Learning to Shepherd others in Love one with Christ to Build up the Body of Christ

Before He ascended, the Lord commissioned Peter to shepherd and feed His sheep and lambs; He wanted to incorporate the apostolic ministry with His heavenly ministry of shepherding to take care of God’s flock, the church, in love.

We need to be perfected in our love for the Lord and in our love for others; on one hand, we need to love the Lord, and on the other hand, we need to love one another.

Such love is not merely our human love or an improved virtue of love; it is the Lord as love filling our human virtue of love to love God and to love one another.

We need to allow the Lord to perfect us in our love for the Lord and for one another.

He needs to perfect us to the extent that we become God in His attribute of love; we not only love the Lord and the brothers but we become love itself, loving all men.

How can we love all men? By nature, we love only those whom we like or match our preference, but we may not really like or love those who are different from us, those who don’t like us, and those who persecute us or do evil to us.

Love is not what the world says, something that is romantic, with grand gestures and in a cheap way.

Actually, the world has cheapened love and diluted it to the extent that people think love is something that love really isn’t.

Love is God Himself. We can love because He loved us first. We love others because we enjoy and experience Christ as our love.

Only when we are filled with God as love can we love God and love others.

We really need to open to the Lord and allow Him to work Himself into us to the extent that His attribute of love fills our virtue of love and we express God as love through us.

This is especially true when it comes to our practice of the church life; in the church life we need to love not only those who seem to be good but all brothers and sisters, and we need to love them with the same love.

Even more, we need to love those who are not in the church life and are children of the Lord, and we need to love even those who are in sin and not believing in Christ.

We need to become the same as Christ in His love by allowing Him to live in us and express Himself as love from within us.

Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and do anything in the church life.

What matters in the church life is not merely that we take the right way or the best way, but that we take the most excellent way, the way of love.

The best way for us to build up the church is not merely to speak by exercising our spirit, but to exercise our spirit of love as we speak the word of God.

Without love, our speaking is like a clanging cymbal, making a lot of noise but without any purpose.

May we be those who enjoy and experience Christ day by day, and may we allow Him to express Himself as love in us, through us, and out of us, so that we may build up the Body in love.

The Lord Jesus is Shepherding us in Love in His Heavenly Ministry Today

In John 10:10-11 the Lord Jesus unveiled to us that He was the good Shepherd who came that the sheep might have life abundantly, and He laid down His life for the sheep.

He also revealed that He had other sheep besides the Jewish believers – He has the Gentile believers – which He must lead to join with the Jewish believers to be one flock (one church) under one Shepherd (Christ).

Christ came not only to save us from eternal perdition or to redeem us from sin; He came to shepherd us.

He firstly shepherded us in His earthly ministry through His first coming, and now in His heavenly ministry, He is still shepherding us.

When He came on earth two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesus saw the Israelites as sheep harassed by their leaders; they were like sheep who were cast away, who were stricken, not having any shepherd (Matt. 9:36).

So the Lord as the Shepherd of God’s elect prayed, and God told Him to appoint the twelve apostles so that they may take care of the sheep of God; therefore, He appointed the disciples to go and shepherd them (10:1-6).

He shepherded those around Him by taking all-inclusive, tender care of them, and as a result, He had twelve disciples and eventually one hundred and twenty that were His continuation on earth.

Then, after the Lord was resurrected, He continued to shepherd His sheep.

He came on the seashore to meet Peter and shepherd him (John 21), and He commissioned him to shepherd His sheep.

Today Christ is no longer with us physically on earth; He is carrying out His heavenly ministry in ascension by shepherding His sheep (1 Pet. 5:4).

He is shepherding in His heavenly ministry to take care of the church of God, issuing in His Body.

He shepherded His people when He was on earth, and after His resurrection and ascension, He is still shepherding His sheep.

He is shepherding us, His sheep, in love; He is taking all-inclusive, tender care of us.

Many times we have to admit that, though we may go astray or forget about the Lord, He is still coming to us and shepherding us in love.

On one hand, He cherishes us by making us happy, giving us the feeling of being comfortable and open, and on the other hand, He nourishes us with what He is to cause us to live because of Him and express Him.

He came as the Good Shepherd and laid down His life for us, His sheep.

Today in His ascension He is the Chief Shepherd, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and He is still shepherding us to impart what He is into us.

As we go through the situations of our daily life, the Lord as the Shepherd is right there with us, caring for us in love and bringing us together with the saints, His flock, so that we may enjoy His riches and be His one flock.

How we love our wonderful Shepherd!

He is not here to correct us or adjust us; He is with us where we are, overseeing us, caring for the real situation and condition of our soul, and feeding us with the riches of His being to cause us to grow and be built up together.

Even more, He commissions us to do the same: He imparts His shepherding life into us to make us shepherding ones, those who shepherd others in love.

