«　WEEK 12　DAY 6　»

　　1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. He who does not love abides in death.

　　John 5:24 …He who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life.

　　Death is of the devil, God’s enemy Satan, signified by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which brings death. Life is of God, the source of life, signified by the tree of life, which issues in life (Gen. 2:9, 16-17). Death and life are not only of these two sources, Satan and God; they are also two essences, two elements, and two spheres. To pass out of death is to pass out of the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of death into the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of life. This took place in us at our regeneration. We know (oida) this, we have the inner consciousness of this, because we love the brothers. Love (agape—the love of God) toward the brothers is a strong evidence of this. Faith in the Lord is the way for us to pass out of death into life; love toward the brothers is the evidence that we have passed out of death into life. To have faith is to receive the eternal life; to love is to live by the eternal life and express it.

　　Not loving the brothers is evidence of not living by the essence and element of the divine life and not remaining in its sphere. It is living in the essence and element of the satanic death and abiding in its sphere. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 236-237)

　　Through regeneration we have passed out of the source, essence, element, and sphere of death into the source, essence, element, and sphere of life…. First we have the source. Then out of the source comes the essence. The essence forms an element, and eventually this element becomes a sphere. Therefore, regarding life, we first have the source of life. Out of this source of life comes the essence of life. The essence forms the element of life, and this element of life then becomes the sphere of life.

　　We may use a fountain to illustrate the difference between the source of life, the essence of life, the element of life, and the sphere of life. Water flows out of a fountain and becomes a river. The fountain is the source. We may say that H2O is the essence of what comes out of the fountain. This essence then takes the form of water, and the flowing water becomes a river. Here we have the fountain as the source, the H2O as the essence, the water as the element, and the river as the sphere. Therefore, in the sphere of the river we have the water as the element, and the essence of this element is H2O. The source of it all is the fountain.

　　As children of God, we have received the divine life from God. God is the source, the fountain, of the divine life. The essence of the divine life is the very being of God. Hence, God’s being, His essence, is the essence of the spiritual water we have received as the divine life. This life also is an element by which and in which we can live. When we live in the element of the divine life, the divine life becomes the sphere of our living. Now we are living in the sphere of the divine life, possessing the element of the divine life, and enjoying the essence of the divine life. Furthermore, as we enjoy the essence of the divine life, we are organically joined to God as the source of this life. This is the reason we say that with the divine life we have the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere.

　　The principle is the same with death….We were living in the sphere of death, possessing the element of death, and suffering the essence of death. Moreover, we were joined to Satan, the source of death. Therefore, before regeneration, we were experiencing and suffering the source, essence, element, and sphere of death. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 245-246)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 John, msgs. 28, 34; CWWL, 1963, vol. 3, “Basic Principles of the Experience of Life,” chs. 1-4; CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “The Divine Economy,” chs. 4-5