:12; 4:9; 2 Thes. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:22; 4:8), we receive one another (Rom. 15:7), have the same mind toward one another (v. 5), pursue the things for building up one another (14:19), bear one another's burdens (Gal. 6:2), bear one another in love (Eph. 4:2), comfort and build up one another (1 Thes. 5:11), confess our sins to one another and pray for one another (James 5:16), forgive one another (Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13), and are subject to one another (Eph. 5:21).

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

1 Thes. 3:12 And the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we also to you,

1 Thes. 4:9 Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for me to write to you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another;

2 Thes. 1:3 We ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers, even as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of each one of you all to one another is increasing,

1 Pet. 1:22 Since you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned brotherly love, love one another from a pure heart fervently,

1 Pet. 4:8 Above all, have fervent love among yourselves, because love covers a multitude of sins.

Rom. 15:7 Therefore receive one another, as Christ also received you to the glory of God.

Rom. 15:5 Now the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind toward one another according to Christ Jesus,

Rom. 14:19 So then let us pursue the things of peace and the things for building up one another.

Gal. 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ completely.

Eph. 4:2 With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love,

1 Thes. 5:11 Therefore comfort one another, and build up each one the other, even as you also do.

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The petition of a righteous man avails much in its working.

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

Col. 3:13 Bearing one another and forgiving one another, if anyone should have a complaint against anyone; even as the Lord forgave you, so also should you forgive.

Eph. 5:21 Being subject to one another in the fear of Christ:

J. The proper church meeting is a “one another” meeting, a “round-table” meeting, in which we speak to one another (v. 19), teach and admonish one another (Col. 3:16), consider one another and exhort one another (Heb. 10:24-25), and listen to one another (1 Thes. 5:20); we need to learn to have a proper mutual care in the meetings (1 Cor. 12:25-26).

Eph. 5:19 Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord,

Col. 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.

Heb. 10:24 And let us consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works,

Heb. 10:25 Not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the day drawing near.

1 Thes. 5:20 Do not despise prophecies,

1 Cor. 12:25 That there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same care for one another.

1 Cor. 12:26 And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it.

K. We need to be dealt with and built up by the Lord (8:1) so that our administration of the church and our ministry of the word will result in the brothers and sisters spontaneously loving one another for the building up of the church; when the saints genuinely grow in their spiritual life, the experience of the divine life will result in an increase of love, because love is the issue of life (1 John 3:14); this will cause the church life to be living, prevailing, functioning, and powerful.