Love the Lord and Enjoy the Lord as Grace, being Rooted and Grounded in Him in Love

Grace is with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility; the enjoyment of the Lord as grace is with those who love Him with God as their love, and we can know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ as we are being rooted and grounded in love. Hallelujah!

This week in our morning revival we come to the topic, Loving the Lord Jesus in Incorruptibility.

May we open to the Lord to shine on us, speak to us, and infuse us with what is in His heart concerning the matter of loving Him in this particular way, in incorruptibility.

Our need today is to allow the Lord to perfect our love toward Him and toward one another for the organic building up of the church.

Our love needs to be recalibrated; we need to have a renewed and refreshed love both toward the Lord and toward one another.

May we pray and ask the Lord to rekindle, reestablish, and reaffirm our love toward Him and toward one another.

He poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and we love Him because He first loved us.

He loved us, He gave Himself up for us, and we simply love Him back with this love which is Himself, and we love one another with God as our love.

On one hand, we’re here loving the Lord; on the other hand, we are here loving one another.

Our love toward Him needs to grow, and our love toward one another needs to be perfected and rekindled.

Our loving the Lord and loving one another is for the building up of the Body of Christ, for the Body builds itself up in love.

When the Lord comes back, He will not come to rapture a certain organization or society of Christians; He is not coming back for a good system of Christians and for well-behaved Christians.

The Lord will return to rapture His bride, the overcomers, those who love the Lord and who love one another.

By loving the Lord and loving one another today we are being perfected and prepared to be the Lord’s bride and hasten His return.

No matter what other things we learn or pay attention to, we cannot miss the matter of love.

Love is basic. Love is essential. Love is the shortest path. Love is the surest path for us to attain God’s goal.

We can simply give ourselves to love the Lord, for no other way is so prevailing, so sweet, so rich, and so full of enjoyment.

In the book of Ephesians in particular, in every chapter we see the expression “in love”, and Eph. 6:24 says, Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in incorruptibility.

The book of Ephesians is the highest book in the New Testament, even in the whole Bible, concerning the revelation of the church as the Body of Christ.

In such a book with such high revelation, the apostle Paul shows us the way to participate in the building up of the Body of Christ.

In order for God to accomplish His economy in the church, we need to be in love; all things we do have to be in love, the love which God has poured into our hearts and with which we love the Lord and we love one another. Hallelujah, we’re being rooted and grounded in love!

The Enjoyment of the Lord as Grace is with those who Love Him: Lord Jesus, we Love You!

The book of Ephesians ends with Eph. 6:24 which says, Grace with all those who love our Lord Jesus in incorruptibility.

After such a high revelation of Christ and the church in this book, the apostle ended not by charging us to be more diligent, to give ourselves to labor with the Lord, or even to pray; He ended the epistle by saying that we need to love the Lord in incorruptibility.

The way for us to receive the revelation concerning the Body of Christ and participate in the building work of the Body of Christ is uniquely by the way of love.

And this love is not just any kind of love: it is loving the Lord in incorruptibility.

Grace is needed for us to live a church life that fulfils God’s purpose and solves God’s problem with His enemy (Eph. 1:2; 3:2, 8, 10-11; 4:7, 29).

Paul opens the book of Ephesians by greeting us, the recipients of this epistle, with, Grace be with you, grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is not a routine greeting; in order for us to see the high revelation of the church as the Body of Christ, we need grace.

Without grace, it is impossible to attain to the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

Grace is the Triune God in Christ to be enjoyed by us; it is the Triune God being everything for us and doing everything for us as we enjoy Him.

In order for us to go on with the Lord, accomplish His economy, build His Body, and prepare His bride, we need to enjoy Him as grace, exercise faith, and live in love.

The enjoyment of the Lord as grace is with those who love Him (Eph. 6:24).

Grace is with all those who love the Lord Jesus in incorruptibility.

The book of Ephesians starts with Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and it ends with, Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in incorruptibility.

Grace is the element of peace and is the condition for us to enjoy grace.

As we enjoy the Triune God in Christ as grace to us, the result is that we are brought into a condition of peace.

Only in a condition of peace can we grow in the Lord and can we participate in the building up of the Body.

To go on with the Lord, to be maintained in the condition of peace, we need to have more grace, and to have more grace, we need to experience love with faith.

In 1 Thessalonians we see the shield of love and faith and in Galatians 5:6 we see faith operating through love.

Here in Ephesians, it is about love with faith; in order for us to be maintained in the condition of peace, for us to continue our enjoyment of grace, we need to experience Christ’s love supported and strengthened by faith.

This love is needed for us to be maintained in the condition of peace, to enjoy more grace, and to accomplish God’s economy in the church.

However, this love needs to be supported and matched by faith. If our faith is shaken, we are subjected to Satan’s doubts and questioning, and our love will also diminish and will be affected.

We begin with grace and peace, and we end with peace with grace; in between love and faith are added.

Love with faith strengthens us to continue to enjoy grace.

We cannot have the practical building up of the church without grace; grace swallows up all the differences and races, and this grace is strengthened and supplied by love and matched with faith.

