SERVING LOVE AND COMPLACENT LOVE
[p. 181] SERVING LOVE AND COMPLACENT LOVE
John 13:34, 35; John 15:9 - 21
These scriptures give us a true character and meaning of first love. We have often been told that the point of departure is the point of recovery, and it may be helpful, and an exercise to us, to look at these scriptures as giving the character of first love; that is the love which was set in motion by the Son of God in His own.
We have a very poor idea of christianity — of the wonderful character of things set in motion in human hearts by the Son of God. There was never anything like it in the world before. The Lord says to the church in Ephesus, “Thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works”, Revelation 2:4, 5. He calls the church back to the point of departure. Now at the very end it is most important to be recalled to the point of departure.
Perfect love has been seen and known in a Man. I do not mean exactly the love of God, but divine love in a Man. Something quite new was brought into Manhood in the Person of the Son of God that it might become the vital spring in human hearts. Divine love was here livingly in a Man, the Son of God, and He came here in order to make it a living spring in human hearts so that there might be a living witness of Christ and of God in this world, and that is vital christianity. If we think of all that is connected with church order, the very kernel of 1 Corinthians is chapter 13. No part of that order was merely an arbitrary rule; it was all the expression of the wisdom of divine love for the safeguarding and development of holy affections in the saints. We are apt to overlook that 1 Corinthians was written by two men; “Paul, a called apostle ... and Sosthenes the [p. 182] brother, to the assembly of God which is in Corinth”. I think the “apostle” suggests the administrative side, but the “brother” suggests what is vital. Chapter 13 is what is vital; it is the “brother”. We have been too much occupied with the shell of christianity, and have not got enough at the kernel. At Ephesus everything on the administrative line was in good order as yet, but the very kernel — first love — was gone. The point for us is, have we returned to it?
Is it love to each other or to Him? I think it refers to what had been set in motion by the Son of God. His love is the spring of all, and if we are conscious of that love we love Him and we love one another. But He never commands us to love Him; it is “Love one another”. The Lord made His disciples conscious of His love, and we cannot think of our love as anything but the outcome of the consciousness of His love. It comes out in love one to another. That is Philadelphia. The point is that love one to another is set going. The coming of the Son of God and the subsequent coming of the Spirit were to the end that love might be set in movement and kept in movement in human hearts, and that is vital christianity. I feel very small in it.
In John 13 the Lord thinks of His saints as those who need serving and His love will go down to the lowest point to, serve them. It is love that never fails. That is a character of love we need to apprehend; we are so expectant from others instead of being ready to serve them. It is in reference to His serving love that 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”. In chapter 13 it is the love that serves; in chapter 15 it is the love of complacency. There he says, “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you: abide in my love”. That is complacent love. There is a marked difference in that way between chapters 13 and 15. The company as viewed in chapter 15 is the fruit of divine working; it is morally the fruit of the service of love.
[p. 183] If this blessed love that serves lives anywhere now on earth it is in the saints. If I am not in it I am not in vital christianity. Its character comes out in 1 Corinthians 13, where we see what a ‘brother’ is. You have not complacent love, perhaps, towards all your brethren, for that demands certain conditions, but serving love can always be active. The apostle said, “I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved”, 2 Corinthians 12:15. He was a man who had drunk into the spirit of John 13.
The Lord went down to the lowest place to serve His own. He laid aside His garments. Does it not appeal to us to lay aside all thought of what is due to ourselves that we may by love serve one another? We have had what is outward too much in view; we have thought of gift, ability to speak and so on, but it is really greater to be a brother than to be an apostle. I have thought sometimes it was the highest thing I could say of a man, that he was a brother. It is the spirit in which gift is exercised that tells. If I want information I can buy books and get it, but no book will show you vital christianity. It has been seen livingly in a Man, and that Man accomplished redemption and went to heaven and sent down His Spirit to set in motion in men what had been so blessedly expressed in Him. Vital christianity cannot be seen in books; it is seen in people loving one another, serving one another, willing to lay aside all that is due to themselves to secure the good of others, and delighting in the brethren. In John 13 love will serve to any extent: in John 15 love will suffer to any extent. “No one has greater love than this, that one should lay down his life for his friends”. That is not atonement, it is love suffering. Every one of us has a niche to fill in this service of love; we ought all to be exercised as to whether we are on this line. If not, something is wrong; we have not really come into contact with the Son of God, or He would have set it in motion in us.
[p. 184] Divine love would be ready for any opportunity. We are provided with a circle where love can be active; the Lord has provided us with brethren, and every one of them is an opportunity for the service of love.
“The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. That is the revelation side, and it is most important, but we are not speaking of that now. We are looking at the blessed Son of God loving His own. “Having loved his own who were in the world, (he) loved them to the end”. That is love in activity in a Man, a blessed Man, the Son of God, who loves His own to the end, and gives impulse to everything on our side so that everything that is according to God may be set in motion here in men.
Practically this results in our looking at the saints in a new light. We look at them as those whom Christ loves. That is the root of our interest in them; He loves them, and they need serving. Is that the account you take of your brethren? They are loved by Christ and they need your service. The Corinthians and the Galatians were in a bad state, but the apostle served them. Serving would oftentimes take the form of prayer. John 13 gives an example of all service amongst saints. It tests us because it means laying aside our garments and girding ourselves. How often have we served a saint when it involved a going down on our part — a laying aside of what was due to ourselves? One who can lay aside his garments and gird himself to serve is a wonderful help, and a rebuke, too, to self-importance in others. Every one knows the difference between the self-important man and one who is really serving. I have often felt rebuked by coming in contact with a man who was in the spirit of service to others in love. If we were all like that what a wonderful tone would be about the company! And babes may have part in it as well as fathers.
The object of all gift is that saints may arrive at a point when gift may be dispensed with. When we all arrive at the [p. 185] unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ, gift will not be needed any more. As a matter of fact we shall not arrive at that down here. There will always be unruly ones to warn, feeble-minded ones to comfort, weak ones to support, and the need of patience towards all. We have to serve in patience; very often we get impatient because people do not answer to our expectations. We suffer long and get cross at the end, but love suffers long and is kind, kind at the end. We must not look for perfection in our brethren we must look at them as those who need serving.
In chapter 15 the disciples are looked at as those in whom the effect of the divine work has come out. They keep His commandments; they abide in His love; they are His friends, and they come out here in His moral character. It is a company in which He finds complacency; He loves them as the Father, has loved Him. He delights in them as “friends” and is on confidential terms with them. “All things which I have heard of my Father I have made known to you”. They are capable of receiving His communications.
“Ye are my friends if ye practise whatever I command you”. His commandment is that we should love one another, and if He sees us doing it He takes account of us as His friends. That is why love is the condition of increase of knowledge. If we want expansion in spiritual intelligence we shall get it by being united together in love. (See Colossians 2:2; Philippians 1: 9).
If what has been before us gets hold of us we shall think more of things in which a sister can have part as much as a brother. The service of love and intelligence in communion are as much for sisters as brothers.
To be a “friend” of Christ you must have a suited character. We should not make a friend of just any one who came along, and the Lord will not either. A friend is one you [p. 186] can confide in. John and Diotrephes would not have been friends. It is a great thing for us that there have been those in our time whom the Lord could recognise as “friends” and to whom He could impart His mind — those who have been in His confidence. The increase of light has been through those whose spiritual condition was such that the Lord could make communications to them; they were marked by the spirit of which we have been speaking. What makes you a friend is that you follow John 13; you keep His commandments. If you answer to John 13 you will find yourself in John 15. Mary Magdalene got great light because she loved much, and so did Paul.