Pursue Love – the Most Excellent Way – by Exercising our Spirit of Love in all Things

Love prevails; God gave us a human spirit, which is of love, and we need to fan our spirit of love into flame, we need to love one another, live a life of love, take the way of love, and be the sons of our heavenly Father by being perfect in His love.

Lord Jesus, we love You. Dispense more of Your love into us. We want to live by Your divine life, which is a life of love. May You as love be expressed through us. Oh Lord, in our daily living, in our family life, and in the church life, may we love one another, taking the most excellent way of love in doing all things! Amen, Lord, we love You and we let Your love be expressed through us!

Thank the Lord for His love. He loves us. He Himself is love. He reaches us where we are, even in the lowest pit, because of His great love.

In His great love, God is rich in mercy to come to us, no matter how low we are, to bring us into a position in which we can enjoy Your love.

Now we, as believers in Christ, are loved by God, we enjoy His love, and we are in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.

We therefore shall be perfect, even as our heavenly Father is perfect. Our Father is perfect in His love, and He is perfecting us in His love.

In ourselves, our love runs out, is limited, and is very preferential. But when we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, living by the divine life of our heavenly Father in our spirit, we simply love.

When we are not in our spirit, we do not love, but when we are in the mingled spirit by contacting the Lord, we love the Lord and we love one another.

The spirit of all the commandments is love, and the greatest of all the commandments is love.

The Lord Jesus said that, if we love God and we love one another, we keep all the commandments. This means that, if we love the Lord Jesus and we love those around us, we spontaneously keep the commandments.

If we prayerfully consider this, we will realise that, as we love the Lord, we will nor call the name of the Lord in vain and we will not have other false gods or idols.

If we love others, we will not steal, cheat on them, commit adultery, or kill them, nor will we covet their things.

Love is the spirit of the law, and the Lord Himself is love. He as love has come into our hearts, and the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

May we live by the Lord as our life today so that we may live a life of love.

Exercise our Spirit of Love and Pursue Love in all Things, Loving God and Loving one Another

According to 1 Corinthians 13, love is the most excellent way; love prevails. Regardless of how much we can do for God and sacrifice for others, if we do not have love, it amounts to nothing.

If we give our life for others, but we don’t have love, it means nothing. If we do this and that for God, yet we do not love God and we do not love others, it means nothing (1 Cor. 13:2-3).

We may prophesy and have all knowledge, and our speaking may be eloquent and in the highest way; without love, it means nothing.

We may give everything to others, help them in many ways, and put ourselves aside in order to do this or that for them, but if we don’t have love, it means nothing. Oh Lord!

In our shepherding the saints, we need to love them; without love, shepherding is not effective. In teaching the saints, in speaking in the meetings, and in caring for one another, we need to love the Lord and love one another.

We can love God and we can love one another because God has given us a human spirit, which is mingled with the Spirit of God, and our spirit is first a spirit of love (1 Tim. 1:7).

We need to fan into flame our spirit of love so that we may love the Lord and love one another. Thank the Lord for our human spirit.

Our spirit is a spirit of love; first, we have love, then we have power and sobermindedness.

We may have a spirit of power and we may be very sober, but if we do not have a spirit of love, if we don’t exercise our spirit of love, we burn others, we are strict to them, and we threaten them. Oh Lord!

May we realise that God gave us a gift: our human spirit of love, and may we exercise our spirit of love.

We have love in spirit; we simply need to fan our spirit of love into flame.

This means that we need to exercise our spirit and stir up our spirit so that our spirit may be burning! Amen, we need to be burning in spirit, serving the Lord (Rom. 12:11).

When we exercise our spirit and stir up our spirit, our spirit will be burning, and what comes out of us is love.

We need a burning spirit of love, not a burning spirit of authority; a burning spirit of power, authority, or being sober can damage others, but a spirit of love builds up.

As we live the church life and as we live our Christian life, we need to pursue love; we need to pursue loving the Lord and loving one another.

May we daily stir up our spirit of love and live a life of love. If we love the Lord and love one another, we are living, but if we think we’re living and we don’t love others or the Lord, we are actually dead (1 John 3:14).

When we do not love the brothers, we abide in death. Oh Lord! When we do not love the brothers, we cannot say we love the Lord, for if we love the Lord we also love the brothers.

May the Lord shine on us in the matter of love so that we may not just give everything up for Him but love Him and love one another in the church life, even pursue love with all men!

In 1 Corinthians 13 we see love as the most excellent way to do everything, and chapter 14 begins by saying that we need to pursue love even when we desire spiritual gifts (v. 1).

We may desire spiritual gifts, but if we do not pursue love when we do this, these gifts will rather puff us up instead of building up. Oh Lord Jesus!

May we be those who pursue love in all things, even pursue love together with the Lord’s loving seekers, those who call on His name out of a pure heart (2 Tim. 2:22).

In the church life, we need to have a group of seekers of the Lord with whom pursue the Lord in love.

When we come together in the church meetings, and especially in our vital group meetings, we need to love the Lord, love one another, and pursue Christ as love together.

