Abide in God as Love and Love others with Discernment and According to the Need

As we believers in Christ partake of the divine nature to the uttermost, we are filled with God as love and abide in Him as love, and we become persons of love, even love itself; we will love others with God as love, not according to our emotions or feelings but according to the need and with discernment.

May the Lord recover such love in us and among us today!

Day by day, we need to enjoy the Lord and cooperate with Him to develop the virtues in the divine life and nature.

Some of the virtues in this life and nature we received at the time of our regeneration can be found in 2 Peter chapter 1.

We have received the seed of faith by the living and abiding word of God.

God has allotted to us faith that is equally precious among all the saints, in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As we enjoy the Lord by faith, grace and peace are multiplied to us in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Hallelujah, God’s divine power has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness through the full knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and virtue!

Wow, if we realize that in the divine seed – our faith – we have everything we need to live Christ and express Him as godliness, our Christian life will be revolutionized!

We will come to God’s word and we will simply enjoy His precious and exceedingly great promises so that through these we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust. Amen!

When we come to God’s word and take His promises, stand on His promises, pray and sing His promises, and make His promises ours by faith, we partake of the divine nature.

We believers in Christ have not only the human life with the human nature, but even more, we have the divine life and the divine nature.

On the negative side, we flee youthful lusts and escape the corruption which is in the world by lust.

On the positive side, we add all diligence to develop the virtues in the divine life and nature.

We need to exercise our spirit daily to add all diligence and supply bountifully in our faith virtue, and in virtue we supply knowledge, and in knowledge we supply self control, and in self-control we supply endurance, and in endurance we supply godliness.

In godliness, we need to supply brotherly love, and in brotherly love, we supply love.

When these things exist in us and abound in us, they constitute us neither idle nor unfruitful unto the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. May these things exist in us and be developed in us!

Abide in God as Love and Love the Brothers with Discernment and According to Need

2 Pet. 1:7 says that we need to add all diligence to supply in godliness, brotherly love.

We may think that brotherly love refers to us loving the brothers, and we may think that we love the brothers, but our love may not match what God as love is and may not be according to how He loves us.

1 John 4:16 says that 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.

Love is not of ourselves; love is not according to our emotions or feelings.

Love is God, and God is love. God in us is love, and we need to abide in God as love.

In other words, when we love the brothers, we should not try our best to love them with what we have as love; rather, we need to exercise our spirit to abide in God as love and love the brothers with discernment and according to the need.

Many times the love we have for the brothers and sisters is quite superficial; even worse, our love spoils others or is preferential, for we love those whom we like and consider lovable but do not even approach those we do not like.

Our love is not agape; our love is at most human love, which easily runs out and spoils, being preferential.

In our love for the brothers, there needs to be God as love, otherwise, we will love others foolishly, in a way that can spoil them.

When we love others with God as love, there will be some nourishment in that love, and there will be a spiritual antibiotic dispensed into them to heal them and prevent any illness.

God loves us indiscriminately, with the love which He Himself is, yet He loves us with discernment.

In Matt. 5:44-45 we are told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us so that we may be sons of our Father who is in the heavens.

Our Father in the heavens causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

God loves man and He cares for man, yet He does it with discernment, and when we open to His love, we are healed, we are nourished, and we are filled with Him as love.

This is how we should love the brothers – not with our natural love or affection but with God as love so that we may love them with discernment and according to need.

We need to love all the brothers, and some of them are in a greater need of love, while others do not need love as much – yet we still love them.

When we love others with God as love, having discernment and loving according to the need, they receive the life supply and an antibiotic that kills any negative matters in them.

We need to love one another in this way in the church life – with discernment, not foolishly.

We need to abide in God as love and love one another with God as love, having the higher purpose of nourishing them and helping them to be healed.

May we not withhold love from the saints but love them wisely, with God as love.

May we love all the brothers with discernment and according to a measure of within a limitation.

Someone may be in need of much love, and we sense this as we contact the Lord in contacting this one; therefore, we measure out more love toward them.

Another one, however, does not need as much love but rather, if he receives a lot of love, he is spoiled; therefore, we love him with a certain limitation, within a certain measure.

Many times, however, our love for the brothers depends on our emotions; when we are happy, we love others and are willing to do anything for them, but when we’re down, we have no love for others.

Our love for the brothers should not depend on our emotional tide; rather, we need to abide in God as love and love others with God as love.

We need to learn to love the brothers with God as love. His love is consistent, but our love is fluctuating.

His love is full of discernment, but our love is foolish and spoiling.

His love dispenses life into others and causes them to be healed, but our natural love spoils others or even causes us to dislike others, for it is natural. Oh, Lord, Jesus!

May we have the more noble kind of love, the love which is God Himself, the love which has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who indwells us (Rom. 5:5).

Both in the church life and in the family life we need to love one antoher with God as love.

When we love with God as love, the husbands will assign honor to the wife (1 Pet. 3:7), and the wife will submit to the husband as to the Lord.

Such love is only possible when we abide in God as love and exercise our spirit to love others with God as love.

When we exercise our spirit, our spirit is of love (2 Tim. 1:7).

When we love others with God as love, we will not love them only with our emotions but our love will dispense God as life and life supply into them, even infuse them with a spiritual antibiotic to heal them and revive them.

