Scripture Reading: Eph. 6:23-24; 1 Tim. 1:14; John 1:12; 14:23
Ⅰ
"Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those…"—Eph. 6:23-24:
A
The reason Paul inserted love between peace and grace is that the only way we can be kept in a situation of peace is by continually enjoying the Lord in love.
B
Realizing that love is crucial, Paul spoke of love in relation to peace and grace, indicating thereby that love is needed to preserve us in a condition of peace.
C
Love with faith is the means by which we partake of and experience Christ— 1 Tim. 1:14:
１
Faith is for receiving Him, and love is for enjoying Him—John 1:12; 14:23.
２
Love with faith indicates that we need faith as a match and support for our love—Titus 3:15.
３
The church needs to enjoy Christ in love with faith, which operates through love—Gal. 5:6.
４
Love comes from God to us, and faith goes from us to God:
ａ
By means of this traffic of love and faith, peace remains our portion— Eph. 6:23-24.
ｂ
We are kept in peace by the coming of God's love to us and by the going of our faith to Him; this traffic also keeps us in the continual supply of grace, in the enjoyment of the Lord.
５
Love is from God; it originates with God, not with us; eventually, God's love for us becomes our love for Him—1 John 4:19.
Ⅱ
"Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorrupti-bility"—Eph. 6:24:
A
Grace is needed for us to live a church life that fulfills God's purpose and solves God's problem with His enemy—1:2; 3:2, 8, 10-11; 4:7, 29.
B
The enjoyment of the Lord as grace is with those who love Him—6:24:
１
Love in 1:4 refers to the love with which God loves His chosen ones and His chosen ones love Him:
ａ
It is in this love that God's chosen ones become holy and without blem-ish before Him.
ｂ
God first loved us, and then this divine love inspires us to love Him in return.
ｃ
In such a condition and atmosphere of love, we are saturated with God to be holy and without blemish, just as He is.
２
According to 3:17, we may be rooted and grounded in love; as God's culti-vated land, we need to be rooted for our growth, and as God's building, we need to be grounded for our building up—1 Cor. 3:9.
３
Ephesians 4:15-16 reveals that we hold to truth in love and that the Body builds itself up in love:
ａ
This is the love of God in Christ, which becomes the love of Christ in us, by which we love Christ and the fellow members of His Body—1 John 4:7-8, 10-12, 16, 19.
ｂ
Love is the inner substance of God; the goal of Ephesians is to bring us into God's inner substance so that we may enjoy God as love and enjoy His presence in the sweetness of the divine love, and thereby love others as Christ did—5:2, 25.
C
For the proper church life we need to love the Lord in incorruptibility—6:24:
１
To love the Lord in incorruptibility is to love Him in the new creation, not in the old creation—2:15; 4:24; 2 Cor. 5:17.
２
To love the Lord in incorruptibility is to love Him in the regenerated and renewed spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit—John 3:6; 1 Cor. 6:17.
３
To love the Lord in incorruptibility is to love Him in and according to all the crucial things revealed and taught in the book of Ephesians; these things include the Father's predestination unto sonship (1:4-5); the Son's redemp-tion (vv. 6-7); the Spirit's sealing and pledging (vv. 13-14); the hope of God's calling, the glory of His inheritance in the saints (v. 18); the surpassing greatness of God's power, which made Christ the Head over all things to the church (v. 22); Christ's resurrection, which made us alive, resurrected us, and seated us in the heavenlies (2:5-6); the new man (v. 15); the unsearch-able riches of Christ (3:8); the economy of God's mystery (v. 9); the reality in Jesus (4:21); and the items of God's armor (6:11-17)—all of which are incorruptible; our love toward the Lord must be in these incorruptible things.
４
Christ is incorruptible, the church is incorruptible, and all the positive items related to the church in Ephesians are incorruptible.
５
To love the Lord in incorruptibility is to love Him according to the reality of the Body of Christ as the embodiment of the processed and consummated Triune God; this means that our being should be united, mingled, and incorporated with the Triune God to become with Him a four-in-one organic entity—4:4-6.
６
For the sake of the church life we need to love the Lord in incorruptibility, with a love that is incorruptible, immortal, and imperishable—5:2, 25; 6:24.