The love of God is the key to practically carrying out the Lord’s divine revelation today. The love of God is deeper than the love of anything else. When we love him, we begin to do what the Lord wants. “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this; that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Cor. 5:14-15) This is similar to when we fall in love with our spouses, we want to please them, we want to do what they want, we don’t want to do anything that will hurt them. We no longer live for ourselves but for our spouses, so to speak. However, as humans, this may not last forever and we say, “’Til death do us part” in our marriage vows. We wish this, but we are not able. We don’t want to hurt our spouses, but we may do things in secret from them. However, when we love Christ, he presence is always there with us. There are no secrets we can hide from him. Imagine if your spouse in always besides you. Would your behaviour change? When we “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,” (Luke 10:27) it will change our behaviour. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and of death.” (Rom. 8:2) The Spirit of reality makes us love him and realize he is always with us. And our love for him, which is made real by the Spirit, keeps us in alignment with his statutes and ordinances. “More over, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” (Eze. 36:26-27) The Spirit he has put into us softens our hearts to seek him and love him. We present ourselves to him as “a living sacrifice.” (Rom. 12:1) We want to be careful to keep our conscience. Through the Spirit, when we love him with this intensity, we gain the ability to keep our conscience. We would not think or do anything in secret, “For he knows the secrets of the heart” (Psa. 44:21) as he is ever present with us. When his love is perfected in us, we will walk in his ways. “But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 John 2:5-6) We walk according to a higher awareness of our conscience. We walk in the same way in which he walked. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28) This is how humans fundamentally change in character and nature to carry out the divine revelation.
When we “walk in the same way in which he walked,” (1 John 2:5-6) we love others as he loves us. We “Love [our] neighbour as [ourselves].” (Mark 12:31) Our love for one another becomes the expression of the invisible God. “No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12) ‘If we love one another, God abides in us.’ Our love for one another is the proof that God abides in us. That is how we unify with our family and with everyone around us. “Love is patient, love is kind.” (1 Cor. 13:4) The predominant aspect of what the ‘agape’ love is, is patience. Everyone has a different experience in life today. Each one is in a different stage of growth. Each person experiences the world unlike anyone else. Each person may be trying to do good. However, the goal is not trying to do good. The goal is to be like God. That is why man was made in the image of God. We can’t be divine without rebirth in Christ. God will judge. The commonality among Christians who have been born again is with Christ who is dwelling in them. That is why we are not to judge others. (Mat. 7:1-2; Rom. 2:1-2) Even Jesus came not to judge the world but to save it, (John 3:16) even though all judgement was given to him by God. (John 5:22) “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” (John 12:47) Even though Jesus did not come to judge man, he discerns the things of the Spirit. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14) That is why we need to be patient with all men. The Spirit of God dwelling in us is spiritually discerned. To love one another, the primary aspect is a patience and a kindness that can only be made real by the Spirit so it “bears all things, believe all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor. 13:7) It is not easy to do. What is obvious to our spirit, is a mystery to the natural man. So we have to be patient. Love “is not jealous,” (1 Cor. 13:4) as it cares for the well-being of others, being happy for others when they do well. Even when we teach our children, it is for their sake, not for our own, because we love them and want them to do well. Our knowledge of good and evil will make us arrogant and proud, but “love does not brag and is not arrogant.” (1 Cor. 13:4) Love “does not act unbecomingly,” (1 Cor. 13:5) showing our frustration. Love “does not seek its own, is not provoked, [and] does not take into account a wrong suffered.” (1 Cor. 13:5) Love is selfless, not seeking its own; unconditional, so it is not provoked – people cannot say or do anything that provokes us, as we love them unconditionally; and does not take account when we are wronged, so we love our enemies. Love has no enjoyment in unrighteousness, with no enjoyment in pointing out others’ errors, but “rejoices with the truth.” (1 Cor. 13:6) When others find the truth, we are happy. Only the Spirit makes all this real to us. “And may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you.” (1 Thes. 3:12) The Lord is causing our love for all men to grow today. “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love for each one of you toward one another grows ever greater.” (2 Thes. 1:3) As Christ is revealed to us, our faith is ever increasing, as the Spirit becomes more real to us, our love for each other grows greater and greater. That is how we are uniting all things today, both the things in heaven and the things on earth.
As Christian brothers and sisters come together, we help to cultivate this new reality brought into us by the Spirit, by sharing our experiences of Christ in our lives with each other. We are “God’s field, God’s building,” (1 Cor. 3:9) “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” (1 Cor. 3:6) Each of us helping to create an environment for each other to grow, so Hebrews says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Heb. 10:24-25) We gather together to tell each other what the Spirit of reality has changed in us, the small steps in our lives effected by his transformation, so we now practice ‘good works’ in accordance to our conscience which has been sharpen by the Spirit. This encourages us to love God and one another, “to stir up one another to love.” (Heb. 10:24) That is what the church is for. That is why we gather together. “So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes growth.” (1 Cor. 3:7) “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Eph. 1:22-23)