When we understand the intrinsic significance of the church as the kingdom of the Son of God’s love we will realise that we can live the kingdom life in the church life today in a realm of love, light, and life. Hallelujah!
When Paul wrote to the church in Colossae, he realised that this church was under the invasion of philosophies, cultures, and even religions, which were trying to mix up the church; so he wrote to them to inoculate them by telling them that they were transferred out of the authority of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
Hallelujah, even though there are all kinds of things like asceticism, philosophy, religions, and cultures that try to invade the church life, we believers in Christ are in a different realm – we’re not in the realm of the mind but in the realm of God’s kingdom, which is a realm of love, light, and life.
Through our regeneration we have been cut off from the old source, our old way of living, and everything of the old man, and we have been connected, plugged in, grafted, and joined to the Lord Jesus, who Himself is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
And in this Christ we all have been allotted a portion to enjoy as our inheritance; just as the children of Israel were allotted a portion of the good land, so we believers in Christ have been allotted a portion of Christ to inherit, enjoy, labor on, and partake of in spirit.
Christ is universally spacious; He is all-inclusive and all-extensive, and He has been allotted to us as His believers for our enjoyment and partaking.
The genuine church today is the kingdom of God on the earth, and when we live the church life we need to live the kingdom life, realising that we are in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
We are now in a different realm; whenever we come together, we need to realise that we are in the realm of the Son of God’s love, the Beloved One, and just as the Father loves His Beloved Son, so He loves the church with all the saints.
The church life today is the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love, which is as delightful to the Father as Christ the Son is to Him.
The Father expressed His love for His Son twice – both at the time of His baptism and when He was transfigured on the mount; now this One, the Beloved of the Father, has become a realm, the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, and we all live in this realm and have our being in this realm as we live the proper church life.
Seeing the Intrinsic Significance of the Church as the Kingdom of the Son of God’s Love today
We need to understand the intrinsic significance of the church as the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, as mentioned in Col. 1:13.
The Son of God – Christ – is the embodiment and expression of the divine life; hence, the kingdom of the Son is a realm of life. He who has the Son, has the life (1 John 5:11-12), and in Him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4).
All those who have received the Lord Jesus as the embodiment of God have received the divine life and have entered into the realm of the divine life, the kingdom of God. The divine life is not a thing but a person, a realm, a totality; life is in Christ, Christ is life, and when we have Christ, we have life and we are in the realm of the divine life, the kingdom of God.
God the Father has transferred us out of the authority of darkness into Christ, the realm of the divine life. The kingdom into which we have been transferred is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love; this realm of life is in love and not in fear.
Usually the word kingdom is associated with respect, fear, responsibility, and regulations; but the kingdom of the Son of God’s love is a realm of life in love, not in fear. Yes, the kingdom of God has strict requirements and rules, and the standard of the kingdom is the highest standard; however, this kingdom is the realm of life in love.
There’s no fear here; this kingdom is a lovely place, a pleasant place, a happy place. If we know the church as the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, the church life will become a lovely place to us, even a paradise, a place of delight.
The kingdom in which we are right now is a realm full of love, light, and life. The Son – who is the embodiment of the divine life – is the object of the Father’s love; now we, who have God’s life, are also the object of God’s love.
The object of the divine love becomes to us the embodiment of life in the divine love with the authority in resurrection. Hallelujah! Hallelujah, the kingdom in which we find ourselves today is a realm full of life, light, and love (1 Pet. 2:9).
We as believers, as recipients of the gospel of the kingdom, have been transferred into this realm – into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. How we praise and thank the Lord for bringing us into this wonderful, pleasant, and sweet realm, the realm of love, light, and life!
Here Christ is God’s beloved and He is also our beloved, and in Him we become beloved in God’s eyes. Here in the church life we enjoy God’s love in Christ, we receive and grow in the divine life in the Son, and we are under the shining of God in Christ and we ourselves become light in the Lord.
Thank You Father for bringing us into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love as a realm of love, light, and life. Hallelujah, the church life today is a realm full of God’s love, light, and life, and here we have no fear but we are delighted to be in such a lovely and pleasant place! Lord Jesus, we love You! Thank You for being everything to us. In You we enjoy the Father’s love and become the object of His love. In You we enjoy God’s life and this life grows in us unto maturity. In You we have God’s shining and we ourselves become light in the Lord. Hallelujah!
