Bear one another in Love, Hold to Truth in Love, and Walk in Love – God as our Love

Ephesians 4 reveals that we need to bear one another in love, hold to truth in love, and walk in love; this is to love the Lord in incorruptibility.

The love with which we love the Lord and we love one another is not our natural love, our human love, but it is God as love being infused into us to be the love we love others with.

As believers in Christ, we have been shown mercy by God and He infused us with His love.

He appeared to us, He revealed to us His love, and we simply responded to Him in love. His divine love inspired us to love Him back.

God is not after some who do their best to love God and obey His word; He simply appears to us, infuses us with Himself as love, and we love Him back with this love that has been infused into us.

This love, the divine love, is needed for us to be maintained in the condition of peace and to enjoy more grace, so that God’s economy in the church may be accomplished.

This love needs to be supported and matched by our faith, for if our faith is shaken, we are subjected to Satan’s doubts and questionings.

Praise the Lord, God first loved us, and this divine love inspires us to love Him in return!

He loved us, He drew us to Himself with cords of a man, with bands of love, and He infused Himself as love into us! We love because He first loved us.

We love Him not with our love, for our love is dying; we love Him with God as our love.

Even more, we are rooted and grounded in love, and we can know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ.

We are rooted in Christ in love for our growth in life, and we are grounded in Christ in love for our building up in love.

Christ is the soil into whom we are rooted; we are in Him, rooted in Him, and we are on Him, grounded in Him, and all this is in love.

We need to be rooted in Him and grow into the soil; we need to be grounded in Him and be built up in love.

The church as the building of God is not a matter of law or legality; it is not an organisation but a Body, the organic Body of Christ, and we are rooted and grounded in Him in love. Hallelujah!

May we allow Christ to go deeper in us and confirm us and firmly establish us in His love.

We need to Bear one another in Love for the Oneness of the Body

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

In chapter 4 of Ephesians the expression “in love” is used three times, and this is the first time it is used. Bearing one another in love is for the oneness of the Body of Christ (vv. 3-4).

How can we bear one another in love? In ourselves, in our natural humanity, we don’t have the ability to bear one another, especially since some people are troublesome.

To bear one another in love doesn’t mean that we tolerate them but that we bear them.

If we love only some that we prefer, if we only care for some saints that we like, this doesn’t mean that we bear one another in love but rather, that we live according to our preference.

When we come into the church life, we love all the saints, and there’s a period of honeymoon with the Lord and with the saints.

But at one point we may be offended or we may not like what others said to us or the way they treated us.

In the church life, we offend one another unintentionally by what we say; we may say something that to us it may not seem offensive, but others may be offended.

We need to learn to not pay attention to negative speaking; when we hear it, we need to turn to the Lord and forget about it, and we should not let it come in or worse, we should not speak it to others.

If we want to remain in the church life, we need to be prepared to be criticized and bothered by others.

Even the apostle Paul was criticized by the saints that he cared for (2 Cor. 12:16).

The more we are in the church life, the more we may experience being criticized or offended.

What shall we do, saints? We need to be in love, in the divine love. It is only when we bear one another in love that we keep the oneness of the Body, and the Body builds itself up in love.

May we be those who come to the Lord with all things, bring Him all the things that we go through and the things we hear, and may we learn to bear one another in love.

If we are in our own love, this love will run out and will be preferential.

But if we’re in the divine love, if we love the Lord and love others with God as love, we will not care for any negative speaking or criticism; we will simply bear others in love.

We will let go of any negative word or feeling, and we will not pay attention to any criticism or offending word.

How much we need the Lord in this matter! How much we need to learn to love one another and love the Lord in His love and by His love!

And how much we need to not be offended by others but rather, bear one another in love, in the divine love!

For this, we need to be with all lowliness and meekness, even with long-suffering; lowliness needs to be in us, and long-suffering needs to be our attitude.

As we go on with the Lord in the church life, the more His attitude of being lowly and meek needs to become our attitude.

We need to let the Lord infuse Himself into us as the lowly, meek, and long-suffering One. Only when He lives in us in such a way can we bear one another in love.

Lord Jesus, thank You for bringing us into the church life to enjoy You with the saints and to be built up together as the Body of Christ. We want to live the church life with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You and we allow You to work Yourself into us. Live in us as the One who is lowly and meek in heart. You are the long-suffering One, and You are willing to bear others in love. Oh Lord, in our church life, may we be those who learn to bear one another in love with an attitude of lowliness and meekness, even being long-suffering! May we love others with God as love and bear them with God as our strength in love!

Hold to Truth in Love for the Building up of the Body in Love

Eph. 4:15 tells us that we need to hold to truth in love so that we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ. We love the truth, but we need to hold to truth in love.

How do we love the truth? We may hold to truth in a legalistic manner or in the way of a doctrine, but the Lord wants us to hold to truth in love.

May we not hold to truth in our legality or with our doctrinal, analytical, logical mind, but in love.

Some brothers may be quite doctrinal and knowledgeable of the truth, but they may hold to truth in their legality.

