God Loved us, He Infused us with His Love, and now we Love God and the Brothers

In order for God and us, His people, to be one, there must be a mutual love between them; God loves us, He sent His Son to die for us, He poured out His love into our hearts, and we as the species of God can love with God as love, even love the brothers by laying down our soul-life for them for the building up of the church. Amen! How wonderful is our God!

Our God is not Someone far away in heaven demanding things from us, His creatures, so that we may be pleasing to Him. Our God is a loving God; He is love. He wants to make us one with Him, for He loves us and He wants us to be His counterpart.

Just as a woman is courted by a man to become his wife, and she falls in love with him, even giving herself to him for their married life together, so we are being courted by God in Christ as the Bridegroom.

The Lord Jesus came as God incarnated to be a man, and He did not command us to do this or that to please God; He simply loved us, He cared for us, He healed us, and He did many things to show us how much God loves us.

He gave us His commandments, which are His word of love, and He told us to love Him and love one another (John 14:21, 23; Jer. 2:2; 31:3).

As we read the Bible, especially as we read the Gospels, we see how precious, wonderful, and lovely the Lord Jesus is. Yes, He did many things and yes, He spoke many wonderful things, but His person, His very being, is so lovable and wonderful!

We are simply drawn to this wonderful One! Even in the Old Testament, the Lord loved His earthly people, Israel, and did many things for them, not because they were obedient to Him and served Him but simply because He loved them.

God simply loves; there’s no reason for His love – He just loves us. He loves all men. And He wants man to respond to Him in love.

In Jeremiah 2:2 the Lord said that the people of Israel followed Him in the wilderness with the love of their bridal days.

We may look at their wandering in the wilderness and see that they rebelled against God and disobeyed Him, but in the Lord’s eyes, they were like a bride who loved Him and followed Him in the wilderness.

Jeremiah 31:3 further tells us that Jehovah appears to us from afar and says to us, Indeed I have loved you with an eternal love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.

We, the people of God, are loved by God, and He draws us with lovingkindness. In this age of grace, we simply need to love the Lord and give ourselves to love Him and love one another, even love others with the love which He Himself is in us.

God first Loved us, He Infused us with His Love, and now we Love God and the Brothers

How can we love God? How can we love the brothers? We cannot deny that in our humanity, in our character, there’s the virtue of love, but it is a preferential love, a love only for those who love us; furthermore, our love fails so many times, for we love ourselves more than we love others.

But God loved us. God first loved us. God first loved us in that He infused us with His love and generated within us the love with which we love Him and the brothers (1 John 4:19-21).

We love because God loved us. As we spend time with God and love God, spending time to fellowship with Him in his word, God infuses us with His divine element and makes us one with Him as His spouse; He makes us the same as He is in life, nature, and expression (Psa. 119:140, 15-16).

We simply need to spend time with the Lord in His word and abide in Him every day, and He will infuse us with His love for us to love God and the brothers.

Our time with the Lord matters very much. We need to prioritise our time with the Lord and be careful so that nothing eats away our time with Him.

If we allow other things to eat away our time with the Lord, our desire and love for the Lord is also being eaten away.

We need to be on the alert, for the enemy uses many things to drain our love for the Lord.

May we spend much time with the Lord in the Word and allow Him to infuse us with His love, even tell the Lord, Draw me, Lord!

When we allow the Lord to love us and to infuse us with His love, we love Him in response; our love for the Lord and for the brothers is a result of our enjoying God’s love for us. When we enjoy His love, we will love Him and love the brothers.

We can’t love God unless He loves us. We have to receive His love; we have to enjoy the love of God for us before we love others.

God is love; we need to know the love God has in us (1 John 4:16). God has love in us; not that we loved Him first but that He loved us.

Not only so, Romans 5:5 tells us that the love of God has been poured out into our hearts. We should never believe Satan’s lie that we don’t love the Lord; rather, we need to spend time with the Lord and allow Him to pour Himself out as love into our heart.

We need to stand on the Word of God, believe God’s word, and confess our sins as the Lord shines on them.

If we confess, He is righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then, we exercise our spirit to contact Him and our heart to love Him.

We have a new heart and a new spirit, and the love of God has been poured out in our heart; we love the Lord!

The life we have received from God is a life of love; Christ lived in this world a life of God as love, and He’s now our life so that we may also live the same life of love in this world to be the same as He is (1 John 3:14; 5:1; 2:5-6; 4:17).

