For Christ to be have preeminence in us and for Him to have the first place in our personal universe, Christ should have the preeminence in our love (Rev. 2:4).
Actually, whenever we do not have a fervent, burning love for the Lord, we enter into degradation and desolation, but whenever we exercise our heart to love Him and deal with anything that hinders our love, we are recovered and restored.
In the book of Colossians we see how Christ is the preeminent One in God’s administration and in His economy, and how He wants to be the preeminent One in our personal universe.
It is one thing for Christ to be preeminent in the things related to God and to His creation, but it is something more subjective and practical for us to give the Lord the first place in all things in our daily experience.
How can we give Christ the first place in all things, and how can we give Him the preeminence in our personal universe, that is, in everything related to us?
How can Christ be the preeminent One in our family life, church life, marriage life, work life, and personal life?
The key is our seeing, our vision; if we have a vision of the preeminence of Christ, our living and our church life will be revolutionized, for we will realize that in all things Christ must have the first place.
When we see Christ as the preeminent One, we will love Him more and more. When we pay attention to Him, focus on Him, and love Him, we will give ourselves to enjoy Him.
This means that, when Christ is preeminent in us, He will be the first in everything – not just in some things, but in all things that are related to us.
When Christ has the first place in us, the spontaneous issue is that we will hate everything that proceeds from the self and the flesh; we will hate and repudiate all the substitutes of Christ that are within us, and we will drop everything other than Christ.
Loving the Lord with the first love will cause us to drop all other distractions and just focus on Him. When we see a revelation of Christ’s preeminence, we will be constituted with Him and we will be delivered from any replacements of Christ.
We will be delivered from the elements of the world, gnosticism, mysticism, legalism, and asceticism; furthermore, we will drop all religious thoughts, all moral and ethical thoughts, all philosophical things, and even all kinds of spiritual gifts.
We will then become people who match God, putting Christ and only Christ as the preeminent One in everything. May we see Christ’s preeminence and give Him the first place in all things!
Christ should have the Preeminence in our Love by Maintaining and Developing our First love for the Lord
According to Rev. 2:4, the first sign that degradation starts is that we lose our first love for the Lord. Christ needs to have preeminence in all things, including our love; pour love is big thing – and Christ needs to be preeminent there.
To give the Lord the first place in all things is to love Him with the first love; we need to maintain and develop our first love for the Lord.
In the marriage life and our Christian life we need these two things – developing and maintaining our love for the Lord.
The nature of a love relationship is that it needs maintenance – we can’t ignore it, we have to maintain it.
Also, love has to be progressive; it always goes forward. This means that every day we need to maintain our love for the Lord.
In our marriage life we can’t forget to tell our spouse that we love them; we can’t say, I told you “I love you” yesterday or last week, and nothing changed since then! Rather, we need to develop and maintain our love relationship.
Similarly, we need to give the Lord the preeminence in our love by maintaining and developing our love for Him; this mainly comes by our spending time with Him.
Whatever we love, that is the thing that our whole heart and even our whole being is set on and occupied and possessed by (see 1 Tim. 6:10; 2 Tim. 3:2-4; 4:8; Titus 1:8).
For Christ to have the first place in our love means that we set our entire being – spirit, soul, and body, with the heart, soul, mind, and strength – absolutely on Him, that is, we 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.
This is to give Christ the preeminence in our love.
According to the Bible, however, especially in 1 and 2 Timothy and according to our experience, we may be lovers of many different things.
We may not all love the same things, but there are all kinds of things that we love; and we need to allow our love for Christ to become preeminent over all those things.
In 2 Tim. 3:2-4 we see that we may be lovers of self, lovers of money, or lovers of pleasure; these three goes together…and they hinder us from being a lover of God.
In 2 Tim. 4:8 Paul said that he loves the Lord’s appearing. In 2 Tim. 4:10 Demas abandoned Paul, having loved the present age. Christ needs to be preeminent in our love.
We need to overcome the love of the present age, the love of money, the love of the self, and the love of pleasure.
How do we do this? It is by loving Christ. When we love Him, we realize that He is better than all those other things; we realize that we are wasting our time when we’re in the other things, for Christ is so much better!
Whether there would be a day of glory in the church’s victory or grievous days of the church’s decline depends on what kind of love we have (Rev. 2:4; 2 Tim. 3:2-4).
The decline of the church begins with the loss of the first love for the Lord.
In our own Christian life, as soon as we stop maintaining and developing our love for the Lord, what happens is decline and degradation; as soon as we love Him, there is recovery.
Our love for the Lord should be absolute; we shouldn’t love anyone or anything above Him (Matt. 10:37-39).
