Outline
Ⅰ
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14)—this is the eternal blessing of the Triune God dispensing Himself into us for our enjoyment and the accomplishing of His economy:
A
The Holy Spirit as the circulation, the transmission, of the grace of Christ with the love of the Father is the supply in our Christian life and church life.
B
The entire church life depends upon 2 Corinthians 13:14, which is a description of the divine and spiritual circulation within us.
C
The current of the Divine Trinity as the inner circulation of the Divine Trinity revealed in 2 Corinthians 13:14 is our spiritual pulse.
D
God’s intention in His economy is to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—into His chosen people; God’s only goal in time is to dispense Himself into us day by day—Psa. 36:8-9.
Morning Nourishment
2 Cor. 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.Psa. 36:8-9 They are saturated with the fatness of Your house, and You cause them to drink of the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life…
[The blessing in 2 Corinthians 13:14] is composed of attributes of the Triune God: grace, love, and fellowship. The love of God the Father is the source, the fount, and grace is the flow, the expression, of love. With love as the source, we may do something for others or give something to them. This is grace as the outflow and expression of love…Love is with the Father as the source, and grace is with the Son as the course, the flow, the expression.
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is a matter of communication, transportation, transmission. Therefore, love is the source, grace is the flow, and fellowship is the transmission of the flow with the source. In this way we have love, grace, and fellowship as our enjoyment, and we participate in them. (Life-study of 2 Corinthians, p. 512)
Today’s Reading
To enjoy the Divine Trinity in full is to participate in the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit…When love comes out, it becomes grace. Then the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is the transmission, the communication, of the grace of Christ with the love of God the Father. Love is God the Father, grace as the outflow of love is Christ the Son, and the fellowship is the transmission of the Holy Spirit to transmit what the Son is as grace and what the Father is as love. The Holy Spirit transmits the divine riches into our being, and this transmission is the fellowship. Today we have the Divine Trinity operating in us in such a wonderful way.This operating of God is very quiet but very vigorous and efficient…The love, grace, and fellowship moving within us form a kind of current within us. This current is the circulation of the Divine Trinity.
With the Divine Trinity are the source, the course, and the flow. The source, the fountain, of this circulation is the love of the Father. The course, the outflow, of this circulation is the very grace expressed and conveyed to us by Christ. The grace of Christ comes out of the source of the love of the Father. The flow is the Holy Spirit as the fellowship, the communication, the transmission, the circulation, of the grace of Christ with the love of the Father.
We have two circulations within us. One circulation is the circulation of blood within our physical body, and the other circulation is the circulation of the Divine Trinity in our spirit. Without either of these circulations we would die either physically or spiritually. Second Corinthians 13:14 gives us a detailed description of this inner, spiritual circulation. This circulation is the supply in our Christian life and church life. This is similar to saying that the current of electricity is the supply of power to an entire city…We must see that the entire church life depends upon 2 Corinthians 13:14. It depends upon the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Spirit to flow as a current within our spirit.
If we miss the Spirit in our speaking, our speaking is empty. Furthermore, if the current within us is cut off while we are listening to the ministry of the word, our listening is empty. We need to speak in the flow and listen in the flow. The flow is the transmission of the Holy Spirit, and this transmission is the fellowship that conveys the grace of Christ the Son as the outflow of the love of the Triune God. The current of the Divine Trinity within us as revealed in 2 Corinthians 13:14 is our spiritual pulse. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” pp. 382-384)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” ch. 13; CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery,” ch. 13