Loving the Lord and Loving One Another
for the Organic Building Up of the Church
as the Body of Christ
Message Six
The Lord’s New Commandment Given to Us—
That We Love One Another
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
1 John 2:7-8 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard. Yet again a new commandment I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
Word of Appetizer
What is the Lord’s new commandment has given to us? And why does it say in 1 John 2:7, “not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning”?
In John 13 verse 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another”.
The commandment regarding brotherly love is both old and new: old, because the believers have had it from the beginning of their Christian life; new, because in their Christian walk it dawns with new light and shines with new enlightenment and fresh power again and again.
Spiritual Burden
A way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ is by keeping His new commandment to love one another for the expression of His love that all the people may know that we are His disciples.
The church life for the organic building up of the Body of Christ is a life of brotherly love. In the church life of brotherly love, we receive one another, have the same mind toward one another, pursue the things for building up one another, bear one another’s burdens, bear one another in love, comfort and build up one another, confess our sins to one another and pray for one another, forgive one another, and are subject to one another.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
The love of God is God Himself; love is the inward essence of God and the heart of God.
In 1 John we see that the practice of the divine love is the outcome of our enjoyment of the Triune God as
the all-inclusive Spirit, the One who is moving and working within us as the anointing in the fellowship of the divine life to saturate us with all that the Triune God is, with all that He has done, and with all that He has obtained and attained.
The church life for the organic building up of the Body of Christ is a life of brotherly love.
The Experience of Life
The love of God accomplished salvation for us; God’s giving of His only begotten Son to us that we may be saved from perdition judicially through His death and have the eternal life organically in His resurrection was motivated by the divine love; God as love meets with us and speaks to us in the propitiating, redeeming, and shining Christ so that we can be infused with Him as love, mercy, and grace
for His effulgent and radiant glory. God has poured out His love in our hearts with the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5), who has been given to us, as the motivating power within us, so that we may more than conquer in all our tribulations.
Practice and Application
We should love God and His children with the divine love and not with our natural love, which must be put on the cross; one difference between God’s love and our natural love is that it is very easy for our natural love to be offended.
The church life for the organic building up of the Body of Christ is a life of brotherly love. we need to lose our soul-life and deny the self to love the brothers and minister life to them in the practice of the Body life. the best way for us to bear fruit is to love one another by taking Christ as our person and life. we need to learn to have a proper mutual care in the meetings.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 The commandment of the Lord is not merely an injunction; but also a word conveying the life supply (John 13:34-35; 1 John 3:11)
(Please illustrate that how we should properly practice loving one another.)
T2 The revelation concerning love in the New Testament is different from our natural concept of love (1 John 3:24; 5:1)
(How can believers love God and one another?)
Day 2
T1 The source of salvation is the love of God (John 3:16; Titus 3:4-5)
(Please illustrate that the love of God originated in God’s heart, but when it appeared, it became our salvation.)
T2 God’s love accomplished our salvation and devised a way for us to obtain salvation (1 John 4:9)
(Please illustrate the salvation that God prepared for us is not only for us to be saved but also for us to have His life.)
Day 3
T1 In the realm of grace the first thing we enjoy is the love of God (Rom. 5:5)
(Why are there so many troubles in our Christian life? )
T2 The commandment of brotherly love is both old and new (1 John 2:8)
(Why is it said that the commandment of brotherly love is both old and new?)
Day 4
T1 We should love God and His children with the divine love (1 John 4:11-12)
(Please illustrate that how can our love for God be called the love of God?)
T2 God’s love and our natural love is very different (1 John 4:11-12)
(Please illustrate with experiences that one difference between God’s love and our natural love is that it is very easy for our natural love to be offended.)
Day 5
T1 The church life is a life of brotherly love (1 John 3:14)
(Please illustrate that faith in the Lord is the way for us to pass out of death into life; love toward the brothers is the evidence that we have passed out of death into life. )
T2 The more we follow the Lord, the more we will long to have fellowship with other saints (Matt. 16:24-25)
(Please illustrate with experiences that if we love the Lord, we will love other saints.)
Day 6
T1 The more we have the reality of the Body life, the more we will be fruitful (John 15:5)
(Please illustrate that in order to be fruitful, we have to love one another.)
T2 The condition of the vital groups in the church life is that of loving one another in oneness and with one accord (John 13:34-35)
(Please illustrate that we not only love one another, but we love one another in oneness and with one accord. )