Lord Jesus, we open to You as our wonderful Shepherd! Thank You for Your care in love. Thank You for shepherding us into the church life. Amen, Lord, thank You for not giving up on us but always cherishing and nourishing us. Keep our being open to Your inner care in love. Save us from running astray from You or rejecting Your shepherding. Oh Lord, we want to learn from You, the good Shepherd, how to care for Your sheep in love. Make us those who shepherd others according to God by cherishing and nourishing them. Amen, Lord Jesus, we open to Your wonderful shepherding and we want to cooperate with You to shepherd others in love!

Learning to Shepherd others in Love to Take care of God’s Flock one with Christ as the Chief Shepherd

John 21 can be considered as an appendix to the gospel of John; however, a more intrinsic way of saying this is that John 21 is the completion and consummation of the Gospel of John.

In this chapter, we see Christ’s heavenly ministry and the apostles’ ministry on the earth cooperating together to carry out God’s New Testament economy.

After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus shepherded Peter and commissioned him to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep (John 21:15-17).

This is to incorporate the apostolic ministry with Christ’s heavenly ministry to take care of God’s flock, the church, which issues in the Body of Christ.

Peter failed the Lord both by denying Him before men and also by taking the lead to go fishing, a custom he used to have before the Lord called him.

However, the Lord didn’t condemn him when He met him on the shore; rather, He shepherded Peter and commissioned him to shepherd His sheep.

Peter was so impressed with this commission of the Lord that in 1 Pet. 2:25 he tells the believers that they were like sheep being led away, but they have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of their souls, which is Christ.

Amen, we were like sheep being led astray, but Christ came as the Shepherd, and He shepherded us into His flock.

In 1 Pet. 5:1-4 Peter further exhorts the elders to shepherd the flock of God among them so that, when the Chief Shepherd is manifested, they will receive the unfading crown of glory.

This shows that today Christ in His heavenly ministry does mainly one thing: He is shepherding the church of God as His flock, and we can cooperate with Him to shepherd others in love according to God.

While Christ is absent from us in His heavenly ministry, He is shepherding the sheep and He is commissioning those who love Him to shepherd His sheep in love and feed them.

Paul also charged the elders to take heed to themselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed them as overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood (Acts 20:28).

God brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of an eternal covenant (Heb. 13:20).

This eternal covenant is the covenant of the new testament to gain a flock, which is the church issuing in the Body of Christ and consummating the New Jerusalem.

Christ in His heavenly ministry is shepherding us by caring for the welfare of our inner being and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our soul, our real person.

If the elders are faithful to shepherd the flock of God among them, they will receive the unfading crown of glory when the Chief Shepherd will be manifested (1 Pet. 5:1-4).

It is not only the elders that need to shepherd others in love, according to God, but we all need to learn to shepherd the saints in love, cooperating with Christ’s heavenly ministry.

Here we have two ministries which become one: one is in heaven (Christ’s heavenly ministry) and one is on the earth (the apostolic ministry).

Christ’s ministry in the heavens is that of shepherding, and the apostles and we all have the ministry of shepherding in cooperation with Christ’s ministry.

We all need to learn to shepherd others in love by shepherding them according to God.

These two ministries are not going on in parallel – they are one, in cooperation. Christ shepherds His people through His members shepherding one another in love.

This is how we on earth today can carry out the Lord’s heavenly ministry for the building up of the church.

We can all learn from the Lord Jesus and be perfected by Him to shepherd others in love so that He may have a way to shepherd all His sheep for the building up of the church as His Body consummating the New Jerusalem.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn from You as the Great Shepherd to shepherd others in love! We open to Your shepherding and we want to cooperate with Your heavenly ministry of shepherding. Thank You for bringing us into the flock of God; we have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. We love You, Lord, and we give ourselves to You to fulfil our commission of shepherding others according to God. We do not look at our failures; we love You and we want to shepherd others in love. May we be those who are faithful to cherish and nourish Your sheep for their shepherding in love. Amen, Lord, we are one with You in Your heavenly ministry to shepherd others in love so that You may gain Your flock, the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” msg. 13, 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 1, entitled, Loving the Lord and loving one another – the most excellent way for us to be anything and do anything for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Jesus, our wonderful Shepherd / Brought us right out of the fold / Into His pasture so plenteous, / Into His riches untold. / Glorious church life, / Feasting from such a rich store! / Here where we’re dwelling in oneness / God commands life evermore. (Hymns #1221 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – After breakfast on the seashore, / Jesus set about to restore / Peter’s love, that he would henceforth / Not trust himself, / He committed some big failures, / Three times denying the Savior, / Then leading others to waver, / Yet Jesus said… / Do you love me? Feed my lambs, / Do you love me? Shepherd my sheep, / Do you love me? / Then give My sheep something to eat. (Song on, Do You Love Me?)
  – Simon, son of John, / Do you love me? / He said to Him, Yes Lord, / You know that I love You. / I love You, I love You, / You know that I love You. / He said to him, shepherd My sheep. (Scripture Song)