We need to be brought into love, the inner substance of God, to enjoy God and His presence, love others as Christ did, love the Lord in incorruptibility, and be saved from degradation in the church life today. Amen!
We need to be those who overcome today, that is, those who love the Lord to the uttermost and overcome anything that replaces Christ in our life.
What is a real overcomer? It is not someone who is naturally strong and able, someone who is powerful and mighty. An overcomer is one who cannot do anything, so he depends on the Lord in everything.
Even in the smallest thing, he depends on God. In every step that he takes, he looks to the Lord, for he lives by the tree of life, depending on the Lord for all things.
An overcomer loves the Lord and eats the tree of life, depending on the Lord for everything.
It is amazing to see that, after God created man, He put him in the garden, and right there in the middle were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge.
God’s only commandment for man was that he would eat properly, that is, that he will not eat of the tree of knowledge, but mind the tree of life.
God cares for our supply. He cares for what we eat. He wants us to eat Him and partake of Him, so that we may live because of Him.
In the matter of eating, it is important that the food tastes good. There is a verse that says, Taste and see that the Lord is good.
The Lord comes to us as a tasteful word, a tasteful and tasty food, for us to enjoy and partake of.
God is not ugly or plain: He is tasteful, lovely, and sweet, and when we partake of Him, we are filled with enjoyment.
When we eat the Lord, when we eat His word, we are filled with joy. It is a pleasure to enjoy the Lord, for the enjoyment of Him fills our heart with joy.
Eating the Lord is not like being forced to eat our broccoli: we don’t really want to eat them, they don’t taste that good, but we have to eat them, so we do eat them. No. Jesus is so sweet! He is so tasty and good for food!
The more we taste the Lord, the more we eat Him, and the more we can testify that He is so good for us to eat, and He is so enjoyable!
The more we eat the Lord by loving Him and coming to His word with an exercised spirit, the more we find that He is so beautiful, so fair, so lovely, and so sweet; He is so nourishing and supplying, and He makes us happy.
When we eat Him, we live because of Him, and we become His overcomers; we overcome by eating Jesus, and we overcome to eat Him.
This is what Jesus is to us; He is the tree of life with fruits abundant, sweet, and there are fresh fruits each month.
As we eat Him, as we take Him in as our life and life supply, we live because of Him (John 6:57) and express Him.
We need to Love the Lord in Incorruptibility and be Brought in Love, His Love, to Enjoy Him and Love others as He did
Paul’s concluding word in the epistle to the Ephesians is a blessing of grace to “all those who love our Lord Jesus in incorruptibility” (Eph. 6:24).
We need to be such ones, those who love the Lord in incorruptibility. In this book of Ephesians the phrase “in love” – rich in feeling – is used repeatedly, at least six times.
Eph. 1:4 says, “Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love.” He chose us in love.
He predestinated us unto sonship in love. He makes us holy in love. We are becoming without blemish before God in love.
He just loves us and does all things in love.
Eph. 3:17 says that we are rooted and grounded in love. In order for us to be rooted for our growth in life and grounded for our building up, we must be in a condition of love.
If we don’t love the Lord and the saints with God as our love, we cannot be rooted and grounded for our growth and building up.
The love we need is not our love but the divine love.
The Lord is waiting for us to give Him the opportunity to deeply root us and ground us in love.
May we repent and return to Him, and may we let Him root us in love so that we may love Him not according to our own preferences but according to God, His heart’s desire, and His plan.
Eph. 4 mentions “in love” three times. Verse 2 says, “With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love.”
In ourselves, in our natural humanity, we have no ability to bear others in love; we may try to, but at one point we just can’t.
But when we’re in the divine love, when we take Christ as our love and love the Lord with this love, we will not care for others’ criticism but will let it go, and we can love all men.
Even those who are troublesome, we can love them because we love the Lord with His love, so He expresses Himself through us as our love.
Eph. 4:15 says, “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.”
Holding to truth shouldn’t be something rigid, something of religious duty; it is something we do in love, in the divine love.
Holding to truth is holding to what is real, what is true; these real things are Christ and the church, that is, Christ and the Body of Christ.
We must love the Lord and the church, the Body of Christ, with the divine love. Amen!
Verse 16 says, “Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.”
How is the Body of Christ built up? It is not merely by meeting together and having fellowship with the Lord and with the saints; it is in love.
The Body of Christ grows and is built up in love, the divine love.
Eph. 5:2 says, “Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.”
![But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and [through] the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. Eph. 4:15-16](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/But-holding-to-truth-in-love-we-may-grow-up-into-Him-in-all-things.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and [through] the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. Eph. 4:15-16")
Even as Christ loved us and has dispensed His love into us, so we need to walk in love.
We need to live, act and have our entire being in the divine love, and our daily walk needs to be in this love.
