After the Lord Jesus washed His disciples’ feet in John 13, He gave them a new commandment, which is to love one another even as He loved them; real love is the issue of enjoying Christ in the divine dispensing. Hallelujah!
This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, The Lord’s New Commandment Given to Us – that we Love one another.
Love is the most excellent way to be anything or do anything for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
The most excellent way for us to take in the church life for the building up of the Body is love; we need to love one another and love the Lord.
On His side, the Lord loved us so much that He gave Himself up for us; He came to us in love, He died for us, and He is washing our feet continually as we come to Him to contact Him.
He loved us to the uttermost by coming to us in His humanity, laying aside His splendour and condescending to the extent that He was at our dirty feet, and He washed them.
As we come to Him day by day, He keeps washing us; He washes us with His blood from any sin that His light exposes and we confess, and He washes us with His life, His Spirit, and His living word from any defilement of the world.
God doesn’t love us in a way that we think, that He feels so emotional about us and He would do everything for us to make us happy; this is the natural, spoiled, fallen love of man.
He loves us to the uttermost, and He carries out His consideration of each of us to reach us and dispense Himself into us.
On one hand, Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us; on the other hand, by faith in Him we receive His life, and by enjoying Christ in the divine dispensing, we love the Lord and the brothers.
We know that we passed out of death into life because we love the brothers (1 John 3:14).
If we are real believers, we love the brothers.
The apostle John seemed to be testing the real believers when he said that, unless we love the brothers, we are not real believers.
Faith is God infused into us to become our believing ability; when we exercise our spirit of faith, we love the Lord and we love the brothers. Faith and love go together.
We can’t say that we believe into the Lord but we don’t love the brothers; we can’t say that we believe in Christ but we don’t want to be with the brothers and the sisters.
We cannot be individual believers by ourselves, having nothing to do with our fellow believers.
As we are exiting this gloomy period of the pandemic, we may discover that our faith is weak, for we may not be so willing to be in person at the meetings of the church.
We need to help one another to enjoy the Lord more so that our love for Him and for one another would grow and be perfected.
The Lord’s New Commandment that we Love one another Supplies us with Spirit and Life
In John chapter 13, after the Lord Jesus washed His disciples’ feet to show them that He loved them to the uttermost (v. 1), He charged them to do the same to one another in love (v. 14).
Then, He gave them a new commandment, that they love one another, even as He loved them; by this shall all men know that they are the Lord’s disciples if they have love for one another (vv. 34-35).
The commandment that the Lord gave us in John 13:34 is the new commandment in the New Testament, which is different from the old commandments in the Old Testament.
How is it different? In the New Testament, the Lord’s commandments are not merely injunctions, requirements, and charges to us, but they are His words, which are spirit and life as a supply to us. In other words, the commandments of the Lord (see John 14:15, 21; 15:10, 12; 1 John 2:3, 4, 7, 8; 3:22, 23, 24; 4:21; 5:2, 3; 2 John 4, 5, 6) are not merely things we HAVE to do, but they are His living words coming to us to impart spirit and life to us.
As believers in Christ, we should love God and His children with the divine love that is conveyed to us through the words of the Lord to become our experience and enjoyment.
Yes, the Lord’s word to us is a commandment, an injunction; it was not a suggestion or an exhortation but a commandment.
However, the words He speaks to us are spirit and life to supply us to do exactly what He commands us to do.
We should not try to love others with our own natural love, trying our best to have an emotional love toward the saints and the Lord.
Rather, we need to exercise our spirit and enjoy the Lord’s living word so that the life in us may express the love of God.
We need to read and pray the words of God, taking them in by means of all prayer and petition, and we will be inwardly supplied to love God and to love one another.
This commandment is the one that we heard from the beginning, to love one another (1 John 3:11).
We shouldn’t try in a natural way to fulfil this commandment; rather, we need to come to the Lord to be inwardly supplied by Him to live out the word that He has spoken.
John 6:63 says that the words the Lord speaks to us are spirit and life. In 1 John 2:7 “the word” indicates the life supply.
What the Lord speaks to us, His living word, is spirit and life to us to supply us inwardly and cause us to fulfil His word.
Sadly, however, many Christians try their best to use their own natural love to love others, and they fail miserably.
Our human love is limited and preferential.
Even if we try to love others in a natural, religious, and ethical way, imitating God’s love, this love will fail and will run out.
But if contact the Lord in His living word, if we enjoy Him in His speaking, we will be infused with what He is, and His love will be expressed through us.
Our natural love needs to go to the cross; our natural love causes problems. It is troubling to the organic building up of the Body of Christ for us to love others with our natural love.
May we come to the Lord in His word, absorb His riches, inhale Him, and be inwardly supplied with what we need in order to love God and love one another, thus fulfilling the Lord’s new commandment.
Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for commanding us to love one another. We open to Your living word. Infuse us with Yourself. Be our inward supply as we live the Christian life day by day, and be the One in us who loves the brothers. Hallelujah, the Lord’s words to us are spirit and are life for our supply to love God and love others! Praise the Lord, God is love, and we are commanded to love one another! We come to You, dear Lord, and we allow You to infuse us with Yourself through Your living word. May the words that proceed out of Your mouth be full of life and life supply to us so that we may live because of Your word and love one another even as You have commanded us!
Loving one another is the Issue of our Enjoyment of Christ in the Divine Dispensing
A way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ is by keeping His new commandment to love one another for the expression of His love so that all the people may know that we are His disciples (John 13:34-35).
We may have never thought of this, but when we love one another with God as our love, when we love one another as the issue of the enjoyment of Christ in the divine dispensing, all men will know that we are the Lord’s disciples.
Real love is the issue of the enjoyment of the processed Triune God in the divine dispensing (2 Cor. 13:14).
Natural love is what we have by birth, and it runs out.
Real love, however, God as love in us to be our love, is the issue of our enjoyment of Christ in the divine dispensing.
If we contact the Lord in the morning and really enjoy Him, we will immediately have the saints in mind, for He is the Head, and His heart is for the Body.
Our loving the Lord issues in loving one another.
When we are in the fellowship of the divine life (1 John 1:1-3), that is, in the enjoyment of the Triune God, the outcome of this enjoyment is the divine love with which we spontaneously love others.
In particular, as we enjoy Christ in the divine dispensing, we will love all those who are organically related to our begetting Father (1 John 5:1).
Such love is possible only because we have had the divine birth and are children of God together with our fellow brothers and sisters (John 1:12-13; 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:4, 18).
As believers in Christ, we are born of God, born of the divine life of our heavenly father; we have a divine birth, and a new life is in us.
Because of this new life, we have love, and this love is for fellowship – it issues in fellowship for the building up of the Body of Christ.
We need to grow in life and never be stagnant in our enjoyment of the Lord.
What the Bible reveals concerning love in the New Testament is very much different from our natural concept of love.
Love is not a feeling or something you cultivate and work at it; love is God Himself. God is love, and He abides in us and we abide in Him.
We know that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He gave to us (1 John 3:24).
Instead of trying to imitate the Lord’s love, we need to enjoy Christ more; we need to enjoy Christ day by day so that we may be infused with God as love.
As He abides in us and imparts Himself into our being, He saturates our inner being with Himself, and we enjoy Him as love.
This is all in the organic union with the Lord.
We are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and we remain in this organic union; as we do this throughout the day, God becomes our life and even our being.
The Spirit joined to our spirit is saturating us with the substance of God who is love.
The result is not just that we love others but that our whole being becomes love; the fibres of our being will be love.
We may go to visit someone because we didn’t see them in the meetings of the church, and we may just spend fifteen or twenty minutes with them, just listening to how are they doing and maybe sharing a little of our enjoyment of Christ, and this washes their feet and causes them to love the Lord more.
May we be those who grow in life every day so that we may love one another as a result of our enjoyment of Christ in the divine dispensing.
And may our living and being among the saints in the church life be an encouragement for them to contact the Lord, enjoy Him, and love one another.
Our service in the church life should lead others to love the Lord and one another more.
If we love the Lord and enjoy Him, we will also love those whom He loves, especially those begotten by God.
We can love the brothers and sisters because we have the divine birth; we are born of God, and because of this birth, we are able to love one another.
It is not our striving, trying, or perfecting our natural virtue of love that will cause us to love others; it is by enjoying Christ and allowing Him to grow in us so that He may saturate us with Himself.
We can love the One who begot us, the Father God, and those who are begotten of Him, the brothers and the sisters, because we are in this organic union with the Lord, and we enjoy Him as our everything.
Thank You, Lord, for regenerating us with Your life to make us children of God! Hallelujah, we are born of God, and God is our Father! Amen, Lord, we come to You to enjoy You in the divine dispensing every day. Keep us enjoying You and keep growing in us until we spontaneously love the Lord and we love one another in the church life. We want to remain in the organic union with You, Lord, so that You as love may be infused into us to become the love with which we love one another. Saturate us with the substance of God. Infuse us with God as love. May our inner being be transfused with the element of God, with love itself. Amen, Lord, we love You! We love the brothers! We love the Lord and we love all those whom the Father has begotten, all the believers in Christ, because Christ Himself is our love!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ted W. in the message, and portions from, Life-study of John, msgs. 15-17 (by Witness Lee), 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 6, entitled, The Lord’s New Commandment Given to Us – that we Love One Another.
- Further reading on this topic:
– The Economy of God: the Triune God in His Operation (article via Affirmation and Critique).
– Love – what is love, Portion from, Conclusion of the New Testament, The (Msgs. 079-098), by Witness Lee.
– The Beliefs and Practices of the Local Churches – concerning our Christian life (article via Contending for the Faith).
