Through faith we receive Christ, and through love we enjoy Him; love is for experiencing, enjoying, and living out the immeasurably rich Triune God, for love issues out of faith and enables us to live out all the riches of the Triune God with the believers in Christ to be His corporate expression. Hallelujah!
In many verses in the New Testament faith and love are mentioned together, and in our Christian life, we need to have our faith and love developed.
In 1 Thessalonians, for example, Paul writes to the young church in Thessalonica; they turned from idols to serve a living and true God, and they had faith and love.
He was with them for only one month, but he had a loving concern for them, especially for their love and faith.
1 Thes. 3:2 speaks of encouraging and establishing them for the sake of their faith, and in vv. 5-7, 10 he speaks about his petitioning day and night to see their face and complete the things they are lacking in their faith.
He didn’t intend to criticize them for lacking faith but rather, to minister to them for their faith to increase.
In v. 12 he says that the Lord causes us to increase in love to abound in love toward one another.
In 2 Thes. 3:5 he had a prayer for them, that the Lord would direct their hearts into the love of God.
Love is the inner substance of God; Paul was a brother praying that God would direct our heart; whoever we are, wherever we are, whatever has been going around us, and whatever has been happening to us, we need to have our heart directed not just to but into the love of God.
In the book of 1 John, the apostle of life, of truth, of believing, and of love, speaks concerning loving one another (1 John 4:7-8, 10-12).
In vv. 16-17 he says that, even as the Lord was in this world, so are we today; may we have boldness in the day of judgment by having the perfected love of God in us, the love in which the Body builds itself up, and the love for the bridegroom that makes the bride ready for His coming.
Hallelujah, we love because He first loved us; may we allow the Lord to love us so that we may also be able to love others (1 John 4:19-21).
As Paul said in Gal. 2:20, Christ died for me, He loved me, and He gave Himself up for me; He didn’t die in general for the whole human race, but for me – for each one of us.
1 Cor. 13 is the chapter in the whole New Testament that is dedicated to love; here we see many characteristics of what love is.
This love is the love by which our Lord, as He perfecting us, He is correcting us and He is leading us further.
Love suffers long; love is long-suffering, suffering not just hours or days or even years, but even more – love suffers long. Love is kind, and it doesn’t behave unbecomingly.
Love is not provoked and it doesn’t keep an account of evil. Love rejoices with the truth, and love covers all things.
We need more development of our faith and love so that we may be rapture-ready.
Thank the Lord that He is with us, He is ministering to us, He is praying for us, and He is perfecting us so that we may develop our faith in the Lord and our love for Him.
Love is for us to Experience, Enjoy, and Live out the Triune God, and to Minister and Transmit Him to the Believers for us to Love Him and be His Corporate Expression
The love of God, which has been poured out into our hearts through the Spirit, is for us to experience, enjoy, and live out the immeasurably rich Triune God (Mark 12:30; 2 Cor. 13:14).
First, we experience Christ in spirit, then we enjoy Him in our soup, and then we live out the immeasurably rich Triune God.
Love issues out of faith and enables us to live out all the riches of the Triune God in Christ together with those who have believed into Christ with us for God’s corporate expression (Eph. 3:19-21).
As we love the Lord and open to Him, we enjoy Him and experience Him, and we are enabled and supplied to live Christ together with those who believe into Him.
Such a corporate living of Christ through faith and love are so that the Triune God would have a glorious corporate expression.
We do this not in a competitive way so that we show others we are better than them or by being jealous of them.
Our living of Christ in love is together, in the Body; we need one another, and we don’t measure ourselves by others.
One indicator that we really and truly know the Body is that we have the conviction deep within that we can’t live apart from the Body, for we are a member of the Body.
Faith comes first; we can never love the Lord unless we have faith in Him. As soon as we have faith in the Lord, we start to love the Lord immediately, for He becomes so real and sweet to us.
For us to realize, experience, and participate in the deep and hidden things that God has ordained and prepared for us requires us not only to believe into Him but also to love Him.
According to 1 Cor. 2:9, things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard and which have not come up in man’s heart are such things that God has prepared for those who love Him.
In other words, for us to fear God, worship God, and believe in God is inadequate – we need to love Him, for love is the indispensable requirement.
And to love God is for us to set our entire being absolutely on Him; our spirit, our soul, and body, with the heart, soul, mind, and strength needs to be set on Him.
We need to let our entire being be occupied by Him and lost in Him, so that He becomes everything to us and we are one with Him practically in our daily life.
If we do this, if we love the Lord in such a way, we will have the closest and most intimate contact with Him, being in fellowship with God, and we are able to enter into His heart and know what is in His heart for us.
Love is for the believers to minister and transmit the Triune God to their fellow believers so that all the believers may love one another with such a divine, transcendent love, and live a corporate life in Christ (Rom. 12:4-5, 10).
This is the church life: enjoying and experiencing the Triune God through faith and love, and ministering and transmitting the Triune God to the fellow believers.
If we want to really have this kind of love in our being and living, we need to live for the Lord and allow the cross to be applied to our natural love and affection, otherwise, we will have a biased natural love.
