Ⅲ
The Lord's recovery is a recovery of loving the Lord Jesus with the first love, the best love, and of eating the Lord Jesus as the tree of life for the building up of the organic Body of Christ, which is the building up of the New Jerusalem as the goal of God's eternal economy—Eph. 4:15-16; Rev. 22:14:
A
To enjoy Christ as the tree of life, we must tell Him all the time, “Lord Jesus, I love You”; if we have a burning love toward the Lord Jesus, giving Him the first place in all things, we will enjoy all that He is—2:4-5, 7; 1 Cor. 2:9.
B
To believe in the Lord is to receive Him as life, and to love the Lord is to enjoy Him as life, to enjoy the very person whom we have received; faith is given to us by God so that by it we may receive Christ as our life; love issues out of such a wonderful faith and enables us to live out all the riches of the Triune God in Christ as our life—2 Pet. 1:1; Heb. 12:1-2a; 2 Cor. 4:13; Gal. 5:6; John 1:12-13; 21:15-17; Col. 3:4.
C
The very life that we received when we believed in the Lord Jesus is a person, and the only way to apply and enjoy this person is by loving Him with the first love; since the Lord Jesus as our life is a person, we need a new contact with Him to enjoy His present presence at this very moment and day by day—John 11:25; 14:5-6; 1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rev. 2:4-7; Col. 1:18b; Rom. 6:4; 7:6.
D
“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”—Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs, pp. 23-24.
Morning Nourishment
S. S. 1:2-4 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine. Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; your name is like ointment poured forth; therefore the virgins love you. Draw me; we will run after you…2 Cor. 5:14 For the love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died.
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 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…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 can say a thousand times, “Lord Jesus, You are altogether lovely! O Lord Jesus, You are altogether lovely!” (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” pp. 234-235)
Today’s Reading
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…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. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” pp. 237-238)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1972, vol. 3, “The Greatest Prophecy in the Bible and Its Fulfillment,” ch. 8