– Knowing the Significance of Loving the Lord, Loving the Lord Jesus Christ in Incorruptibility, and Walking in Love and Light (outline via, the church in Kansas City)
– Foreword and the Comparison Between Divine Love and Human Love (article via, the church in Arcadia). - Hymns on this topic:
– A new commandment / I give unto you / That you love one another / As I have loved you, / That you love one another / As I have loved you. / By this shall all men / Know you are My disciples / If you have love one to another. (Hymns #1343)
– Now in all the churches flowing, / Brotherly love. / Light and life and love bestowing, / Brotherly love. / In the oneness all believing, / Fellowship with all receiving, / Nevermore the Spirit grieving, / Brotherly love. (Hymns #1277 stanza 1)
– Now my love for the brothers abounds more and more / By saying Amen to God’s Word. / And I’m being related as never before / By saying Amen to His Word. (Hymns #1219 stanza 5)
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In John 13:34 and 35… [the] commandment is the message which we “heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:11). We should not try in a natural way to fulfill this word. We may realize that God is love (4:8) and that we are commanded to love one another. Then in a natural, religious, and ethical way we may try to love others, imitating God’s love…This kind of love is ethical, natural, and even cultural. However, real love is the issue of enjoying the processed Triune God in the divine dispensing. When we are in the fellowship of the divine life, that is, in the enjoyment of the Triune God, this enjoyment will have a certain issue or outcome. The outcome of the enjoyment of the Triune God is the divine love…With this love we spontaneously love others. In particular, we love all those who are organically related to our begetting Father (1 John 5:1). We have been begotten of the Father, and many others also have been begotten of Him. If we enjoy Him, the result will be that we love all His children. Therefore, loving the brothers is the issue of enjoying the Triune God. Instead of trying to imitate the Lord’s love, we need to be constituted of the Triune God who is love. This One abides in us and wants to impart Himself into our being and saturate us with Himself so that we may enjoy Him inwardly as love. This love should saturate us until it becomes the love with which we love the brothers. The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1769-1771, by Witness Lee
Amen dear brother!
“ This One abides in us and wants to impart Himself into our being and saturate us with Himself so that we may enjoy Him inwardly as love. This love should saturate us until it becomes the love with which we love the brothers.”
thank the Lord that He has commanded us to love Him and to love one another!
This new commandment is full of life and spirit to supply us inwardly to love the Lord and to love the saints.
May we remain in the enjoyment of Christ, for real love is the issue of the enjoyment of Christ in the divine dispensing.
Dear brother, the Lord’s new commandment that we would love others as He loved us is not merely an injuction, like the Old Testament commandments but rather words that are spirit and life to supply us with love to love those that are begotten of God.
When we enjoy and experience the dispensing of the Triune God there is a spontaneous issue of loving the brothers with the divine love.
We should not therefore seek to imitate such love but rather open to the Spirit to saturate us so that there will be such an issue of loving one another according to the God who is love, loving those begotten of the Father.
Amen brother!
O Lord give us much grace to love one another even as you have loved us!
Only with your dispensing your love in us can we love others.
The Lord’s word is spirit & life.
So, whenever we receive & keep Jesus’s word, we also receive life. However, we shouldn’t try in a natural way to fulfill God’s word.
The real fulfilment of God’s word comes from the enjoyment of the Triune God.
Loving one another should be the issue of enjoying our Christ.
We need to be constituted with the Triune God. He abides in us and we must abide in Him.
All of the divine attributes must become our human virtues.
It’s only because of our divine birth that we have the possibility of truly loving one another, but this love can only manifest itself as the result of our enjoyment of Christ…
God’s eternal purpose is to dispense and express His divine attribute in us. One of His many attributes is Love.
Therefore, as long as our human virtues are strengthened by His divine attributes by eating Him, It would be possible to express Himself and His sons even nonbelievers too.
Because we have the mingled spirit to live and act like our Father.
Praise the Lord for the sonship. Amen.
Amen Lord infuse us with yourself as love today, that we would really love one another. May we love the brothers and love the sisters
Brother, I enjoyed that whatever the Lord speaks is a word supplying us with life and spirit, whenever we take the Lord’s word and keep it we receive the life supply!
amen brother I enjoyed that Lord had commanded us to love another
this is not for us to do it by natural strength and effort but we need to spend time to enjoy the triune God to be filled with his and this will issue in us loving him and loving the brothers and sisters
Lord may we enjoy You today and always.
Lord supply, saturate, and constitute us with Yourself.
Thank You for Your desire to make us You.
Dear brother, a way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ is by keeping His new commandment to love one another for the expression of His love that all the people may know that we are His disciples. Hallelujah real love is the issue of enjoying the processed Triune God in the divine dispensing.
Amen, Lord, keep us in the divine dispensing of the Triune God! That we may be filled with You as our love, so that we may love all those who have been begotten of You. That all men may know that we are Your disciples.