It is easy to love our own children, our spouse, and our relatives; but the love God is in us causes us to love others’ children, others’ family, and pray for others also.
In place of our natural affection and preferential natural love, there has to be the pure and absolute love of God for one another.
Love is not simply that we would love the Lord but also love the saints; on one hand, we experience, enjoy, and live out the Triune God with His riches, and on the other hand, we minister and transmit the Triune God to others for them to also love Him.
The result of our experience of Christ personally and ministering of Christ to others is that we all love the Lord; our faith not only causes us to love the Lord but also to love all the believers in Christ.
We have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.
Faith is the source of our love, and by love we experience, enjoy, and live out the immeasurably rich Triune God; furthermore, love enables us to transmit and minister the Triune God to the saints for the increase of their love for the Lord.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to just love You so that we may experience, enjoy, and live out the immeasurably rich Triune God. Perfect our love, dear Lord, so that we may be able to live out all the riches of the Triune God in Christ together with those who have believed into Christ for God’s corporate expression. Amen, Lord, we turn our heart to You to just love You and enjoy You. We love You, Lord, and we are one with You to minister and transmit the Triune God to the saints so that all saints may love one another with this divine love and live a corporate life in Christ. Amen, Lord, we set our entire being on You and we let our whole being be occupied and lost in You so that You become everything to us and we would be one with You practically in our daily life. Keep us in the closest and most intimate fellowship with You so that we may enter into Your heart and live one spirit with You today!
Giving the Lord the First Place in All things to Love Him with the First Love and Having an Absolute Love for Him
We not only need to love the Lord but even more, our love for the Lord must be absolute (Matt. 10:37; 1 John 2:15; Rev. 12:11).
A picture of our love for the Lord is the Lord’s love for the church – He loved the church so much that He gave Himself up for the church.
The marriage life is also a good picture of our love for the Lord. A husband cannot tell a wife that he will give her the majority of his love, 51% or 75% – he needs to give her 100% of his love.
The Lord gives us the commandment that we love Him in an absolute way, with our entire being.
We love Him because He first loved us; when we see His love toward us, when His love touches us and even fills us, we will simply love the Lord.
Just as it is not too much for a husband and wife to give 100% of their human love to one another in their marriage, so it is not too much to love the Lord with 100% of our love.
To love Him in such a way is to give Him the first place in all things, that is, to love Him with the first love, the best love (Col. 1:18; Rev. 2:4).
We are still learning how to do this; we are still learning to give the Lord the first place, the preeminence, in all things.
We all are learners, disciples of the Lord; we are learning together, and we are encouraging one another to love the Lord and pursue Him.
Giving the Lord the first love doesn’t mean that we should love Him as we did at the beginning of our Christian life; our love needs to be developed.
It means that we give Him the first place in all things. As the Lord said in Matt. 6:33, we need to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the other things that we need will be added to us.
We need to seek first Christ and the church, the kingdom of God, and the other things will be added to us.
We could say there are three main priorities in our life: our job (not our career, for our career is Christ and the church), our family/marriage, and Christ and the church.
What is the proper priority for all these three? It is easy to say that we love Christ and the church, but that love is proven by what we prioritize to be first.
Some saints put their family above Christ and the church, while others put their job above Christ.
Matt. 6:33 doesn’t say that we should seek ONLY the kingdom of God but that we should seek FIRST the kingdom of God.
We do have to take care of our family, our job, and so many other things, but they cannot be first; the proper priority is Christ and the church being first and foremost.
As second after Christ and the church it should be family and marriage, for a job can come and go, but our family cannot come and go – they are here for life.
We may even have to consider quitting a certain job that consumes us so much of our time and energy that we cannot take proper care of the Lord’s interest and of our family.
If we say that we love the Lord, we will give Him the first place in all things.
The proof that we love God is that we give Him preeminence in all things. May we bring this to the Lord and tell Him,
Lord Jesus, we love You; perfect us in our love toward You. We want to love You with the best love, giving You the preeminence in all things. Amen, Lord, we want to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the other things will be added to us. We give You the first place in all things by faith in our life and in our living. Amen, Lord, have the preeminence in us. We enthrone You and we love You. We open our being to You: saturate us, occupy us, and fill us with Yourself. Become everything to us in our daily life and keep us in the most intimate and closest fellowship with You. Oh Lord, we love You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message by bro. Ron Kangas on this topic, 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, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 3, entitled, The Need to Develop Our Faith in the Lord and Our Love for Him.
- Recommended further reading:
– I love my Lord, but with no love of mine, / For I have none to give; / I love Thee, Lord, but all the love is Thine, / For by Thy love I live. / I am as nothing, and rejoice to be / Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in Thee. (Hymns #546)
– Seek ye first the kingdom of God / And His righteousness; / And all these things shall be added unto you. / Hallelu, Hallelujah! (Scripture song)
– How sweet, how heav’nly is the sight, / When those who love the Lord / In one another’s peace delight, / And so fulfill His Word: / When each can feel his brother’s sigh, / And with him bear a part; / When sorrow flows from eye to eye, / And joy from heart to heart. (Hymns #857)
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