THE LOVE OF GOD
I would seek the Lord’s help to speak a little about love, something that is learned from God alone, and has come into display in this dispensation as never so fully before; for God has become known in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Not that it was absent in the previous dispensation, but for God to make His love fully known to us it required the incarnation, that a divine Person has taken His place in manhood’s form, that love may shine in its blessed fulness as neither creation, nor law, nor prophets could ever express it. In that blessed Person God is commending His love to us. It is a wonderful thing that God should commend His love to us, as it says, “but God commends his love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us”, Rom 5: 8. It has been expressed in its fulness in the death of His Son. What a God! In that He should move like this towards us when we were sinners, guilty, and hell-deserving; He commends His love to us in the death of Christ. Now that is not all, but He shed His love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It requires divine Persons to express love, and to bring it within our range in all its blessed fulness. So it shines for us today in all its fulness. Had it been in any less a personage, it may well have been diminished, but in the Person of Christ it still shines in all its fulness, in spite of all that has come in.
Paul speaks of that too, that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, see Rom 8: 39. So I believe the Lord would encourage us at this time to grow in a deeper sense of His love, that we may be more formed in our appreciation of Himself. Paul speaks of love in 1 Corinthians 13, as a quality in itself that never fails; he says that other things are to be done away, but now abide these three things, faith, hope and love, three characteristics of the Christian life, but the greater of these is love, see 1 Cor 13: 13. Faith is essential in these days, and hope to strengthen and sustain us, but when the need for these is done away love will remain, and will shine in all its blessed fulness in God’s eternal home. So Paul says to follow after love as though it is to be our leader, it is to direct us and to guide us; as we said, it has its source in God alone, and we learn it as it has been displayed in Christ. We appreciate God’s mercies that reach us in all our need, but His love is behind all that. We appreciate His care for us and His wisdom, but these things are the way love has taken to commend itself to us in His wisdom, and in His grace, and in His mercy. We may say it is love adapting itself to our needs and our circumstances, but behind all these activities there is the greatness of His heart of love. I think He would encourage us to come to know love in its fulness in Himself. Love in its fulness was not exactly learnt in the wilderness, although it was there, but what shines in the wilderness is His mercy and His grace and His patience. As Mr Darby says—
In the desert God will teach thee
What the God that thou hast found—
Patient, gracious, powerful, holy;
All His grace shall there abound. (Hymn 76)
But I think to know the love of God in its blessedness the people had to come into the land, and what did they find there? Not exactly manna to meet their need, but they found there trees that they had never planted, houses they had never built, wells and springs flowing in all their blessed fulness. Typically, in the land God is shining in all His fulness, but the hindrance to enjoying it is on our side. So I think God in His approach to us commending His love in the Person of Christ, meeting our sins and our need on the way, is all to bring us to Himself, that we may know Him and the fulness of His love.
That is what Paul speaks of here in Ephesians, “being rooted and founded in love”. This passage and John 17, are both prayers. I think there is an insight into the affections of the Lord Jesus and of Paul in these prayers. Paul is not exactly ministering here, he is bowing his knees to the Father. We would have liked to have heard the Lord Jesus and heard Paul pray; you like to hear brothers pray; there is liberty to speak to and with God that we may not have with one another, and in our prayers our hearts and our motives are all laid bare. That is what Paul is doing here, he is bowing his knees that they may be “rooted and founded in love”; great minister is he was, he realised that only God could endear Himself and establish the saints like this. We often, and rightly, pray in deep exercise before meetings like these, but I believe there is more need for prayer and exercise after the meetings, that is the idea of being rooted and founded, it takes time; as going over matters in the presence of God that the seed may not be lost; that the cares of this life may not spoil what divine love would sow in our hearts. That is what Paul is doing here, he is praying that the ministry may be effective in the hearts of the saints.
So I think “rooted and founded”, is, as we speak, in the land. The children of Israel were never meant to dwell in the wilderness, they were there far too long. As we take root, we grow and are strengthened in the present enjoyment of the love of God. It is not so easy to upset a lover. We know in practical matters we can be very free where love is; we can say things that in other circumstances may give offence, but where there is bond of love and understanding, the bond is maintained in spite of what may need to be corrected. That was Paul’s great exercise for Corinth that their hearts should be expanded. It was the one thing, I may say, that was needed most at Corinth. They needed help as to public order and what they were allowing, but the great deficiency at Corinth, as so generally, was love. That is why Paul devotes a whole chapter to it, because the whole thing can be corrected where love is in active enjoyment and expression. So Paul’s exercise is that being rooted and founded, they would not be easily moved. Many exercises come into our lives and experiences; God Himself may bring in ways of discipline as He needs to, but in all His ways is His hand of love. So there is a need to know the Father better, that we may not be grieved through His necessary disciplinary ways with us, nor be rebellious and murmuring, but that we may understand that behind all His ways is His heart of love. He speaks of chastening us, but chastening us as sons, see Heb 12: 5. He speaks of leading the saints with His eye upon them, see Ps 32: 8. He would leave an impression in all His ways of the greatness and strength of His love.
