Today the Lord is recovering the matter of loving the Lord Jesus with the first love, the best love, and of loving one another for the building up of the church; we need to be one with the church-loving Christ and love the Lord to the uttermost by being constrained by His love.
The matter of love is very much spoken of and even sung of today in the world and even in Christian circles, but love is much more than what the world describes it to be.
Love is deep, high, and divine; God is love. Love is not a feeling that we have when we “fall in love”; love is God Himself, the very essence of His being.
To know love, we must know God, and to have love, we must have God.
We need to open our being to the Lord again and again and ask Him to pour out more of HImself as love into us.
We need to pursue love and be perfected in His love. May we be those who love the Lord and love one another for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
On one hand, we love the Lord; on the other hand, we love one another.
The most excellent for us to be anything and do anything for the building up of the church is love, and this love is God as love.
The day will come when in all the churches on earth the divine love, the most excellent love which is nothing but God as love, will dominate our church life.
Love is the most excellent way for us to do and be anything.
May we have an open mind toward the Lord in His word and come to Him to be infused with Him and even saturated with Him as love.
On one hand, our faith needs to grow; on the other hand, our love for one another must increase.
On one hand, the Lord appears to us and infuses us with Himself to be our faith.
On the other hand, we need to receive the outpouring of His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit so that we may love the Lord and love the brothers.
May we be those who love God by setting our entire being on Him; our spirit, soul, and body need to be exercised to be focused on the Lord, and we will just love Him.
And may we be saved from loving the present age, loving the self, loving the pleasures, and loving money.
May our being be focused on the Lord so that we may love Him, and may we be perfected in our love toward one another in the church life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
Loving the Lord with the Best Love and Loving one another for the Building up of the Body
The Lord’s recovery is a recovery of loving the Lord Jesus with the first love, the best love, and of loving one another for the building up of the Body of Christ (Ep. 4:15-16; Rev. 2:4-5).
For the building up of the organic Body of Christ, which is the building up of the New Jerusalem as the goal of God’s eternal economy, we need to love the Lord with the best love and love one another.
The Christ whom we love is the church-loving Christ (Eph. 5:25); when we love the Lord Jesus Christ, we will love the church even as He does.
The Lord whom we love is actually the church-loving Christ. Christ loves the church and gave Himself up for her.
There is no such thing that we love the Lord but we don’t love the church, for the Lord whom we love is a church-loving Christ.
We love Him, so we love what He loves; He loves the church to the extent that He gave Himself up for her, so we love the church even as He does.
Sometimes we may look at the saints, especially as we live in the church life, and we may think that they are not that lovable.
Some saints may seem quite “naughty” according to our view, while others are not so lovable, to say the least.
But the Lord loves all the saints, no matter how we think about them. When we contact the Lord and love Him with the best love, we will love all the saints.
The degradation of the church begins with our leaving of the first love toward the Lord. To love the Lord with the first love, the best love, is to give Him preeminence in all things.
We may have loved the Lord so much when we were younger and attended young people retreats and conferences, or when we were students and were in the students’ conferences and trainings.
But what about now, today? Do we still love Him with the best love?
We need to give ourselves to love the Lord with the best love by giving Him preeminence in all things.
Even in such small things as the clothes we wear, the things we do in our daily life, and in the small decisions concerning what to eat and where to go, we need to check with the Lord again and again.
Because we love our spouses, we check with them about everything, even checking with them how they feel, if they had a good sleep, if they like the food, etc.
Because we love the Lord, we check with Him about everything. We check with Him concerning all things, whether big or small.
We need the recovery of loving the Lord with the best love and loving the saints as the Lord loves them.
The very life that we received when we believed in the Lord Jesus is a person, and the only way to apply and enjoy this person is by loving Him with the first love (John 11:25; 14:5-6; 1 Tim. 1:14; John 14:21, 23; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rev. 2:4-7; Col. 1:18b; Rom. 6:4; 7:6).
![But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and [through] the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. Eph. 4:15-16 But I have [one thing] against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore where you have fallen from and repent and do the first works; but if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. Rev. 2:4-5](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/But-holding-to-truth-in-love-we-may-grow-up-into-Him-in-all-things-who-is-the-Head-Christ-2-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and [through] the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. Eph. 4:15-16 But I have [one thing] against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore where you have fallen from and repent and do the first works; but if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. Rev. 2:4-5")
Since the Lord Jesus as our life is a person, we need a new contact with Him to enjoy His present presence at this very moment and day by day.
