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

Message One Loving the Lord and Loving One Another— the Most Excellent Way for Us to Be Anything and Do Anything for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

I. Paul commended the Thessalonians by telling them that “your faith grows exceedingly and the love of each one of you all to one another is increasing”—2 Thes. 1:3:

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,

A. To believe in the Lord is to receive Him as life, and to love the Lord is to enjoy the very person whom we have received; faith is given to us by God so that by it we may receive Christ as our life; love issues out of such a wonderful faith and enables us to live out all the riches of the Triune God in Christ as our life—2 Pet. 1:1; Heb. 12:1-2a; 2 Cor. 4:13; Gal. 5:6; John 1:12-13; 21:15-17; Col. 3:4.

2 Pet. 1:1 Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have been allotted faith equally precious as ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

Heb. 12:1 Therefore let us also, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, put away every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and run with endurance the race which is set before us,

Heb. 12:2 Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.

2 Cor. 4:13 And having the same spirit of faith according to that which is written, "I believed, therefore I spoke," we also believe, therefore we also speak,

Gal. 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but faith avails, operating through love.

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.

John 21:15 Then when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Feed My lambs.

John 21:16 He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Shepherd My sheep.

John 21:17 He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? Peter was grieved that He said to him the third time, Do you love Me? And he said to Him, Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You. Jesus said to him, Feed My sheep.

Col. 3:4 When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.

B. To the apostle Paul the grace of the Lord “superabounded with faith and love in Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 1:14); through faith we receive the Lord (John 1:12), and through love we enjoy the Lord whom we have received (14:21, 23; 21:15-17).

1 Tim. 1:14 And the grace of our Lord superabounded with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

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 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 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.

John 21:16 He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Shepherd My sheep.

C. In this wonderful faith and by this super-excellent love of the Triune God, we should love Him and all those who belong to Him; only in this way can we become, in the current of the church's degradation, the overcomers whom the Lord is calling and desiring to obtain in Revelation 2 and 3.

Rev. 2—3 To be omitted.

Morning Nourishment

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.

Titus 3:15 All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in faith. Grace be with you all.

1 Tim. 1:14 And the grace of our Lord superabounded with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

Through faith we receive the Lord (John 1:12), and through love we enjoy the Lord whom we have received (John 14:21, 23; 21:15-17). (1 Tim. 1:14, footnote 2)

[The] subjective faith, the act of our believing,...brings us into an organic union with the Lord...and operates through love (Gal. 5:6). It is in the element and operation of this faith that the saints who were one with the Lord in His concern loved the suffering and faithful apostle. (Titus 3:15, footnote 1)

Faith and love are two inseparable, excellent virtues of the believers in Christ. Faith is given to us by God (2 Pet. 1:1, footnote 5) that by it we may receive Christ (John 1:12), the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), and thereby enter into the Triune God and be joined to Him as one, having Him as our life, life supply, and everything. Love issues out of such a wonderful faith and enables us to live out all the riches of the Triune God in Christ with those who have believed into Christ with us, that the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—may have a glorious expression. Faith is for appreciating, substantiating, and receiving the unlimited riches of the Triune God; love is for experiencing, enjoying, and living out the immeasurably rich Triune God. Faith is for the believers to be joined to the Triune God, who is everything to them; love is for the believers to minister and transmit the Triune God to their fellow believers so that, in such a wonderful and powerful faith, all the believers may love one another with divine, transcendent love and live a corporate life in Christ.

The Epistle to Titus... concludes with the wonderful faith and the super-excellent love. This implies that, in the current of the church’s degradation, in order to be able to effectively stand firm and overcome the downward trend and factor in the church, this wonderful faith and this super-excellent love are indispensable. We should not walk by sight or care for the outward situation. Rather, in this wonderful faith we should enjoy its source, which is the Triune God, to whom we have been joined through this faith, and by this super-excellent love of the Triune God we should love Him and all those who belong to Him. Only in this way can we become, in the current of the church’s degradation, the overcomers whom the Lord is calling and is desiring to obtain in Revelation 2 and 3.

This wonderful faith and this super-excellent love are out of the Triune God, who earnestly desires to be joined to us to be our everything...When we contact this Triune God through prayer and by looking to Him, by means of our spirit,... He infuses Himself into us in many ways to become the faith within us toward Him and the love outside of us toward those who belong to Him. Such faith and such love are the reality and expression (1 John 4:8, 16) of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—in whom we believe and whom we worship and receive...Such faith and love are connected and go together: love comes from faith, and faith operates and works through love (Gal. 5:6). Love with faith enables us to love our Lord in incorruptibility so that we may have an overcoming church life (Eph. 6:23-24) for the fulfillment of God’s New Testament economy in Christ for the church. Therefore, it is in this faith that we are well pleasing to God (Heb. 11:6) and in this love that we are blessed of the Lord (1 Cor. 16:22). May this love with this faith be to the brothers from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 6:23). (Titus 3:15, footnote 1)

Further Reading: CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” chs. 1-2