We need to Love our Lord Jesus Christ in Incorruptibility and Love His Appearing

As those who have been captivated by the Lord and to pursue Him and seek Him in love, we need to love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility (Eph. 6:4). Only Christ, God, and the church are incorruptible matters, and so we need to love our Lord Jesus in incorruptibility.

First, we need to know the significance of loving the Lord, realising that to love the Lord is not the same as loving a person in a natural way. To love the Lord is to allow Him to live in us, realising that He desires to have a dwelling place so that He may be expressed.

To love the Lord doesn’t mean only that our heart loves Him, but that we open to Him and give Him our consent that He would live in us and make His home in our heart, so that we may be His dwelling place.

The Lord Jesus wants to live in us, in our heart, to be the person in us; He wants to replace the self with Himself. We need to be rooted and grounded in love, and we need to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, and Christ will make His home in our heart through faith.

We need to practice daily to tell the Lord that we love Him, starting from the morning and throughout the day. Whether we feel it or not, we need to tell the Lord that we love Him. When we believe into the Lord, we receive Him by faith, and when we love Him, we enjoy Him.

To love the Lord is to be stopped from all our doing and let Him take possession of our being. Our problem is that we either don’t love the Lord enough – so we are passive toward Him, or we love Him with our natural love – so we want to do many things for Him.

The Lord doesn’t appreciate our many works for Him more than He appreciates and receives our love for Him. He told Martha that Mary chose the best part, which was to be with the Lord and listen to His words, rather than Martha, who labored and served to prepare the food.

Similarly, when the Lord wrote to the church in Ephesus, He pointed out that the thing He has against them is that they have lost their first love; they had many works but have lost their first love, so the Lord told them to repent and do the first works, the works coming out of the first love.

It is easy to be in a “work mode” for the Lord, but it is not easy to stop our being and let the Lord possess us and saturate us. The Lord appreciates our love for Him more than any works we can do for Him or in His name.

Loving the Lord has to do with our daily living and practice. When we wake up in the morning, we need to open to the Lord in prayer and tell Him that we love Him. Throughout the day, as we take care of the things we need to take care, as we travel, as we do our job, we need to tell the Lord again and again that we love Him.

We cannot stop our being, but we can tell the Lord that we love Him, and this will stop our being and our doing, and it will allow the Lord to saturate us and permeate us until He takes full possession of our being.

Today we want to further see the significance of loving the Lord, and we want to see what it means to love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility.

Loving the Lord by taking Him as our Portion and by being Fully Occupied with Him to Love His Appearing

In the book of 1 Corinthians Paul gives us a few ways to love the Lord.

According to 1 Corinthians, in order for us to love the Lord, we need to take Him as our portion for our enjoyment, we need to allow the Lord to grow in us, and we need to realise that we are one spirit with Him.

To love the Lord is to take Him as our portion for our enjoyment (1 Cor. 1:2; 5:7-8; 10:3-4). Then, we need to allow Him to grow in us and increase in our being (3:6). Third, to love the Lord we need to realise that we are one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).

Christ needs to be our portion of enjoyment, the one thing that we love and we spend time with.

If we love something, we will always have time to spend with that thing. If we love TV, we will always have time to watch TV, but if we love the Bible, we will always have time to read the Bible.

If we love the Lord we will spend time with Him to take Him as our portion for our enjoyment.

But if we don’t take Him as our portion, if we don’t enjoy Him, the Lord has no way to grow in us. We need to tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, You are our portion of enjoyment. You are edible and drinkable. You are our enjoyment. We take You as our portion and as our enjoyment. Lord, grow in us. May we decrease and may the element of God increase in our being. Thank You for making us one spirit with You. In every aspect of our daily life we want to enjoy oneness with You in spirit!

According to 2 Tim. 4:8, we love the Lord by being fully occupied with Him and loving His appearing. Paul was one who loved the Lord and His appearing; in contrast, Demas loved the present age, and many others loved money, pleasure, and the world.

What occupies our heart? We may not have a lot of money, but does the love of money occupy our heart? We may not be good in sports, but does the world cup or the Formula 1 races occupy us? Do the TV shows, entertainment, sports, politics, news, movies, etc occupy our heart?

When our heart is occupied by something, we may even dream about it; when we love the Lord and His appearing, we will even dream about Him and about being with the saints.

To be a lover of God is to be fully occupied, possessed, and taken over by God. We may not be this way yet, but we can pray that the Lord would make us such ones. We want to be those who love the Lord and are occupied with Him, and we would love His appearing.

