TAKING CHRIST AS OUR PERSON AND LIVING HIM IN AND FOR THE CHURCH LIFE
Message Five
Knowing the Significance of Loving the Lord, Loving the Lord Jesus Christ in Incorruptibility, and Walking in Love and Light
Scripture Reading: Mark 12:30; 1 Cor.2:9; 2 Tim.4:8; Eph.6:24; 5:1-14
I. We need to know the significance of loving the Lord—Mark 12:30; 1 Cor.2:9:
A. To love the Lord is to allow Him to live in us and for us and is to realize that He desires a dwelling place so that He can be expressed—Eph.3:16-17.
B. Our believing into the Lord is for our receiving Him,and our loving Him is for our enjoying Him—Titus 3:15.
C. To love the Lord is to be stopped from our doing and is to let Him take full possession of our being—Eph.3:16-19; Gal.4:19.
D. The best way to express our love toward the Lord is to say,"Lord Jesus,I open to You.Take full possession of me.Lord,I love You.I present myself to You.I am open to You.Possess me more and more until You reach every part of my being and make Your home in me."
E. According to 1 Corinthians,in order to love the Lord,we need to take Him as our portion for our enjoyment (1:2,9; 5:7-8; 10:3-4),allow Him to grow in us (3:6),and realize that we are one spirit with Him (6:17).
F. We love the Lord by being fully occupied by Him and loving His appearing—2 Tim.4:8:
1. To be a lover of God is to be fully occupied,possessed,and taken over by God—Eph.3:16-19; Gal.4:19.
2. If we love the Lord in this way,we will love His appearing—2 Tim.4:8:
a. According to Paul's word,a crown is laid up for those who love the Lord's appearing—v.8.
b. If we do not love the Lord,His coming will be a matter of judgment (1 Cor.16:22),but if we love Him and His appearing,we will receive a prize.
II. "Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility"—Eph.6:24:
A. According to the usage of incorruptible in the writings of Paul,this word refers mainly to God and the things of God; everything natural is corruptible,but God,the divine life,and all things that are in resurrection are incorruptible—1 Tim.1:17; 2 Tim.1:10; 1 Cor.15:42,52-54.
B. To love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility means to love Him in the new creation and according to all the incorruptible things revealed in Ephesians:
1. We need to love the Lord Jesus in His being the embodiment of the Triune God (Col.2:9); in His being the element of the Body (1 Cor.12:12); in His being reality,grace,peace,love,and light (John 1:17; 8:12; 14:6,27; 1 John 4:8); and in His being the constituent of the one new man (Eph.2:15; Col.3:10-11).
2. All these things are related to what is revealed in and taught in Ephesians,including the Triune God,Christ,and His Body,the church.
3. Ephesians speaks concerning the dispensing of the Triune God to produce the church (1:3-23; 3:16-21),concerning what Christ is and has done for the church (1:7; 2:13-18; 5:25-27,29),and concerning the church being the Body of Christ,being the bride of Christ,and being one with Christ in the heavenlies (1:22-23; 5:23,25-27; 2:6).
4. All these matters are incorruptible,and we need to love the Lord in these incorruptible things:
a. If we love the Lord Jesus in all these things,our love toward Him will be incorruptible—6:24.
b. Such a love is not a natural love—it is a love in resurrection,the love that God Himself is in His divine essence—1 John 4:16.
C. In the Lord's recovery we need to love our Lord Jesus Christ in all the divine,spiritual,heavenly,and incorruptible things revealed in Ephesians concerning the Triune God,the divine life,what Christ is to us,what He has done,and the church—1:3-23; 2:5-6,13-18; 3:16-21; 4:4-6; 5:23,25-27.
III. The more we love the Lord in incorruptibility,the more we,as children of God,will walk in love and light—vv.1-14:
A. As the children of God,we are God-men,born of God,possessing the life and nature of God,and belonging to the species of God—v.1; 1 John 3:1; John 1:12-13:
1. God is our real,genuine,Father,and we are His real,genuine,children—1 John 3:1; Eph.5:1.
2. The greatest wonder in the universe is that human beings could be begotten of God and that sinners could be made children of God—1 John 3:1,9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18; John 1:12-13:
a. Since we have been born of the divine life and possess the divine life,we,the children of God,are divine persons—1 John 5:11-13; 3:1,10.
b. As those who have been born of God,we have not only the divine life but also the divine nature—2 Pet.1:4.
B. As the children of God,we should walk in love and light—Eph.5:2,8:
1. Love is the inner substance of God,and light is the expressed element of God—1 John 4:8,16; 1:5.
2. Our daily walk as children of God should be constituted with both the loving substance of God and the shining element of God; this should be the inner source of our walk—Eph.5:2,8.
3. "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"—v.2:
a. The goal of the book of Ephesians is to bring us into love as the inner substance of God so that we may enjoy His presence in the sweetness of the divine love and thereby love others as Christ did—v.25:
1) In the condition and atmosphere of love,we are saturated with God to be holy and without blemish before Him—1:4.
2) The love in which we are rooted for growth and grounded for building is the divine love realized and experienced by us in a practical way—3:17.
3) The love of Christ,which is Christ Himself,is immeasurable and knowledge-surpassing,yet we can know it by experiencing it—v.19.
4) The Body of Christ builds itself up in love; love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ—4:16; 1 Cor.12:31.
b. As those who have been regenerated to become God's species,we,the children of God,should be love because God is love; since we become God in life and in nature,we also should become love—1 John 4:8,16.
4. "You were once darkness but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light"—Eph.5:8:
a. As God is light,so we,the children of God,are children of light—1 John 1:5; Eph.5:8; John 12:36.
b. We are not only children of light—we are light itself; we are light because we are one with God in the Lord—Matt.5:14; 1 John 1:5.
c. When we are in the light,we are outside the realm of right and wrong—v.7.
d. If we walk as children of light,we will bear the fruit described in Ephesians 5:9:
1) The fruit of the light must be good in nature,righteous in procedure,and real in expression,that God may be expressed as the reality of our daily walk.
2) The fruit of the light in goodness,righteousness,and truth is related to the Triune God:
a) God the Father as goodness is the nature of the fruit of the light; therefore,goodness in verse 9 refers to God the Father—Matt.19:17.
b) Righteousness refers to God the Son,for Christ came to accomplish God's purpose according to God's righteous procedure—Rom.5:17-18,21.
c) Truth,the expression of the fruit of the light,refers to God the Spirit,for He is the Spirit of reality—John 14:17; 16:13.
d) The proof that we are walking as children of light is seen in the bearing of such fruit.