The Power Of Love
THE POWER OF LOVE
We are impressed as observing the fact that, as the Lord approaches the end of His testimony down here, the closer presence of the devil is more evident. It is said in verse 2: “the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon, Iscariote, that he should deliver him up”, and later, in verse 27, “And, after the morsel, then entered Satan into him. Jesus therefore says to him, What thou doest, do quickly”. So that the Lord fulfilled the time of His testimony in the very presence, very close presence, of Satan, whose efforts tended to nullify His work; but the Lord worked in the power inherent in His Person, the power of love. It is written: “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father”, chap 13: 1. The position is thus established according to John’s presentation of Christ. That is to say, that all that concerned Him was ordered of God and under divine control, and whatever means might be used by men made wicked at Satan’s instigation, it was a matter for the Lord of passing from this world to the Father. This must inevitably take place at the determined time; not an instant earlier or later. Satan does not have the power to delay this moment, the entire position being under divine control and order, so that the nearness even of the adversary’s activities only served to bring out the resources that are at the saints’ disposal in the love of Christ and then in love reciprocated in the saints, with this assurance given by the Scripture that “love never fails”.
This is the point we arrive at here: the hour being come to pass out of the world to the Father, Jesus “having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. It is one of the sweetest consolations, one of the greatest sources of power that the love of Christ engages to abide with us whatever may come into the final phases of the testimony; and in parallel with this love, we have the assured presence of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. In these two characteristics, the love of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, the saints are established in what is going to give the possibility of persevering until the end, marked by every feature of the truth.
Then at the moment when He was going to express His love practically, leaving an example, it is said that the Lord, “knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he came out from God and was going to God…”—this is a marvellous consideration: the Lord knew He was going to act in the full knowledge that the Father had put all things into His hands. It is not possible to conceive a greater glory than that it should be He into whose hands God has put all things; thus in the perfect knowledge of this fact, the Lord rises from supper and lays aside His garments, taking a linen towel and girding Himself; then having put water into a basin, He begins to wash the feet of His disciples, and to wipe them with the linen towel with which He was girded—supreme display of love expressed in these movements that implied a self-renunciation and the readiness to take on the humblest service to all His disciples with a perfect impartiality. He went round the whole company, giving us thus an example of what true love is, Himself expressing this love first with the intention that this same love should characterise us.
And we know that the Lord’s object was that we should have part with Him, “part with me” as He Himself says. It is a marvellous portion in which the assembly is taken up because the assembly’s glory is to have part with Christ in the different positions that He occupies as Man, to have part with Christ, part with Him currently, in a scene of trials and difficulties and all sorts of obstacles which could be snares to the saints. Thus, without any doubt, this expression, “part with me”, refers to the service of God in the assembly and also the part that we have with Him in a path of sanctification in the testimony down here. It is very important that the testimony be pursued in perfection, in sanctification and all that that implies. It is a matter of having part with Christ at the time when we draw near to God for the service, and in the testimony, He Himself having been in perfection in the one and the other without doubt.
And so the Lord fulfils this service of love, then takes His garments again. We should be impressed by the glory of Christ, the glory of which He had full knowledge, and also by His capacity in love to put aside voluntarily all that could speak of importance and greatness to take the attitude of serving love, serving in the humblest way, in the most humble service, but having done this, He takes His garments anew, so that we see well His true position who has thus served us in love, this process of love taking on in our eyes a greater value on account of the very glory of Him who set it on.
And the Lord says, “Do ye know what I have done to you? Ye call me the Teacher and the Lord, and ye say well, for I am so. If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet; for I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also”. The Lord would bring home to us the importance there is in cultivating love among us by this way of serving, our serving one another in love. You remember when Solomon began to build the house, before even starting the construction, the first thing he did was to number seventy thousand bearers of burdens (2 Chron 2: 2)—a very remarkable fact—the bearers of burdens, that is to say the brothers and sisters marked by love; Solomon began by taking seventy thousand, thus indicating that love is what is required before everything to characterise the assembly. It is in the power of love that we are closely united so that we should be able to move together in perfect unity. Together is a word that should characterise Christianity, and if we really desire to know what unity is, that is to say what is the proper character of the assembly, we must be together, together in our affections.