For those who love the Lord, the Lord’s appearing will bring in a crown – the crown of righteousness; but those who don’t love the Lord, His coming will be a matter of judgment (see 1 Cor. 16:22). We need to tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, we are lovers of God! We give You the ground to occupy our heart so that You may possess us and take us over. Lord, have the ground in our being to occupy the parts that You didn’t occupy yet. We want to be those who love You and who love Your appearing. Lord Jesus, we love You! Although we give You the free course to live in us and for us, we still long for Your outward appearing. Amen, come quickly, Lord Jesus! We love You, we love Your appearing, and we yearn for Your return!

We need to Love our Lord Jesus Christ in Incorruptibility – in the New Creation and according to Incorruptible things!

In Eph. 6:24 we see a very particular expression related to loving the Lord: Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility.

Some translations say “in incorruption” or others “in sincerity”. To love the Lord in sincerity is rather a low thought, not matching the revelation in Ephesians. To love the Lord in incorruption refers that at present we are in a condition that is not corrupted – this is not what it refers to here.

To love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility refers to the nature of our love, which cannot be corrupted; this is a much higher standard.

According to the usage of incorruptible in the writings of Paul, this word refers mainly to God and the things of God; everything natural is corruptible, but God, the divine life, and all things that are in resurrection are incorruptible (see 1 Tim. 1:17; 2 Tim. 1:10; 1 Cor. 15:42, 52-54).

Our God with His nature is incorruptible – He cannot be corrupted. The appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel, so the divine life is incorruptible. Resurrection is also incorruptible, for only what is natural is corruptible.

To love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility means to love Him in the new creation and according to all the incorruptible things revealed in the book of Ephesians.

The rule according to which we should walk and love the Lord is the new creation (Gal. 6:15-16), living by the spirit through faith, having the Triune God as our life and living.

We need to love the Lord Jesus in His being the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9); in His being the element of the Body (1 Cor. 12:12); in His being reality, grace, peace, love, and light (John 1:17; 8:12; 14:6, 27; 1 John 4:8); and in His being the constituent of the one new man (Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:10-11).

The more we fellowship and get into these matters both personally and corporately, the more we love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility. These incorruptible things are related to what is revealed in and taught in Ephesians, including the Triune God, Christ, and His Body, the church.

What should occupy our heart is the Triune God, Christ, and the church. How do we know what occupies our heart? It is by what comes out through our mouth especially as we pray.

When Paul prayed, He asked the Father to strengthen the saints into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in their heart (Eph. 3:16-17).

Ephesians speaks concerning the dispensing of the Triune God to produce the church (1:3-23; 3:16-21), concerning what Christ is and has done for the church (1:7; 2:13-18; 5:25-27, 29), and concerning the church being the Body of Christ, being the bride of Christ, and being one with Christ in the heavenlies (1:22-23; 5:23, 25-27; 2:6).

By faith we apprehend Christ and by love we enjoy Him; neither faith nor love are ours – they are His! His faith becomes our faith by which we believe in Him, and His love becomes our love by which we love Him.

When we are rooted and grounded in His love, we grow and are built up in His life. We need to love the Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility by loving Him in these incorruptible things.

Lord, we want to be those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility! We love You in being the embodiment of the Triune God, the element of the Body, our reality, grace, peace, love, light, and the constituent of the new man. We love to enjoy the dispensing of the Triune God to produce the church, and we love to enjoy all You are doing for the church. Lord, we love You and we love the church as the Body and as the Bride. We are one with You, Lord Jesus! Amen, Lord Jesus, we love You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 551-556, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 5, Knowing the Significance of Loving the Lord, Loving the Lord Jesus Christ in Incorruptibility, and Walking in Love and Light.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # I have fought the good fight; / I have finished the course; / I have fought the good fight; / I have kept the faith. / Henceforth there is laid up for me / The crown of righteousness, / Which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, / Will recompense me in that day, / And not only me / But also all those who have loved His appearing. (Scripture song)
  # Dear Lord Jesus, precious Jesus, / Can I tell it all to Thee? / Thou my love and satisfaction, / Thou my everlasting portion; / Thou art all that I desire, / Nothing else I would pursue. (Hymns #1158)
  # As I love You I set my being— / My spirit, my soul and body. / With my heart, my mind, and my strength, / Absolutely on Thee. / Lord, I let my entire being / Be occupied by Thee / As I enter in Your heart / I sense a fellowship sweet. (Song on, Mary poured out her love offering)