Living in the Church Life as the Kingdom of the Son of God’s Love, a realm of Love, Light, and Life
What does it mean practically that we live the church life as the kingdom of God’s love, a realm of love, light, and life? If we look at our experience, we have come to realise that the Lord Jesus is so loving and lovable, so we began to love Him; as we love the Lord Jesus, we become conscious of a sweet sense of love.
We realise that the Lord Jesus loves us, and our love for Him is stirred up, for we are the object of His love.
As we love the Lord and enjoy Him, something happens within us: we spontaneously come under a certain kind of control or ruling. This is not something outward but inward; we inwardly love the Lord, and our love for Him causes us to be limited in certain things.
Before we began to love the Lord we could do whatever we wanted to do, live however we wanted to live, and speak whatever we wanted to speak; but the more we love the Lord, the more we are not free to do what we want.
Rather, the more we tell the Lord, Lord Jesus, I love You – You are the most wonderful, pleasant, and lovable One! the less freedom we have!
There’s an inward restriction, an inward limitation as we love the Lord; something within us doesn’t allow us to say certain things, respond in a certain way, go to certain places, and even hang out with certain people.
As we love the Lord, we cannot mistreat people or engage in worldly entertainments because of this sense of inward restriction. As those who love the Lord Jesus and pursue to know Him and gain Him, we have a sense of inward restriction, and we live under His rule.
This rule, however, is not harsh, and does not inflict fear on us; rather, we do or do not do certain things because we love the Lord, and we say or do not say certain things because we want to please Him.
We are ruled and restricted to the uttermost in the sweetness of love. This is what it means to live in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love as a realm of of love, light, and life.
And the more we accept this limitation, the more we are willing to be restricted and ruled by the Lord Jesus out of our love for Him, the more we shall grow in life, and we shall enjoy the abundance of life.
As we live the church life as the kingdom of God’s love, we enjoy Christ as life, and we are freed from anything that is not Christ. Hallelujah!
We realise that there are many things that try to replace Him, such as ordinances, ethics, asceticism, philosophies, and all kinds of other things; we realise that not only evil things but even such “positive” or “refined” things want to replace Christ in us.
When we hold to our philosophy, ethics, asceticism, and ordinances, we are still under the authority of darkness; but when we enjoy the Lord as the Son of God’s love, we receive more light and life, and we drop all other things apart from Christ.
In the church life we need to live in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love by living by Christ, taking Him as our life and our person.
However, we all have to admit that, even though we love the Lord and desire to enjoy Him, many times we are still under some form of control established by the self, a control set up and carried out by the self.
Such a control is the authority of darkness, and when we live in this way, we cannot receive light as we read the Bible, and we do not have a desire to pray. Oh Lord Jesus!
Although the Father has delivered us out of the authority of darkness, out of our natural thought, emotion, preference, and behavior, we may still remain in some aspect of our natural being.
May we cooperate with the Lord to be fully delivered from any darkness and be brought completely in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, which is a realm of love, light, and life!
Dear Lord Jesus, we love You! We pursue after You to gain You, know You, and enjoy You as the most lovable and wonderful One. Oh Lord, because of our love for You we allow You to limit us, restrict us, and rule in us, so that we may live in the church life as the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, a realm full of love, light, and life. Thank You Lord for bringing us into such a lovely place, the church life. Fully deliver us from any darkness, Lord, and release us from any control of the self, philosophy, ethics, asceticism, or ordinances. We just want to enjoy You, pursue after You, and be filled with You, and we want to live by You in the church life!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Biserica este împărăția Fiului dragostei lui Dumnezeu, un domeniu al dragostei, luminii și vieții.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msg. 5 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 3, The Kingdom and the Church.
- Hymns on this topic:
# What a Christ we have, the all-inclusive One, / Our allotted portion, set apart in light. / In the kingdom of the Son of God, the Son of God’s love, / Here He rules us in the light of His love. (Song on, What a Christ We Have)
# I’m so happy in this lovely place, / In the garden growing in His grace! / There is no finer pleasure / Than to eat the living tree / And to get the living water into me. (Hymns #1237)
# He fills me with His life within. / His life becomes my life in reality; / Oh, hallelujah, He’s in me! / I just love You, Lord, / With other loves, You break the cord. / You’ll be my life for all eternity; / You are the only One for me. (Hymns #1333)
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