We need to freshly contact the Lord throughout the day, telling Him that we love Him.
When we love the Lord and contact Him again and again, we will check with Him about all things, and we will love what He loves.
We may ask HIm about this and about that, about our speaking to this or that person, and about the shirt or jumper that we wear.
We cannot tolerate not having His present presence; we love Him, we love to be with Him and for Him to be with us, and we love the church, for the church is what is on His heart.
The more time we spend with the Lord, the more we love the church, for the church is making Him happy, and He loves the church so much that He gave Himself up for her.
We will be in constant contact, a continual conversation with the Lord because we love Him.
And we will be willing to give ourselves up for the church, for the building up of the church as His organic Body.
Lord Jesus, recover our first love toward You. Rekindle our love for You. We want to love the Lord with the best love, the first love, and love the church even Christ loves the church! Amen, Lord, we come to You to contact You; we want to spend time in Your presence. Infuse us with Yourself. Infuse us with Your love and care for the church. We give ourselves to love You with the first love. We need a new contact with You to enjoy Your present presence at this very moment and day by day! Amen, Lord, keep us conversing with You, checking with You about everything, and opening our being to You so that we may allow You to work Yourself into us and fill us with all that You are. We love You, Lord Jesus, we and we love the church!
Being Constrained by the Lord’s Love to Love Him and Seeking to Dwell in God’s House, the Church, all the Days of our Life
2 Cor. 5:14 tells us that the love of Christ constrains us, for we have judged this: One died for all, therefore all died, and He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died and has been raised.
Christ died for us; He loved the church so much that He gave Himself up for her. We must be persons who are flooded with the love of Christ.
We need to be carried out by the love of Christ.
The divine love must be like the rushing tide of great waters toward us, impelling us to live to Him and love Him to the uttermost beyond our control.
The Love of Christ is like a tide of water that presses us from all sides, compelling us, and giving us no choice but to go in one direction, that is, to love the Lord.
When we see on the news the way the hurricane comes and brings in floods and torrents of rainwater, with nothing in its way being able to stop it, we realize that this is how much the Lord loves us.
The torrent of the Lord’s love is too strong for us to resist; we can try to swim against it, but it will sweep us away toward loving the Lord.
There’s a rushing tide of great waters. The love of Christ constrains us to live to the Lord.
We just cannot resist the Lord’s love and we give ourselves to just love the Lord.
We all need to have such an experience and we need many such experiences in our Christian life.
We need to ask the Lord to constrain us with His love so that we no longer live to ourselves but to Him who died for us and rose again.
We have no choice but to love the Lord to the uttermost, even beyond our own control.
On one hand, we need self-control, and self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit.
But when it comes to the Lord, we sometimes lose self-control, for there’s no other way so safe, so rich, so full of enjoyment except the way of loving the Lord with the best love.
We need to be those crazy lovers of Jesus who are not restrained in our love for Him.
In order to love the Lord to the uttermost, we need to be those who desire and seek to dwell in the house of God all the days of our lives and to inquire of God in His temple (Psa. 27:4).
When we love the Lord, we will love the church; the more we love God, the more we will desire to be in the church, even in the sanctuary of God.
We need to be those who desire and seek to dwell in the house of God all the days of our life to behold His beauty and to inquire of Him in His temple.
To inquire of God is to check with God about everything in our daily life.
Amen, one thing we desire of the Lord and one thing we ask of Him, to dwell in His house all the days of our life to behold the beauty of Jehovah and to inquire in His temple.
This is what the Psalmist desired and this is what we desire when we love the Lord.
We love the Lord and we love to be in His house, inquiring of Him and beholding His beauty.
The more we advance with the Lord, the more we love to talk to Him in a free way, not by having long prayers but by just contacting Him in all things.
We may be doing the dishes, cleaning the house, taking out the trash, or taking a walk, and we just contact the Lord.
We cannot live without Him, because we love Him.
We ask Him about this and about that. We check with Him what He wants to do, what does He like, and what He dislikes.
In a very common way, in the many mundane details of our daily life, we contact the Lord and we love Him and the church.
This is the normal way for us to live Christ and love the church as His Body.