We need to love others with the divine love which God has imparted into us and which Christ is to us in spirit.
Eph. 6:24 concludes with, “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in incorruptibility.”
How should we love the Lord? Not in a wild way, not according to our selfish desire and personal preference, and even not according to our good intention, but in incorruptibility.
This kind of love is the divine love, not our own natural love.
In this kind of love, we can be made holy and without blemish, we can be rooted and grounded, we can bear one another for the oneness of the Body, and hold to the truth so that we can be joined, knit, and built up together in the Body as an organism for the expression of Christ.
Amen, we need to walk and have our being in love.
When we love the Lord in all these things, we love the Lord in incorruptibility, and we are preserved in the church life and on the Christian path, being saved from any degradation of the church.
This phrase, “in love” is full of feeling; love is the realm in which God is carrying out His economy, and love is the realm in which we experience God’s organic salvation to be full-grown and be built up in the Body.
It is in love that the Body is built up, and it is in love that we need to walk and follow the Lord today. May we open to the Lord concerning this and tell Him,
Hallelujah, we were chosen by God in Christ to be holy and without blemish before Him in love! Thank You, Lord, You want to root us and ground us in love. We open to You today and we give You the opportunity to deeply root us and ground us in love according to You, Your heart’s desire, and Your plan. Dispense Yourself into us as love so that we may have You as our love by which we can bear one another. We want to hold to truth in love; we want to love the Lord and love the Body of Christ so that we may grow up into Him in all things! Amen, Lord, keep us loving You and loving the saints with You as our love so that we may be built up in the Body in love. May our whole being be in love, and may we live, act, and walk in love. Praise the Lord, grace is with all those who love the Lord in incorruptibility!
Failing to Love the Lord is the Main Reason for the Degradation of the Church
![But I have [one thing] against you, that you have left your first love. Rev. 2:4 And because lawlessness will be multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold. Matt. 24:12](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/But-I-have-one-thing-against-you-that-you-have-left-your-first-love.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "But I have [one thing] against you, that you have left your first love. Rev. 2:4 And because lawlessness will be multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold. Matt. 24:12")
The phrase “in love”, which is so rich in feeling, is used repeatedly in the book of Ephesians.
However, in Rev. 2:4 the Lord Jesus rebuked the church in Ephesus for losing their first love toward Him.
In other words, Paul’s word to the church in Ephesus was to enjoy God as their love, experience Him and express Him as love, and be built up together in love.
However, it seems that they have lost this first love for the Lord, so degradation came in.
We as the church are the Body of Christ and the bride of Christ, the wife of Christ.
As the Body, we need to take Christ as our life. As the bride of Christ, we need to love the Lord by taking Him as our love.
If we fail to love the Lord, degradation comes in. Failing to love the Lord is the main reason for the degradation of the church.
We need to take heed to the warning in Rev. 2:4 and learn to simply love the Lord in incorruptibility, giving ourselves to just love Him and care for nothing else.
The source and main reason for the failure of the church throughout the ages is the loss of the first love for the Lord.
May we come to the Word of God, especially to the book of Ephesians, and be brought into love, God’s inner substance, that we may enjoy God as love and enjoy His presence in the sweetness of the divine love (Eph. 1:15; 2:4; 3:19; 5:2, 25; 6:23; cf. 1 John 4:16-19).
As we love the Lord and are brought into His inner substance of love, we will thereby love others as Christ did.
It is not that we love Him first and pursued Him first; He first kissed us with the kisses of His mouth, and we are drawn to run after Him.
This is the way He works and operates. He speaks to us, He unveils Himself to us, and we just love Him; we react to His appearing by just loving Him.
As we love the Lord with the love that He has infused into us and He is in us, we can love others even as He did.
The church in Ephesus failed in the matter of loving the Lord; such a failure became the main reason for the failure of the church throughout the ages (Matt. 24:12; Mark 12:30-31; cf. Dan. 7:25). This is such a warning to us.
The apostle Paul spent three years there and served and ministered among them, and he left Timothy, his young co-worker, to be with them.
![And we know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. In this has love been perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of the judgment because even as He is, [so] also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has punishment, and he who fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:16-19](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/And-we-know-and-have-believed-the-love-which-God-has-in-us.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "And we know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. In this has love been perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of the judgment because even as He is, [so] also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has punishment, and he who fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:16-19")
However, they failed in loving the Lord, and they left their first love toward Him.
Yes, they did have labor for the Lord and faith toward Him, and they had many good works, but the Lord still rebuked them for leaving their first love.
We need to be careful, for even working for the Lord can distract us from loving the Lord.
Being busy with the Lord’s work can cheat us and draw us away from loving the Lord.