Eph. 1:4 speaks of “in love”; this refers to the love with which God loves His chosen ones and His chosen ones love Him.

God the Father chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love. In love.

God didn’t just choose us – He chose us in love. His choosing of us to be holy and without blemish before Him was in love.

This love is not your love or my love: it is the love of God which has been given to us to cause us to respond to Him in love.

The love from us actually begins from Him, for we love because He first loved us.

God first loved us, and then this divine love inspires us to love Him in return.

It is in this love that we as God’s chosen ones become holy and without blemish before Him.

In such a condition and atmosphere of love, we are saturated with God to be holy and without blemish, even as He is.

We should not be discouraged: God knows that we cannot love, so He loves us, He inspires us with His love, and He causes us to love Him in return.

It is good to come to the Lord and tell Him,

Lord Jesus, we love You, but we no love of ours, for we have none to give! We cannot love You in ourselves; we come to You and we allow You to love us so that we may be inspired by Your divine love and love You in return. Infuse us with Yourself as love. May we love You and enjoy You as grace. Amen, Lord, we need grace so that we can live a church life that fulfils God’s purpose and solves God’s problem with His enemy. We give ourselves to just love You so that we may have the enjoyment of the Lord as grace. Keep us in a condition and atmosphere of love so that we may be saturated with God to be holy and without blemish, even as He is! Amen, Lord Jesus, may grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in incorruptibility!

Rooted and Grounded in Love: We are Rooted for our Growth and Grounded for our Building up IN LOVE!

In Eph. 3:17 we are told, That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love…” We may be rooted and grounded in love (v. 17) and we can know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ (v. 19).

What a privilege to know the love of Christ that surpasses every knowledge and understanding! We can know this love in a subjective and experiential way.

1 Cor. 3:9 says that we are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.

On one hand, we are God’s cultivated land; as such, we are rooted in Christ as the rich soil. Our being rooted in Christ is for our growth, and it is in love.

On the other hand, we are God’s building; as such, we are grounded in Christ for our being built up, and our being grounded is in love. We are rooted in love and grounded in love.

As we allow Christ to make His home in our hearts through faith, Christ is rooting and grounding us in love.

We are like little plants that have been plated into Christ; He is the rich soil into whom we’re rooted in love.

We need to send roots down into Him to absorb His riches in love, and we will grow with the rich nutrients received from Christ as the soil into whom we’re rooted.

We have Christ in us and we are in Christ; we are rooted in Him, growing with what comes out of Him, and we absorb what He is for our growth in life. All this is in love.

Something from us grows into the soil and becomes one with Christ as the soil; this is in love.

We are also grounded in Christ, and this grounding is in love.

The foundation has been firmly established, and we are grounded in Christ in love.

Christ is the ground that holds the whole building of God; He is the ground, the foundation, and every part of God’s building.

For our growth, we need to be rooted in Christ in love. For our building up, we need to be grounded in Christ in love.

We need to be in a condition of love.

This love, however, is not our own love, our natural love; it is the divine love. God’s love becomes the love by which we love Him.

As we open to the Lord, fellowship with Him, and spend time with Him in His word with a turned heart to love Him and an exercised spirit to receive Him, we remain in a condition of love, and we’re rooted and grounded in Him in love.

We love God not with our own love but with the love which He is in us and which He has poured into our hearts.

While we love the Lord with this love, we’re in love – we are in the condition of love!

In this condition of love, we are being deeply rooted and grounded for our growth and building up.

May we give the Lord the opportunity to deeply root and ground us in love by allowing Him to dispense His love into us and loving Him and love the brothers with Him as our love.

Many times, sad to say, we hinder the Lord from having the opportunity to root us and ground us because we love Him according to our natural tendency.

May we love the Lord according to His good pleasure.

May we repent and ask the Lord to help us love Him not according to our preferences but according to Him, according to His heart’s desire, and according to His plan!

Lord Jesus, root us and ground us in love. Amen, Father, strengthen us with power through Your Spirit into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith so that we may be rooted and grounded in love! Lord, help us to love You not according to our own preferences but according to You, Your heart’s desire, and Your plan! May we send our roots deep down into You to absorb the rich nutrients of Christ, the soil into whom we’re rooted in love. May we be grounded in Christ, the solid foundation, for our building up in love. Amen, Lord, may we know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 551-554, 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 3, entitled, Loving the Lord Jesus in Incorruptibility.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Sweet feast of love divine! / ’Tis grace that makes us free / To feed upon this bread and wine, / In mem’ry, Lord, of Thee. / Here every welcome guest / Waits, Lord, from Thee to learn / The secrets of Thy Father’s breast, / And all Thy grace discern. (Hymns #228 stanzas 1&2)
  – God before the world’s foundation / Chose the Church in Christ the Son, / That the Church might share the sonship, / Holy, blameless, with Him one; / That the Church be His possession / With the Spirit as the seal, / Of our heritage the earnest / While His Son He does reveal. (Hymns #823 stanza 1)
  – For this cause we pray the Father God— / Strengthen Thou with might our inner man; / Make Yourself at home in all our hearts, / Root us, ground us in Your love and for Your plan. (Hymns #1232 stanza 4)