We all know that God has worked, thanks be to Him, and that He works yet to bring about this feature in the saints, but it is for us to abound in it more and more. Each one among us must necessarily learn from Christ to display this feature by which alone increase can be obtained—love among the saints united together—in such a way that we should have part with Him. The Lord cannot unite to Himself what is disunited in itself, this is why this example which He has given us must have its effect on the saints in linking them intimately together.
Yet another thing will result from the fact that the saints move together in love; there will be a real testimony for God; it is so at the end of the chapter: Judas having gone out, the Lord says, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him”. The Lord is not alluding here to His present glorification at the right hand of God, but to His death by which He was going to be glorified morally, expressing in perfection of God’s holy nature, His horror of sin, the judgment of sin by this death and the triumph of redeeming love. Opposed to this is what is manifested in Judas, for Satan entered into him. There was there a man available to Satan, a man in whom Satan was found by nature able to express himself, which would find its expression in the betrayal of the Son of God. What a contrast with this Person—the Son of God—who was the very expression of what God is and was going to make known the blessing of His holy love in redemption; the glory of Christ seen in His devoting Himself, even to death, so that God should be glorified in Him.
It is this very striking contrast which in my mind: such a great manifestation of the glory of God in the presence even of Satan. It is a characteristic feature of the last days of the testimony of the Lord down here: so that Satan is nearer, and he makes his greatest efforts to ruin everything; thank God we are in the love of Christ which is going to remain to the end—lover never fails—and Satan is defeated, the testimony goes on, and God is glorified.
Then the Lord says, “A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”. It is no longer here a matter of love which makes us suited to enter together into our privileges, but it is love in view of testimony. There is on earth an evident manifestation of what God is in the unity of the saints, the result of love among them, and which will have its full expression in the heavenly city. The passage in the book of Revelation exposes the fall of Satan from the heavens to the earth. If it is true that what God is expressed in the very presence of Satan, as was the case with the Lord, the book of Revelation gives us the final conclusion in this respect. We read in chapter 12: 7-9: “And there was war in the heaven: Michael and his angels went to war with the dragon. And the dragon fought, and his angels; and he prevailed not, nor was their place found any more in the heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent, he who is called Devil and Satan, he who deceives the whole habitable world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him”. This is still to come; the light of it is given to us so that we should be confirmed that victory is assured to those upon whom the Lord has set His seal of love and maintain it to the end, His own who are in the world.
“And I heard a great voice in the heaven saying, Now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ …” These things are coming. The present moment is a time when we have to persevere with patience, in weakness, in trial and suffering. But it will not always be like this: “for the accuser of our brethren has been cast out, who accused them before our God day and night”. Here is Satan’s true character, “the accuser of the brethren”. Over against this, we find what occupies the Lord Jesus, if we may say it with all reverence; that is to say, His intercession in favour of the saints day and night—what a fine contrast! Satan on the one hand accuses day and night, on the other, the Lord Jesus ever lives to make intercession for them, sustaining His own who are in the world in a love that is expressed in intercession, a love which is going to last to the end.
“And they have overcome him by reason of the blood of the Lamb, and by reason of the word of their testimony”. These two great things can indeed be linked together. The blood of the Lamb is the permanent basis that reduces every accusation to silence. Thank God there is no accusation that can prevail against the blood of the Lamb, and whatever Satan may seek to do to intimidate or ensnare the saints, there is always an answer—the blood of the Lamb. May we therefore be kept from all discouragement because the blood of the Lamb and the intercession of Christ are always there. All the efforts of Satan are in view of weakening the testimony and the essential point is to overcome his efforts in the value of the blood of the Lamb on the one hand, and on the other in continuing with the word of testimony to which we are committed.
May the Lord in grace accord to us His help in giving us the assurance of the resources that are at our disposal, and also the certainty that the victory will soon be publicly manifested.
Place and date not given
Translated from the French magazine, ‘Ondées’, 1948