LOVE THE LAW OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

The most powerful influence in the universe is love. This is true in the natural order, how much more so in the spiritual order. Ever since sin came in, God has been working to form a spiritual universe, which will be in perfect accord with what He is in Himself. It is described in a few words, “God ... all in all” (1 Cor 15: 28); God known in love, and loved by all. So that the whole system will be pervaded by love.

There is no doubt that the physical system which He created at the beginning was intended to prefigure the spiritual system. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork”, Ps 19: 1. Christ is said to be the Sun of righteousness, and the bright morning Star.

The part of the sidereal heavens with which we are most familiar is the planetary system. It is composed of the sun and moon, and the various planets. The sun is the great controlling centre of this system. All these bodies revolve in their respective orbits round the sun. They never coalesce, each planet is held in its proper relation to the sun, and to each other part of the system, by the law of gravitation, that is, by its attraction to the sun. If any planet could be detached from its relation to the sun, it would rush to destruction. All has been maintained these thousands of years in perfect order by this law of attraction, or gravitation.

The sun prefigures Christ as the divinely appointed head and centre of the spiritual universe. “I, if I be lifted up … will draw all to me”, John 12: 32. God has raised up Christ from the dead, and exalted Him to glory, has put all things under His feet, and given Him to be Head over all things to the assembly, which is His body, Eph 1: 20-22; see also Heb 2: 5-8; John 3: 35; 13: 3; 16: 14, 15. The assembly, or family of God, is that part of the spiritual universe which is being formed at the present time, and that which of all the many families will ever be the innermost circle, the family in the closest relation to Christ, and to the Father of glory.

But every other family in the universe of God will be attached to the one centre. Each will move in its divinely appointed orbit, and thus the whole will be maintained in living unity and order. Love will be the uniting bond, cementing all in one harmonious whole. What the attractive power of gravitation is in the physical universe, the power of love is in the spiritual universe. It will be a system pervaded by divine love.

“Love is of God”; “God is love”. All true love emanates from God. It has reached us in the Son of God. It has been expressed in Him, and fully manifested in His death. “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us”, 1 John 3: 16; 4. 9, 10.

The apostle spoke of three great influences which have affected us as believers: faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love. Hence the exhortation, “Follow after love”, 1 Cor 13: 13; 14: 1. That which governed the life of Paul was the love of Christ. “In that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. Again, “The love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all ... that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised”, Gal 2: 20; 2 Cor 5: 14, 15. This love enabled him to suffer the loss of all things, to endure the greatest privations and sufferings, even to lay down his life in the service of Christ. So that he was wholly devoted in serving the saints even if misunderstood and misjudged, and could say, “I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if, even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved”, 2 Cor 12: 15.

What God is doing at the present time is attracting souls to Christ. “No one can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him”, John 6: 44. Those thus drawn to Christ are baptised by the Holy Ghost into one body; this embraces every believer from Pentecost until the Lord comes. Every true believer receives the Holy Spirit, and is thus united to Christ, the Head in heaven, and so becomes a member of the one body. There is one body, one Spirit, one hope of our calling.

In being brought into relationship to Christ, we are brought into relationship with one another, we are members one of another.

Now the bond which practically holds us in relationship to the Head, and to one another is love. Nothing else will hold us to Christ, or to one another. Love is the bond of perfectness. If there be a weakening of our attachment to Christ, there will be a weakening of our attachment to one another. If we each move in our appointed orbit in relation to Christ, we shall move in proper relation to one another.

It is in this way the unity of the Spirit is maintained. Therefore the important thing is that we should abide in the love of Christ. No amount of scriptural knowledge, no zeal for correct ecclesiastical position, or administerial order, will hold us together in unity. Brotherly love is the cementing bond, and this is maintained as we abide in divine love.

Love is the law which governs the spiritual world. As the apostle said, “The love of the Christ constrains us”. This alone will deliver us from our natural self-centredness. As we abide in the love of God, we are formed in love. We love in the measure in which we are formed in love. “He that abides in love abides in God, and God in him”. “We love because he first loved us”. The test is the “neighbour”, or the brother near to us. “This commandment have we from him, That he that loves God love also his brother”, 1 John 4: 16, 19, 21.

Another thing which tends to draw us away from Christ and from one another, is the love of the world, and the things which are in the world. The remedy for this is abiding in the love of God. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”, 1 John 2: 15. The Lord’s desire was that the love with which the Father had loved Him, might be in us. As that love is known in our hearts we are proof against the seductions of the world. How important therefore is the exhortation, “praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God”, Jude 20, 21.

The beginning of all decline is the weakening of this bond of holy love, whether in the individual, or in the assembly. “Thou hast left thy first love”, Rev 2: 4. The root of all our local difficulties may be traced to this cause. Hence how valuable to us is the Lord’s supper, as keeping before us the love of divine Persons, and so quickening our affections. Nothing should affect us so powerfully. It is indeed a feast of love. There we are in “the banqueting house”; His banner over us is love. But it is important that we partake of it in simplicity and affection, not in a merely formal way.

No wonder the apostle says, “Follow after love”, 1 Cor 14: 1. May the Lord direct our hearts into the love of God!

From The Believer’s Friend vol 22 (1930)