How can we live a romantic Christian life with the Lord? Only by enjoying Him as love. He has regenerated us with His life, and this life is a life of love; as we enjoy the Lord, we are filled with His love, and we love God and we love the brothers. He is the source of our love.

Our natural love fails; it has to be put on the cross. One difference between God’s love and our natural love is that it’s very easy for our natural love to be offended.

We may love someone because we like them, but then they say or do something and we’re offended, and we no longer love them; this is the natural love, easily offended. May we be persons who are flooded with and carried away by the love of Christ (2 Cor. 5:14)! Amen!

The divine love should be like a rushing tide of great waters toward us, impelling us to live to Him beyond our own control!

Like the apostle Paul, we have seen that Christ died for us, therefore, we all died, and now we live no longer to ourselves but to Him, for we are constrained by His love. His love constrains us.

His love presses us in from all sides, holds us and limits us, even confines us within the bounds of His love, constraining us to love the Lord and live to Him.

We all can testify that, when we saw the Lord’s love for the first time, we simply responded to Him in love and consecrated ourselves to Him.

We dedicated our life and our future to Him, for we were constrained by His love. Day by day we need to be flooded by the love of Christ to be constrained by this love to love the Lord and love the brothers, and we will live to the Lord.

The commandment regarding brotherly love is both old and new (see 1 John 2:7-8; 3:11, 23; cf. John 13:34). It is an old commandment, for we had it from the begining of our Christian life, and it is also a new commandment, for in our Christian walk it dawns with new light and shines with new enlightenment and fresh power again and again!

When we read and pray over the word of God, we simply respond to Him in love, for we sense the Lord’s love toward us, we are constrained by His love, we are filled with His love, and we cannot but respond to Him in love, loving the Lord and loving the brothers.

Yes, the Lord commands us to love Him and love the brothers, but as we pray-read the Word of God and especially this commandment, we receive new light, new enlightenment, and new power, even fresh power, for us to love the Lord and love one another! Amen!

Lord Jesus, thank You for loving us and giving Yourself up for us. Thank You for coming to us in love to display the love of God toward us. Oh Lord, even while we were yet sinners, You came and You died for us out of love for us. Thank You for coming as a man to love us and give Yourself up for us on the cross. We respond to You in love. We open to You; pour out more of Your love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit! Amen, Lord, Your love constrains us. Your love impels us. We are limited and emboldened by Your love. We come to You in Your word to spend time with You and just enjoy You. Infuse us more with Your love. Make us one with You as Your spouse; make us the same as You are in the aspect of love. Hallelujah, God first loved us in that He infused us with His love and generated within us the love with which we love Him and the brothers! Thank You, Lord, for dispensing Your love into us. Oh, the divine life we received from God is a life of love, and by this life we can love God and love the brothers! We love You, Lord Jesus! We are constrained by Your love to love You more. Flood us with Your love. Carry us away by Your love. Impel us by Your love to live to You beyond our own control!

Losing our Soul-Life to Love the Brothers and Minister Life to them for the Preparation of the Bride

May we be romantic Christians, Christians who love the Lord and live to the Lord by being constrained by His love!

We do not have to try to love God or love others; the life we received by regeneration is a life of love, and when we live by this life, we spontaneously love the Lord and love the brothers.

God gave His only begotten Son to us so that we may be saved from perdition judicially through His death and have His life organically in His resurrection; this was motivated by His love (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10).

God sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins and He sent His Son to us that we may have life and live through Him. The love of God is the source; this love is dispensed into us by means of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit with the grace of Christ (2 Cor. 13:14).

As we enjoy the Lord as love, as we enjoy His love being poured out in our heart, we will love the Lord and love others also. The Body of Christ builds itself up in love to become the bride of Christ (Eph. 4:16).

When we exercise our spirit, we realise it is a spirit of love, and by this burning spirit of love we conquer the degradation of today’s church (2 Tim. 1:7).

The Body builds itself up in love. But when we don’t love the Lord and we don’t love the brothers, degradation comes in, as seen in Revelation 2:1-7.

The loss of the first love is the factor for the beginning of the decline of the church. May we renew our love for the Lord every day. As we exercise our spirit, we also need to exercise our heart to love the Lord.

We may pass through things that are difficult, even things that are hard; may we keep our hearts soft and open toward the Lord so that we love Him.