We need to develop our love for the Lord, grow in love, and enjoy the Lord as our love, for only loving the Lord is what He is after and what satisfies Him.
When we love the Lord and keep His word, the Son and the Father come to us, love us, and make an abode with us.
What do we want in life? Do we want to merely work for God and be involved in His work, or do we have to have His presence, His appearing, and His dwelling with us?
If we love the Lord, we will abide in His word and will let His word abide in us, and He will love us, He will make an abode with us, and we will enjoy Him as the tree of life.
May we heed the warning seen in the history of the church in Ephesus, and may we give ourselves to love the Lord today and abide in His word so that we may love others with Him as our love.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to love the Lord in incorruptibility. Save us from losing our first love for You. Save us from entering into degradation by not loving You with the best love. Oh Lord, bring us into love, the inner substance of God, so that we may enjoy God as love and enjoy His presence in the sweetness of the divine love! Amen, Lord, only by loving You and enjoying You as love can we love others as Christ also did! Save us from the failure of not loving the Lord with the first love. Keep us enjoying You as the tree of life in the divine love and keep us in Your word day by day. We treasure Your appearance. We treasure Your coming to us to make an abode with us.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 551-580, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life (2022 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 3, entitled, Loving the Lord with the First Love, Enjoying the Lord as the Tree of Life, and Being the Golden Lampstand as the Testimony of Jesus for the Building up of the New Jerusalem as the Goal of God’s Eternal Economy.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Peace to the brothers and love with faith / From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. / Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ / In incorruptibility. (Scripture song)
– Will you be an overcomer? / Will you make this choice? / Christ is calling, Christ is calling, / Listen to His voice! / Will you be an overcomer? / To the Lord be drawn! / Keep the “first love,” never leave it, / Till the break of dawn. (Hymns #894)
– Chosen in Him Thy well-beloved Son, / We have our part in joy before Thy face; / Predestined, ere this world had yet begun, / For that blest world, where all bespeaks Thy grace. (Hymns #53)
About aGodMan
Paul concludes this Epistle with a blessing: “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility” (6:24). We need to love the Lord not in a wild way or in any selfish desire or natural good intention but in incorruptibility In this kind of love we can be made holy and without blemish, be rooted and grounded, bear one another for the oneness of the Body, and hold to truth—to Christ as the Head and the church as the Body—so that we could be joined, knit, and built up together in the Body as an organism for the expression of Christ. We also need to walk and have our being in the divine love. If we love the Lord in these things, we love Him in incorruptibility. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 1, pp. 554-556)
We need to be brought in love, the inner substance of God, so that we may enjoy Him in the sweetness of the divine love and love others with Him as our love, even as Christ did.
Dear brother, we can love others as Christ also loved the church by being brought into the inner substance of God as love and enjoy His presence in the sweetness of the divine love.
May we love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility and be saved from the failure of not loving the Lord like the church in Ephesus!
Amen brother. Our failure to maintain our first love for the Lord is the source & main reason for the failure of the church down the ages.
We must be in a constant condition of divine love.
Also, we should hold to the truth in love, holding to whatever is real & true. Real things are Christ and His Body.
How can we succeed in walking & having our being in the divine love? We must pray:
The loss of the loving the Lord with the first love is the main source of the church’s degradation.
However, to be “in love” – to love Christ and the Church – is not according to our heart, preferences or intentions but according to the divine love – the love with which Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.
Amen.
Lord thank you you are our portion to partake of you as our tree of life!
We love you lord and give you first place in our heart. Rekindle the flames for you alone lord.
Oh lord Jesus . Thank you we can love the saints because you love them first! What a wonderful love to experience; live and enjoy!
In Ephesians the phrase in love, which is rich in feeling, is used repeatedly… Later, the church in Ephesus was rebuked by the Lord because she had lost her first love toward Him (Rev. 2:4) …The church, which is the Body of Christ, is also the bride of Christ, Christ’s wife. With the Body, the emphasis is on taking Christ as life; with the wife, the emphasis is on loving Christ…The church in Ephesus, the recipient of this Epistle, failed in the matter of loving the Lord. Such a failure became the source of and main reason for the failure of the church throughout the ages (Rev. 2—3). (Eph. 6:24, footnote 2, Recovery Version Bible)
Amen Lord increase our love for you! May we be those who testimony be that we have loved you to the very end!
Amen! Yes Lord, infuse us with Yourself as love so that we may be rooted and grounded in love for You and the church! Give us the portion of love for today!
Amen! He is worth our everything and can become our everything
amen Lord may we love you as our first love
Amen. First, our love for the Lord, then it will become our love for one another. The measure of our love to the Lord will be the measure and means to our love for one another. The Lord is good and sweet to the taste, love is good and sweet to the taste. Nothing compares to the joy of having tasted His love.