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Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Gal. 2:20; John 14:21, 23; 21:15-19; Rev. 2:4
In the first chapter we saw that life is simply Christ Himself. Christ as life to us is a person. We can deal with many things without love, but we cannot deal with a person without love. We may deal with a table or a chair without love, but not with a person.
Suppose I am your roommate. If you do not love me, you will find it very difficult to have me as your roommate. It would be difficult for me to stay with you, and it would be difficult for you to stay with me. So love is needed in order to deal with a living person.
According to the Bible, our relationship to the Lord is likened to a marriage. We are His bride, and He is our Groom. A bride and a groom must have love. If a marriage lacks love, then that marriage will have difficulties. It is impossible to have a genuine marriage without love. Marriage is built uniquely upon love. Without love, there is no marriage life. Likewise, our relationship with the Lord is like a marriage, and this marriage depends upon love. There is no problem on the Lord’s side, for He certainly loves us. The problem is on our side. Do we love the Lord Jesus? When someone mentions the name of Jesus, do we have a sweet feeling within? Whenever we think even a little about Him, are we attracted to Him?
Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:14, “The grace of our Lord superabounded with faith and love in Christ Jesus.” Grace is abundant in two aspects: in faith and in love in Christ Jesus. Originally, Paul as Saul of Tarsus had nothing to do with Jesus Christ. He was even full of hatred toward the Lord. But one day he received mercy and grace from the Lord not only to believe in Jesus but also to love Him. Once, he hated Jesus; then, by the grace of God, he loved Jesus. This is the greatest mercy, and this is real grace. It is not enough just to believe in the Lord Jesus. We also must love Him. I am sure that we have all thanked God for His mercy and grace which have caused us to believe in the Lord Jesus. But have we ever prayed, “O Father, how I thank You that by Your grace I love the Lord Jesus”? Not only do we need faith but also love.
The entire Gospel of John shows us these two things. In the first part of the Gospel, we read that the Lord Jesus, who was God Himself, was the Word in the beginning. Then one day He became incarnated as a man to tabernacle among us, full of grace and reality. John’s Gospel encourages us to believe in this One. One of the most important verbs in the Gospel of John is believe. The Word became flesh, and we must believe in Him. To believe simply means to receive. John 1:12 says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name.” We believe by receiving, and we receive by believing. We believe what God has given, and by believing we receive what He gives.
But this is not all. In the Gospel of John, after speaking of believing, the Lord Jesus appealed for our love. He told us, “He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him...If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him” (14:21, 23). In these verses the Lord Jesus did not say, “He who believes in Me.” To believe in the Lord is one thing, but to love Him is another. To believe is to receive, but to love is to enjoy what you have received. So in the last chapter of John’s Gospel, the Lord asked Peter three times, “Do you love Me?” By this, the Lord was showing Peter that, as one who had received Him, he must learn to enjoy Him by loving Him.
We know that the sisters go to the supermarket, buy many groceries, and store them. Though these groceries are bought and stored, they have not yet been enjoyed. Therefore, the sisters must not only store them but also enjoy them.
It is unnecessary for me to ask if you believe in the Lord Jesus. But I have a big question mark as to whether you love the Lord Jesus. Tell me honestly, do you love the Lord Jesus? Do you love Him more than all other things? Peter could say, “Lord, You know that I love You.” Can we say the same thing? With an honest heart, can we say, “Lord Jesus, You know that I love You”? Now that we have believed in the Lord, He is appealing for our love.
Suppose I give a nice Bible to a brother. I want him not only to receive it but to love it and spend much time with it. This is why believing in the Lord is one thing but loving Him is something deeper. Paul said that the grace of our Lord superabounded to him with both the believing and the loving. It is by His grace that we believed in the Lord Jesus, and it is also by His grace that we love the Lord Jesus. We have faith in Him as well as love for Him. We believe in Him, and we love Him.
Have you ever noticed the length of Galatians 2:20? For many years I thought that that verse was too long. “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” — to me, just that much was sufficient. Many times I quoted just the first part of Galatians 2:20, thinking that the last half was unnecessary. But Paul added, “who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Paul simply could not contain himself. Since he had such a One living in him, the love of Christ constrained him. It is a constraining power. The love of Christ constrains us to live no more unto ourselves. He loved me and gave Himself up for me; now I love Him and live by Him.