Lord Jesus, we love You. We open to You. Thank You for giving us a gift, our human spirit. Hallelujah, we have a human spirit, and our spirit is mingled with God as the Spirit. Thank You, Lord, for our spirit, which is first of love. Praise the Lord, we do not have a spirit of cowardice but of love, of power and of sobermindedness. Thank You, dear Lord, for our spirit of love. We want to fan into flame our spirit of love. We want to stir up our spirit of love. We exercise our spirit of love so that we do all things in love and have a burning spirit of love. Amen, Lord, may we be burning in spirit, serving the Lord, having a spirit of love that is burning! May love prevail in us and among us, and may we all pursue love! Oh Lord Jesus, we desire spiritual gifts, and as we do this, we pursue love. May love prevail in us. May we pursue love with the saints, even with the ones in our vital group, being with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart! Amen!

We need to Take the Most Excellent Way of Love in our Christian Life and Church Life

At the end of 1 Corinthians 12, Paul said that he will show us a most excellent way; then, in chapter 13, he reveals what is this way: it is love. The most excellent way for us to do anything and be anything in our Christian life and church life is love.

The most excellent way for us to be anything and do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ is love.

As Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, he was aware of all the problems, dissensions, and sins in this church.

If we would live in such a church, we would be very disappointed, and we may even want to leave; Paul, however, wrote them two wonderful episties.

He wrote them more chapters than to any other church. He did not put these seemingly sinful, dissenting, and divisive saints aside; rather, he loved them, and he led them to take the most excellent way: love.

We may think that the situation in our church life is not that great, for there is this and that problem, and there are some saints who live in sin, and even more, there are some who are backsliding or dissenting.

The way we should take is the way of love. We need to take the most excellent way of love in the church life today.

Love is the very inward essence of God, the heart of God (1 John 4:16).

God is love, and we love because He loved us first (vv. 8, 19). He chose us and predestinated us in love. He loves us, He cares for us, and He did not give up on us.

We would have given up on ourselves a long time ago, but the Lord still loves us.

We have a spirit of love, and we pursue love. We need to pursue love and take the most excellent way of love in the church life (Rom. 13:8; 1 Pet. 4:8).

The way for us to care for the saints and contact one another is love.

It is not merely to check how are saints doing, see what are their problems, and pray together; we need to love the Lord and love one another, even pursue love together.

The most excellent way for us to shepherd others is love. The most excellent way for us to preach the gospel is love. If we don’t love those we speak to about the Lord, there is no impact.

But when we love the Lord and love those we speak to by exercising our spirit of love, our gospel preaching is prevailing.

The most excellent way to prophesy in the church meetings is love. The most excellent way for us to teach is love.

If we teach and cut straight the word of the truth but we have no love, our teaching is not prevailing.

People will get good doctrines and spiritual principles, but love is absent, and they will not get the nourishment of life of encouragement in their soul.

May we be those who take the most excellent way of love. May we be the sons of our heavenly Father, being perfected in His love.

Our Father is perfect in His love, for He loves both the good and the evil ones, and He sends the rain and causes the sun to shine both on the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:44-45, 48).

Our Father loves all men without discrimination. May the Lord save us from discriminating between good and evil in the matter of love; may we just love all men.

If the leading brothers love only the good ones, eventually there will be no one to care for, for everyone is at one point or another a bad one.

The church life should be a loving home taking care of the saints, especially of those who are “naughty” and “bad”.

Parents know that, the more naughty a child is, the more love he needs. Our heavenly Father loves us, and we are loved by Him daily, even though we are “naughty” and “bad.”

He has poured out His love into our heart, He came to heal us and to love us, and now He wants to express Himself as love through us.

May we exercise our spirit of love in living the church life to love all the saints, without any discrimination.

The church life is not a police station to arrest those who are bad or a law court to judge and condemn those who are naughty.

Rather, the church life is a hospital to care for the sick saints in love, a home to care for all the saints in love, and a school for the mutual teaching and shepherding in love.

May we live a life of love today. May we take the most excellent way of love in the church life. May we fan our spirit of love into flame so that we may live a life of love, loving the Lord and loving the saints.

May the church life be a home, a hospital, and a school where we all are living a life of love, caring for one another in love, and ministering Christ as the life supply to one another in love.

Lord Jesus, thank You for loving us and not giving up on us. Thank You for dispensing Your love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We love You, Lord. We want to take the most excellent way of love in the church life today. Oh Lord, whatever we do, wherever we go, whatever we speak, and whatever happens, may we take the way of love. May we realise that love prevails. Hallelujah, only love prevails! We want to take this way today, Lord, as we care for others, shepherd them, speak the truth, and preach the gospel. May the church life be a home full of loving care for all the saints, no matter how good or bad they may seem to be at the moment. May the church life be a hospital to care for the sick saints, ministering the life supply of Christ in love for the saints’ healing and strengthening. Oh, may the church life be a school for mutual teaching in love for all the saints to be edified and built up in love. Amen, Lord, may we all take the way of love in doing anything and being anything today!

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 brothers 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, Crucial Aspects of Matthew 5 through 7 (2025 September ITERO), week 6, Being Perfect as Our Heavenly Father Is Perfect – day 4.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, in Thy Spirit, take and fill my heart; / Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move; / Into my spirit all Thy grace impart, / And make me love Thee as I ought to love. (Hymns #270 stanza 1)
  – Jesus is getting us together, / Come and see the saints in one accord. / His love is knitting us together, / To the stature of the fullness of the Lord. / Thus with all saints we can apprehend / All the vast dimensions of God. / Knowing Christ’s love passes all we know, / We’re together filled to fullness with our God. (Hymns #1232 stanza 2 and chorus)
  – 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 stanzas 1-2)