God has not given us a spirit of cowardice but of love and of power and of sobermindedness. When we exercise our spirit to touch the Lord, we will be filled with His love; our spirit is first a spirit of love. May we fan into flame our spirit of love.

May the Lord save us from merely having a lot of knowledge, which puffs up (1 Cor. 8:1; 2 Cor. 3:6); may we love the Lord by turning our heart to Him to be filled with His love.

Knowledge puffs us but love builds up. In the church life we should not be puffed up by our vast knowledge of the word of God and the ministry but rather, love one another, for this is a sign that we belong to Christ (John 13:34-35).

We should not love to be first in the church but rather, love all the brothers (3 John 9). It is possible for us to know the truth and be constituted with the truth and not love others but rather, feel proud and be puffed up. Oh Lord!

May we be saved from being proud of what we know and what we have, and rather love the Lord and love the brothers.

Just as the Lord Jesus laid down His soul-life so that we might have the divine life, so we need to lose our soul-life and deny the self to love the brothers and minister life to them in the practice of the Body life for the preparation of the bride of Christ (1 John 3:16; 4:17 and footnote 5; John 10:11, 17-18; 15:13; Eph. 4:29—5:2; 2 Cor. 12:15; Rom. 12:9-13).

Christ lived in this world a life of love; now He is our life so that we may live the same life in this world and become the same as He is. He came as the Good Shepherd and laid down His life for the sheep; He laid down His life on our behalf, and we should also lay down our life on behalf of the brothers.

In particular, we need to speak words for building up, not allowing any corrupt word to proceed out of our mouths. May we not walk as the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of our mind; may we have the same thinking as Christ so that our living may be the same as Christ’s living.

Our thinking directs our living. May all bitterness and anger and wrath and clamour and evil speaking be removed from us, with all malice.

May all our speaking that has not gone through the cross be removed; may our soul-life be laid down so that Christ may live through us. May we not grieve the Holy Spirit by the things we speak but may we speak one with the Lord, even speak things for building up.

May we be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ also forgave us. May we be imitators of God as little children, and walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us.

Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything or do anything for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:31—13:8). May we take the way of love.

Even as the Lord loved us, may we also love one another, even allowing the Lord as love to be lived out in us and expressed through us in our daily living and in the church life.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit of love to love You and to love the brothers. Thank you for giving us a spirit of love. Hallelujah, our regenerated spirit is of love, of power, and of sobermindedness! Amen, Lord, we want to have a burning spirit of love to conquer the degradation of today’s church. Save us from being puffed up by the knowledge we have; may we take the way of love, loving You and loving the saints. Oh Lord, we love You! We open to You in love. We exercise our heart of love to love You and to love the brothers. Thank You for laying down Your soul-life for us so that we may have Your divine life. We want to be one with You today to lose our soul-life and deny the self to love the brothers. Amen, Lord, may we love the brothers with You as our love. We want to take the most excellent way today, the way of love. We exercise our spirit to remove all bitterness and anger and wrath and clamour and evil speakings from among us. We let all our speaking and all our feelings pass through the cross so that we may not grieve the Holy Spirit but rather, live a life of loving the Lord and loving the brothers! Amen, Lord, we love You! We exercise our spirit to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ also forgave us! Make us imitators of God, those who walk in love even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us!

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 the brother Ricky Acosta in this conference, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Preparation of the Bride (2025 Memorial Day Blending Conference), week 2, The Building of the Bride – day 3.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Thy mighty love, O God, constraineth me, / As some strong tide it presseth on its way, / Seeking a channel in my self-bound soul, / Yearning to sweep all barriers away. / Shall I not yield to that constraining power? / Shall I not say, O tide of love, flow in? / My God, Thy gentleness hath conquered me, / Life cannot be as it hath hither been. (Hymns #431 stanzas 1-2)
  – Now in all the churches flowing, / Brotherly love. / Light and life and love bestowing, / Brotherly love. / In the oneness all believing, / Fellowship with all receiving, / Nevermore the Spirit grieving, / Brotherly love. / To maintain the sweet communion, / Brotherly love; / Fellowship and healing union, / Brotherly love. / Love believing for the brothers, / Hoping all things for the others, / Suffering all with one another, / Brotherly love. (Hymns #1277 stanzas 1-2)
  – The love for all the brothers, in our midst is found, / But in these days our love must increase and abound. / The Lord direct our hearts into the love of God / And prepare us in full for the day of the Lord. (Hymns #1305 stanza 2)