Some may even use the truth to condemn others and judge them.

The truth is not for that; we need to hold to truth in love and we will grow up into Christ in all things.

Someone may read the whole Bible and memorize much of it, and he may also read all the life-studies and the spiritual books, but he may still have a problem with the saints he lives with.

The truth such a one holds to is the truth, but he does not hold to truth in love.

We may be quite diligent in reading the Bible, the footnotes in the Recovery version, and the life-studies, but merely holding to truth is not sufficient; we need to hold to truth in love.

When we hold to truth in love, we will grow up into Him in all things, and the Body will build itself up in love.

The Body of Christ is not built by organization or arrangement; the Body is not organized by someone very skilled and capable.

Rather, the Body of Christ builds itself up in love; the Body of Christ is an organism that builds itself up in love.

This is the love of God in Christ which becomes the love of Christ in us; by this love, we love Christ and the fellow members of the Body (1 John 4:7-8, 10-12, 16, 19).

God Himself as love is being infused into us to become the very love by which we love God and we love the brothers.

God as love in Christ is being dispensed into us, deposited into our being, to become our love; as a result, we have love for the Lord and for the brothers.

Love is the inner substance of God, and the goal of the book of Ephesians is to bring us into the inner substance of God so that we may enjoy God as love and enjoy His presence in the sweetness of the divine love.

The result of this is that we love others even as Christ did (Eph. 5:2, 25).

God is love; the essence of His being is love. His inner substance is love, and when we enjoy Him, we enjoy His presence in the sweetness of the divine love.

This will cause us to love God and to love others, holding to truth in love so that we may grow up into Him in all things for the building up of the church.

For us to be built up as the Body of Christ is for us to be brought into the reality of God’s building, which is the Triune God Himself, whose inner substance is love.

If we are in God, if we are in the inner substance of God, if we are in love and even become love itself, we are in the divine building.

But if we remain in our individual self, still bickering and fighting with one another, this is not love and there is no building.

May we be those who hold to truth in love so that we may grow up in all things into Christ, the Head, so that the Body of Christ may be built up in love.

Lord Jesus, we want to hold to truth in love so that we may grow up into Christ in all things and be built up in the Body in love! Amen, Lord, we love You and we love Your word! We want to hold to Christ as the Head and hold to truth in love so that Christ may grow in us and we may build up the Body! Bring us into the very substance of what You are; bring us into Yourself as love. Infuse us with Yourself, Lord, and bring us into God’s inner substance so that we may enjoy God as love and enjoy His presence in the sweetness of the divine love! Amen, Lord, only by being brought into Your very being as love can we love the Lord and love others as Christ did! Make us the same as You are as we hold to truth in love!

We need to Walk in Love – the Divine Love which becomes the Love with which we Love Others

Eph. 5:2 says, 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 savour.

If Paul would have stopped at, walk in love, we may have thought that we need to do our best to love others and walk in our natural love.

But the love we need to walk in is not our natural love but the love of God in Christ which becomes our love. It is in and by this love that we should walk and have our being.

We need to live, act and have our whole being in the divine love, and we need to love others with God as love.

When God is expressed and revealed in the Lord Jesus, His love becomes grace and His light becomes truth.

We have received God as grace and realized Him as truth, and now we come to Him and enjoy Him as love and light.

We need to walk in love; love is the inner substance of God.

Our walk should be both in love toward God and others, and in light by making God visible in our living.

Our walk in love needs to be constituted with both the loving substance of God and His shining element.

The way that Christ walked in love is by giving Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

We may love our spouse in the beginning and do our best to be a sacrifice so that they would enjoy our time together and love us more, but our natural love will eventually end and be spoiled.

We need to God as love in Christ to be dispensed into us and become our love with which we love the Lord and we love others.

We need the love of God in Christ to become our love in which we must walk. In love.

We need to bear one another in love, hold to truth in love, and walk in love.

The divine love becoming our love is incorruptible. Such love is needed for us to bear one another in the church life, to hold to truth, and for our walk.

May the Lord save us from walking merely in our natural, human love in the church life, and may we walk in love even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us!

Lord Jesus, we want to walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us! We come to You, dear Lord, and we enjoy You as love and light and everything. Infuse us with Yourself as love and become in us the love by which we love the Lord and we love one another. Oh Lord, in ourselves we have no love, and our love is spoiled and corrupted. May we be those who love the Lord in incorruptibility. May we be those who walk in love, even as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 554-556, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Loving the Lord and loving one another for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ (2022 fall ITERO), week 3, entitled, Loving the Lord Jesus in Incorruptibility.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – 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)
  – Truth we must be holding, which is Christ Himself, / That we be delivered from the sects of self, / That in all things growing into Christ the Head, / Built will be the Body and to fulness led. (Hymns #832 stanza 4)
  – I love my Lord, but with no love of mine, / For I have none to give; / I love Thee, Lord, but all the love is Thine, / For by Thy love I live. / I am as nothing, and rejoice to be / Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in Thee. (Hymns #546 stanza 1)