The Lord doesn’t want 50% of our love or even 90%; He wants 100%.
In Matt. 10 He says that he who loves father or mother above Him is not worthy of Him; even in our intimate relationships, we need to give the Lord the preeminence.
We love the Lord because He first loved us, infusing His loving essence into us and generating within us the love with which we love Him (1 John 4:19, 8, 16).
How can we love the Lord? It is not of ourselves or in ourselves, but in the love that is He Himself being dispensed into us.
Every time we come to the Lord in His word to spend time with Him, as we contact Him in an intimate and affectionate way, we are infused with Himself as love, and we give Him the preeminence in our love.
Lord Jesus, we love You. We give You the first place in all things by faith. Be preeminent in our being, in our heart, and in everything related to us. Lord, we want to maintain and develop our first love toward You by spending much time with You in Your word, turning our heart to You and exercising our spirit to hear Your voice. Dear Lord Jesus, we love You! We give ourselves to love You. We set our entire being with our heart, mind, soul, and strength, absolutely on You, so that we may be occupied and possessed by You!
Being Saved from Degradation and Desolation by Giving Christ the Preeminence in our Love
The cause of the desolation of the temple of God, the house of God, was not merely because the children of Israel were evil and sinful; rather, the real reason was that they didn’t give God the first place.
Whenever we as God’s people do not exalt Christ and do not give Him the preeminence in all things, we fall into desolation and degradation.
Our failure to give Christ the preeminence, our failure to honor and exalt Him, is the real cause of our becoming sinful and evil. Oh Lord Jesus!
May we be saved from degradation and desolation by giving Christ the preeminence in all things, especially in our love!
When we properly appreciate and exalt Christ, and whenever we give Christ the preeminence by exalting Him to the uttermost, we are being restored and brought into a genuine revival.
When we love the Lord with the first love, we give Him the first place in everything.
God gave Christ the highest place in the universe, the highest position, the position of preeminence (Psa. 80:17); in our experience, we enter the way of restoration whenever we exalt Christ.
Whenever we as God’s people exalt Christ and give Him the first place in all things, there will be restoration and revival.
If our church life is somewhat cold and old, and if we desire to have a revival in the church, we need to exercise to give Christ the preeminence, recognising Him as the One who is at the right hand of God. When we call on such a One, we are restored and revived! Amen!
In our private life, married life, family life, and church life, Christ needs to be exalted and given the preeminence in all things! When we exalt Christ in every aspect of our living, there will be restoration everywhere!
And when we go out to speak the gospel to man, we simply need to tell them that Christ, the Son of God, became a man, died on the cross for their sins, resurrected, and ascended to the right hand of God in the heavens, and now they need to call upon Him!
Whenever a sinner calls upon the Lord Jesus, he exalts Christ, and that sinner is regenerated. As regenerated people, we need to come together in the meetings of the church and exalt Christ, praise Him, sing to Him, and shout His praises!
We shouldn’t be silent but rather exercise our spiritual birthright to exalt Christ! We all should sing His praises, and we all should exercise both our heart to love Him and our spirit to exalt Him!
Hallelujah! The more we exalt Christ and give Him the preeminence in our love and in everything, the more we will be revived and restored.
Lord Jesus, You are at the right hand of God. You have the preeminence in our private life, our family life, our married life, and our church life. Lord Jesus Christ, we exalt You! We praise You! You are the man at the right hand of God, and You have the highest position in the universe! Hallelujah, even though man rejected Christ and put Him on the cross, God raised Him from among the dead and seated Him at the right hand of His majesty in the heavens! Praise the Lord Jesus Christ!
Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Să-I dăm lui Cristos preeminența în dragostea noastră prin menținerea dragostei dintâi pentru Domnul.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of the Psalms, msgs. 8, 30-31 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ (2019 Thanksgiving Conference), week 3 on the topic of, The All-inclusive, Extensive Christ Having the Preeminence in All Things.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Will you be an overcomer? / To the Lord be drawn! / Keep the “first love,” never leave it, / Till the break of dawn. (Hymns #894)
– Loving You, Lord’s all I’m living for; / Loving You, Lord, to the uttermost. / Lord, forgive me if I’ve left my first love, / That’s the bridal love to You. / You are more than any one I love. / You are more than anything I have, / Even my dear self; nothing can compare / To my beloved Bridegroom. / I give You the first place in all things by faith. / Let nothing take Your place in all my heart. / Infuse me with Yourself abundantly / ’Til we meet, dear Lord. / I’ll love You with the best love. (Song on, The best love for the Lord)
– God intends in everything / Christ should have preeminence, / And that such a Christ of all / We should now experience. (Hymns #495)
About aGodMan