The apostle Paul had been an enemy and persecutor of the Lord Jesus. But at a certain time the Lord knocked him to the ground. Then he was turned from being an enemy and a persecutor of Jesus to being one who loved Jesus. Real power is in love. Love can do everything. All the mothers know that there are many things that no one but mothers can do for their children, because mothers have the loving power. If we really love the Lord Jesus, we will have the power and strength to do anything for Him.
I once read a poem that was written by a sister near the time of her martyrdom. I cannot quote it, but I can recall the main point. She said that every martyr of Jesus loves Jesus and that everyone who loves Jesus will give his life for Jesus. Can you die for others? If you love them, you can. Love makes this possible. Nothing but love could make us die for others. If we love Jesus, we will be willing to die for Him. This was why the Lord Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me?” He asked him three times, and Peter answered, “Lord, You know that I love You.” Then eventually the Lord told him how he would die. “Truly, truly, I say to you, When you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go. Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God” (John 21:18-19). As one who loved Jesus, Peter would also be a martyr for Jesus.
Do you think that to follow and sacrifice your life for Jesus is a suffering? On the contrary, it is really an enjoyment because we love Him. The power is in the love.
Life is a person, and there is no other way to apply and enjoy this person but by love. We need to love Him. Some of the saints in past centuries used to pray, “Lord, show me Your love that I may love You.” We need to pray the same prayer. Once we see the love of Jesus, we will be so constrained, so captured, and so attracted. We will spontaneously love Him. Then by loving Him, we will enjoy Him. This is life, and since this life is a person, there is no other way for us to experience Him but by love. Only by loving Jesus can we enjoy Him.
If I want to enjoy a brother, I must love that brother. The more I love him, the more I enjoy him. The Lord Jesus is not a doctrine; He is not a set of gifts or a power; He is a person who needs our love, our appreciation, and our affection. How we need the sweet affection and love toward the Lord Jesus!
Many Christians today hold the teachings but are so cold toward the Lord. They have all the doctrines, the dispensations, the prophecies, and the types. Some even have doctor’s degrees in divine teachings, yet they are so cold toward the Lord Jesus. We can deal with teachings in this way, but we cannot deal with this person in a cold way. We can exercise our mind to deal with all the doctrines, and yet our heart remains cold. If we are going to deal with this person, we must have a hot and loving heart, a heart so full of affection that we would contact Him all the time. One book among the sixty-six books of the Bible, the Song of Songs, illustrates how the Lord Jesus is altogether lovely. This book shows how the Lord is so attractive and how we are those who love Him. We just love Him! Could you love some doctrine in this way? I do not believe that you could even love the gifts in this way. Do you love the gifts? Could you say, “O dear gifts, you are altogether lovely! Oh, the healing! Oh, the speaking in tongues! All the gifts are so sweet!”? Just try to speak in this way. It simply does not fit. But we can say a thousand times, “Lord Jesus, You are altogether lovely! O Lord Jesus, You are altogether lovely!”
Suppose you have the best furniture in your home. The chairs, the sofas, the desks, and the bedroom furniture are all very beautiful and expensive. But could you love them like you love a person? Could you go to one of the chairs and tell it, “Little chair, I just love you. You are altogether lovely”? Could you do that? I simply could not do it. I do care for all the furniture in my apartment, but I have never told it how much I love it. I simply cannot express myself in this way. But the more you say this to a person, the more there is the sweet love and enjoyment. This is because there is the affectionate attachment in a person. The Lord Jesus is not a chair; He is not a sofa; neither is He a teaching, a doctrine, a gift, or a power. He is a loving person. “My Beloved is altogether lovely! He is my life!” This life is nothing else but a lovely person.
We may talk about Christ being our life, but if we do not have the real love toward Him, He is only life to us in doctrine. We just have the doctrine of Christ as life; we do not have the enjoyment of Him as life. If we would enjoy Jesus as life, we must love Him. As long as we love Him, even if we do not know the term life, we will enjoy life. We will not know a doctrine, but we will enjoy Jesus, a living person, as our very life.
Suppose I tell a certain brother that I love him. This involves a lot. He is a person with a strong personality, having his own will, desires, and intentions. He also has his likes and dislikes. I say that I love him, but does this mean that I ask him to follow my desire? This is not love; this is a demand. If I really love him, I must follow his desire. This is why the Lord told Simon Peter to follow Him after Peter said that he loved Him. The Lord was saying that to take Him as our life and as our person, we must take His desire as our desire. We must take His will as our will. We must take His intention as our intention. To love Him as a person, we must take His personality.