Paul, as rooted and founded in that love, says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”, Rom 8: 35. Some of the dear brethren here have known some of these things, but what sustains us in it all is the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So God would lead us to be rooted and founded in love, that we may rise beyond the circumstances which so readily overwhelm us, to dwell in His love. Jude writing in a very dark day, says, “keep yourselves in the love of God”. However bad the clouds may be on my side, the love of God is always shining in its blessed fulness in Christ Jesus our Lord. Mr Darby again says—
Still sweet ‘tis to discover,
If clouds have dimmed my sight,
When passed, eternal Lover,
Towards me, as e’er, Thou’rt bright.
(Hymn 51)
The clouds may come in on our side, but there is no cloud upon Christ; love is still shining there in its fulness however long and dark the night may be. The bright and morning star has already arisen, bringing hope, and longing for His coming. Paul’s desire here as to being rooted would result in the saints being more fruitful, there is no fruit without roots, and I believe there are no roots without proper feeding. The soil may be poor, as it is with us, but the plant can take root from good food. Part of the food of the priest was the breast of one of the offerings, reminding us of the love of Christ. As feeding on that love we become rooted and able to stand the storms of the present time. There was that in the offerings speaking of Christ that the priest was to make his food, that he might be able to carry out his service, that the system might be maintained in its fulness; and that is how things are going on today as we are feeding on Christ.
I think John was like that, he was the one who was leaning on the breast of Jesus in John 13; he was dwelling in love. One thing you get as you lean on the breast of Jesus is a fresh view of the brethren; there you see the saints in all their glory. That is what you have in John 17, the breast of the high Priest with the saints upon it. Think of how He speaks about them, When I was with them I kept them in Thy Name, these that are in the world, I sanctify Myself for them. What a place they had on His heart! I think John had his view of the brethren as leaning on the breast of Jesus. As there he had a peculiar advantage that Peter did not have. When Peter wanted to ask a question he made a sign for John to ask it, showing the simplicity and sweetness that love gives to one that was leaning on His breast.
I commend that to you, that on the breast of Jesus we see the saints, and we see them shining in their beauty and lustre. Each one of the stones in the breastplate had a particular colour and character. It says they were in settings of gold, and they could never be removed. Many days in the wilderness journey, some would be almost overcome with difficulties, but that did not alter the shining of each stone on the breast of the priest. However I may view the brethren, that is how God views them, shining there in all their glory. I love to think of that chapter, Exod 28. The high priest went in with his garments of glory and beauty, as described there, and the light shone from the candlestick and illuminated the brightness of the stones. As he comes out, perhaps Judah or Dan may have to be corrected, but he had a view of them there shining in all their particular beauty. That is how love works, not ignoring the circumstances, nor what has to be taken account of, but handling the situation in love. I think that is how John writes his epistle. So he writes that remarkable verse, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren”, 1 John 3: 14. That is a priest writing.
Here as we read in John 17, the Lord’s desire is that the Father’s love for the Son may be in them. On the holy mountain, He said, “This is my beloved Son”; the love of the Father for the Son shone in all its peculiar lustre, as it will for all eternity. Peter comes to see that and says, We were eyewitnesses of His majesty, see 2 Pet 1: 16. He has a glory that is His alone. You can understand that love resting there in all its complacency, but Oh what grace, as He says in verse 23, “thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me”. That is love shining in all its blessedness. The Lord, in praying here, shows how much the saints mean to Him and desires that they may come into the enjoyment of that love. He says in verse 26, “And I have made known to them thy name ... that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them”, not only shining upon us but “may be in them”. It involves that the blessed Holy Spirit is in our hearts, being able to negate the features that would hinder and to encourage us to live in the blessed shining of His love. It says, not only that the love may be in them, but “I in them”. You see Christ will thus be in expression. As we said before, our measure and our formation is in love. Much as we need light and teaching, our measure and formation is love. Love, as I said, shines in all its fulness from God alone, but come near to us that it may be in us, that we may be marked by love. That is what Paul is saying to the Corinthians, whatever I have if I have not love I am nothing, see 1 Cor 13. A servant of the Lord used to encourage us to read that chapter substituting the word ‘love’ with ‘I’. So can I say, I have long patience? Can I say that I never fail? Can I say, I am kind? These things test us as to our formation, as feeding and leaning on the breast of Jesus. Instead of the character of hardness that marks us naturally, there is a new nature formed in the believer, and that nature is love. Peter says, “ye may become partakers of the divine nature”, 2 Pet 1: 4.
May we be encouraged to lean on the breast of Jesus, to understand in a better and fuller way the love of Christ; so that as formed in it we may be pleasing here to our Lord and Master, and provide some answer to the great expenditure there has been upon each of us. How much love has expended itself, but in the Spirit’s grace it has not been in vain. There is a present answer in the saints coming into the enjoyment of divine love, resulting in praise and glory to the name of God; coming to know God in His own blessedness, not only appreciating the mercies that have been bestowed upon us in our wilderness path, but coming to know God in the arrangements that He has made for Himself. It is like the people, typically, dwelling in the land, enjoying divine provision, and enriching what is for His own glory and praise. It has often been spoken about, love away from home and love at home. Love comes out in mercy and grace and wisdom and kindness, coming into our circumstances, only to draw us to Himself to His own home of love, so that as formed in love we may be to the praise and glory of His name. May we be encouraged, as Jude says, To keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 21), for His glory and praise. Amen.
BAD ENDBACH
12th October 1991