As we are constrained by the love of Christ to love Him and the church, we will discern things not by outward appearance but by the inward measure of Christ in the spirit.
We will then be the ambassadors of Christ representing His authority and interest on this earth.
Lord Jesus, constrain us with Your love so that we may love the Lord and love the church. May we be flooded with the love of Christ and carried away by it. Amen, Lord, may Your divine love be like the rushing tide of great waters toward us, impelling us to live to Him! Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for dying for us; You died so that we may live to You. Constrain us to love You to the uttermost beyond our own control. Oh Lord, we desire and seek to dwell in the house of God all the days of our life to behold Your beauty and to inquire in Your temple. We love You, Lord, and we love to talk to You. We open to You about all things. Infuse us with Yourself. Draw us to love You more. Pour out more of Your love for the church in us.
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, 1967, vol. 2, “An Autobiography of a Person in the Spirit,” pp. 173-175, 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:
– 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)
– The church is Christ’s deep longing / And His good pleasure too. / His every word and action / Is made with her in view. / His heart’s love is established, / And nought can Him deter; / Before the earth’s foundation / His thoughts were filled with her. (Hymns #1229 stanza 1)
– One thing I have asked from Jehovah, / That do I seek, that do I seek. / To dwell in the house of Jehovah, / All the days of my life, / All the days of my life. / To behold the beauty of Jehovah, / And to inquire in His temple. / Psalms 27:4. (Scripture song)
About aGodMan
In 2 Corinthians 5:14 Paul says that “the love of Christ constrains us.” Because the love of Christ constrained him, Paul was a person who lived to the Lord (v. 15)…We must be persons carried away by the love of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 Paul tells us that the dying love of Christ is like the rushing of great waters toward us, impelling us to live to Him beyond our own control. To be constrained is similar to being carried away by a tide of water. The love of Christ is as strong as a tide of water which overcomes us and carries us away. We need to be flooded by the love of Christ. We need to be constrained by His love so that we have no choice. We should be able to say, “I have no other way to go. I have to love the Lord because His love has constrained me. What can I do?” When the flood waters come, we do not have a choice as to whether we will receive them or not. The flood waters give us no choice. We all have to be constrained by the love of Christ in such a way. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 2, “An Autobiography of a Person in the Spirit,” pp. 173-175
The very life that we received when we believed in the Lord Jesus is a person, and the only way to apply and enjoy this person is by loving Him with the first love; since the Lord Jesus as our life is a person, we need a new contact with Him to enjoy His present presence at this very moment and day by day.
This One is a church-loving Christ. When we enjoy Him, he infuses His love for the church in us.
Aaaaameeeen Lord. Amen Lord for this.
Clear every avenue of thought and brain, Flood our affections, purify our will, Let nothing but Thine own pure life remain. Amen…
Amen Lord constrain us with your love today, and may we be church loving believers one who would give up everything for your church, and may we be those whose first love is rekindled toward you
Amen brother.
Eph. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.
So exposed by this verse as we relate to Christ’s extraordinary love for his church to give Himself up for her.
May we all be persons carried away by the love of Christ.
Is there anything better in life than to be flooded by the love of Christ?
We should be extremely ambitious to please the Christ who loved us and died for us so that we may no longer live for ourselves.
Only the love of Christ Himself can constrain us and carry us all the way to the New Jerusalem.
Dear brother, to be an overcomer the first thing we must overcome is the loss of the first love, the best love for our Lord Jesus Christ.
To give him the best love is to give him the pre-eminence in all things the first place in all things.
That means even when we purchase clothing or go shopping, His love should constrain us so that His choice is our choice.
Whether in big things or small things, He must be everything to us and we need to remain in the church life to enjoy and experience Him so that we no longer live to ourselves but to Him.
Amen brother The Lord love has caused him to die for us to give himself up for us and the church, this one now wants to become our first love for him to have the preeminence in everything we do in our daily life and this love should constrain us to live to him to be limited in our daily activities, and we need to allow this love to fill us so that we can live to the Lord and experience the Christ loving church so that we will love the Lord, the church and all the saints
Amen, There is no such thing that we love the Lord but we don’t love the church, for the Lord whom we love is a church-loving Christ.
We love Him, so we love what He loves; He loves the church to the extent that He gave Himself up for her, so we love the church even as He does.