THE CIRCLE OF DIVINE LOVE
[p. 445] THE CIRCLE OF DIVINE LOVE
Colossians 1: 12 - 14; Hebrews 2: 9 - 12; John 14: 16 - 20
It is a deep joy to our hearts, beloved brethren, that a circle of divine love has been thrown open to us and in spirit we are brought into the circle of those affections. The assembly is really the circle of divine affections. How are we made competent to enjoy those divine affections? They have been perfectly revealed and secured to us. It is a great thing for us to be spiritually competent to enjoy divine affections. I feel myself much more familiar with grace than with love. Many of us do not rise above the thought of grace, blessed as it is — we could not do without it — but there are divine affections which flow out of their own fulness, out of their own blessedness. What a blessed thing to be the object of those affections!
In Colossians 1, “Giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us fit”. I suppose we all know that this word “fit” is ‘competent’ — ‘the Father, who has made us competent’. And then in the next verse we get the translation into “the kingdom of the Son of his love”. It is where love reigns. Beloved brethren, I cannot conceive anything more blessed than to be made competent in the divine nature to be associated with His Son in the enjoyment of the Father’s love. There is no competency in connection with the flesh. What a joy to know that the Father has made us competent!
In Hebrews 2 you find that the Sanctifier and the sanctified are “all of one”. There is a company of whom Christ is not ashamed; that is, Christ can look upon that company and see them suitable to His own thoughts of love, and suitable to the Father’s name, so that He can declare it unto them. We are made competent for it by being sanctified, by being set free from everything that is [p. 446] unsuited to divine love by the death of Christ. And the effect of this is, He sings praises in the assembly.
In John 14 we get the third element, and that is the “Comforter”, “the Spirit of truth”. The Father has made us fit by forming us in the divine nature; the Son has made us fit by sanctifying us; and now we get the Comforter. We are brought by the Spirit into that circle where divine affections are found: “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. It is an immense thing, whether we think of the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit, that divine Persons are all engaged in making us competent to enter into and to respond to those divine affections of which we are the object — engaged in bringing our hearts into the circle of love where the Father’s name is known, where the affections of the Father rest, in Christ. It is not that we are in this outwardly, but it is in spirit.
In John 13 we get examples of there being no love in the flesh; there was Judas — no love there — and Peter failed because there was no love in the flesh.
We know so little of what it is to enter into divine love; we get as far as grace — and that is very precious, we cannot do without it — but we want to enter into the circle of love. I feel for myself how little I do.