If you are a husband, do you really love your wife? The best way to love your wife is by taking her personality, taking her will as your will. Suppose I am a husband, and I tell my dear wife, “Oh, I love you, but you must realize that I am the head! You have to submit yourself to me! Whatever I say, you must follow me!” Is this love? If I really know what love is, I would take her personality as my personality. I would take her will as my will. I would take her intention as my intention. However, to say this is easy, but to do it requires real love.
With the sisters it is the same. Do not say that because you love your husband, you prepare something for him. You may think that you prove your love in this way, but he may not like what you prepare. Merely to prepare something for him is not love. To love him is to take his desire as your desire and to take his personality as your personality.
We may have many teachings with all the gifts and power, and yet we would not take the personality of Christ. The Lord Jesus does not need someone who has teachings, gifts, and power. He needs someone like Peter to love Him, someone to tell Him, “O Lord Jesus, I love You! I follow You. I take You as my person. I take Your personality as my personality. I take Your will as my will. I take Your desire as my desire. I do not care for teachings, gifts, and power. I just care for You. I love You, and I follow You, taking You as my person.”
During the past years of my Christian life, I have heard many teachings, and I have been taught to do many things. But nothing works unless we love the Lord Jesus. Some people teach that we must reckon ourselves dead with Christ. But if we do not love Him, regardless of how much we reckon ourselves dead, we are never dead. On the other hand, if we say from our heart, “Lord Jesus, I love You; I take Your personality as my personality,” there is no need for us to reckon ourselves dead; we are dead already.
Others teach about holiness. But what is holiness? Holiness is simply the Lord Jesus Himself. If we try to be holy and have holiness, we get nothing. But if we just tell the Lord all day long, “Lord Jesus, I love You,” something will happen. When we are in the department store, let us say with every item we pick up, “Lord Jesus, I love You.” Automatically, so many things will be dropped. Eventually, we will come home with nothing but the Lord Jesus. When we are home, we will still say, “Lord Jesus, I love You.”
Brother John Nelson Darby lived to be over eighty-four years of age. One day when he was quite old, he was traveling and stayed overnight in a hotel. Before going to sleep, he said to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I still love You.” None of his writings inspired me as much as this single short sentence. That short word touched my heart. By that time he was quite old, yet he could still speak such a word to the Lord. It was many years ago when I read this. I immediately told the Lord, “Lord, keep me loving You all the time. I just ask You to do this one thing.”
Give yourself to love the Lord. No other way is so prevailing, and no other way is so safe, so rich, and so full of enjoyment. Just love Him. Do not care for anything else. Teachings, doctrines, gifts, and power do not mean much. We must continually tell the Lord, “Lord, keep me in Your love! Attract me with Yourself! Keep me all the time in Your loving presence!” If we will pray in this way, we will see what love we will have toward the Lord and what kind of life we will live. We will simply live by the Lord Himself. As long as we love Him from the deepest part of our being, everything will be all right. If we need wisdom, He will be the wisdom to us. If we need power, He will be the power. If we need the proper and adequate knowledge, He will even be that to us. Whatever we need, He is. Do not try to get anything else; just look to Him that He would reveal His love to you. Song of Songs 1:4 says, “Draw me; we will run after you.” We must ask the Lord to draw us, and then others will run after Him with us. To take Him as our life, we must love Him in such a way.
In Revelation 2 the degradation of the church began with the loss of the first love toward the Lord Jesus. The church in Ephesus had many good works and was even strong in faith, but the Lord rebuked her by saying, “I have one thing against you, that you have left your first love” (v. 4). They had lost the fresh and best love toward the Lord. This started the degradation of the churches. When we lose our love for the Lord, we start to backslide. We must go to the Lord and make a deal with Him: “Lord, be merciful to me! I do not need anything or anyone else but Your loving self. Simply show me Yourself! Draw me that we may run after You. O Lord, show me Your love that I might be constrained by Your love! I do not want to do anything for You, Lord. I just want to love You. I just want to take You as my person. I want Your personality as my personality, Your will as my will, Your desires as my desires. I want Your everything as my everything.”
Thus, we see that it is not simply a matter of believing but also a matter of loving. We must learn to love the Lord Jesus. If we have such a burning love toward the Lord Jesus, we will enjoy all that He is. Therefore, I do not encourage you to seek anything else. Go to the Lord and ask Him to draw you that you may run after Him. You must realize that the zoe life is such a loving, wonderful person and that love is the way to deal with Him.