May we come to the Lord concerning this matter and open to Him, telling Him lovingly,

Lord Jesus, we love You! We know and have believed the love which God has in us. We want to abide in You as love, for God is love. Amen, Lord, we want to abide in love, in God as love. May we abide in You and may You abide in us. May we abide in love, and may God as love abide in us. Save us from loving the brothers in a foolish way or according to our preference. Save us from spoiling others by loving them in a natural way with our natural affection. Oh Lord, we want to abide in You as love. May You dispense more of Yourself as love into us so that we may love others with God as love. May our loving others with God as love dispense something of God as life and life supply into them. Amen, Lord, may our loving others with God as love dispense a spiritual antibiotic into them for them to be healed and have any germs killed. Oh Lord, may such a brotherly love flow among us today for the building up of the church! We want to love others with God as love so that we may be sons of our Father who is in the heavens!

Partake of the Divine Nature to the Uttermost to be Filled with God as love and become Persons of Love, even Love itself

In the world, people fall in love with others and then fall out of love. They love someone now, but later they no longer love them but rather, they even detest or hate them.

This is human love, the natural love. In the church life it may be the same case if we love others with our natural love.

Sometimes, we may love someone and hang out with them often, but then we may fall out of love with them and no longer speak with them or contact them.

Human love is not trustworthy, stable, or consistent; only God as love is trustworthy, stable, and consistent.

This is why the Lord Jesus said that we need to love God and love one another, and when we do this, others will know that we are His disciples.

We believers in Christ have the love of God poured out in our hearts, and we can and should abide in God as love.

As we abide in God as love, as we enjoy God as love, we will also express God as love toward others.

As we exercise our spirit to develop the virtues in the divine nature as seen in 2 Pet. 1:5-7, the divine seed in us will develop.

As we enjoy the divine nature and exercise our spirit to develop it, the divine seed of the allotted faith develops to its consummation in the divine and nobler love.

The issue or result of our developing the virtues in the divine life and nature should be that we love God and we love one another with God as love.

This is the divine and noble love.

We all are in this process of developing the divine life and nature so that we may love others with God as love.

As we partake of the divine life and nature to the uttermost, we will be filled with God as love and we will become persons of love, even love itself (Eph. 3:19). Amen!

May we daily come to the Lord and exercise our heart of love toward Him.

May we partake of the divine nature by means of His promises through the exercise of our spirit, and may we cooperate with the Lord to develop the virtues in the divine nature.

As we do this, as we grow in life unto maturity, we will simply love God and love man.

We will be filled with God as love.

Others may persecute us or revile us, but we will simply love them, for God as love is in us, and we love them with God as our love.

Even more, we become love itself. We not only love others; we become love, for God as love lives in us.

We need to grow in life unto maturity until this is our reality.

The Lord Jesus did not just love us; He was love itself, even love flowing out from God to us.

He loved us so much that, when He was on the cross, He did not threaten us nor did He answer back but simply prayed, Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34).

Later in the book of Acts we see Stephen who, while being stoned to death, did not revile those killing him but became a duplication of the Lord Jesus while beholding Him as the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, and he said, Lord, do not hold this sin against them (Acts 7:60).

We may not be stoned to death by others or crucified before all to see, but we may be put down, reviled, unappreciated, and misunderstood; in all these situations, we can live out God as love and not revile back or threaten but simply love them.

We are in the process of becoming love itself; as we cooperate with the Lord to develop the divine life and nature, we are being filled with God as love, and we are becoming love itself.

We want to be filled with God as love, and we want to love others with God as love, even to become love itself.

As we partake of the divine nature, we become the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead.

We are becoming the same as Christ in love, for He fills us with love, and we love others with God as love.

Lord Jesus, may our brotherly love develop further into a nobler and higher love. We want to cooperate with You to develop the divine life and nature by the exercise of our spirit so that we may be filled with God as love. Amen, Lord, may the divine seed of the allotted faith develop to its consummation in the divine and nobler love, the love which is God Himself! We open to You, Lord Jesus. We open to be filled with God as love. Fill us with Your love. Saturate us with God as love. We want to partake of the divine nature to the uttermost so that we may be filled with God as love, even to become persons of love! Oh Lord, we exercise our spirit to be filled with God as love and to become love itself! Make us the same as You are in Your love! May Your love be perfected in us. May Your love grow and develop in us until we love all men with God as love! Amen, Lord, keep us partaking of the divine nature day by day until we become persons of love, even love itself!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Peter, msg. 7, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living a Christian Life and Church Life under the Government of God for the Economy of God (2024 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 6, Partakers of the Divine Nature and the Development of the Divine Life and the Divine Nature for a Rich Entrance into the Eternal Kingdom.
• Similar articles on this topic:
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  – The result of love, a portion from, New Believers Series: Loving the Brothers #22, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee.
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• Hymns on this topic:
  – Abide in Thee! in that deep love of Thine, / My Jesus, Lord, Thou Lamb of God divine, / Down, closely down, as living branch with tree, / I would abide, my Lord, my Christ, in Thee. / Abide in Thee! my Savior God, I know / How love of Thine so vast in me may flow, / My empty vessel, running o’er with joy, / Must overflow to Thee without alloy. (Hymns #563 stanzas 1-2)
  – Oh, this perfect way of gladness, / Brotherly love! / No more fear, imparting sadness, / Brotherly love! / Now is our sure affirmation, / Life and Spirit our foundation, / Building up, the consummation— / Brotherly love. / Seed of life within us growing, / Brotherly love. / Philadelphia now is flowing, / Brotherly love. / To this love God has restored us; / Everything will fall before us; / Love is over all victorious, / Brotherly love! (Hymns #1277 stanzas 4-5)
  – How sweet, how heav’nly is the sight, / When those who love the Lord / In one another’s peace delight, / And so fulfill His Word: / When each can feel his brother’s sigh, / And with him bear a part; / When sorrow flows from eye to eye, / And joy from heart to heart. (Hymns #857 stanzas 1-2)