At the end of his Epistle to the Ephesians Paul said a word concerning our love for the Lord Jesus. “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility” (Eph. 6:24). First Timothy 1:17 says that God is incorruptible, and 2 Timothy 1:10 says that the Lord “nullified death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.” First Corinthians 15 tells us that in resurrection the corruptible things will become incorruptible (vv. 50-53). To love the Lord in incorruptibility means to love Him in the new creation. All the things of the old creation are corruptible. This is proved by Romans 8 where we see that the whole creation is groaning under the slavery of corruption (vv. 21-22). Everything of the old creation is corrupting. Only the new creation is not corrupting.
Ephesians 6:24 is a total conclusion of the entire book of Ephesians. In the six chapters of Ephesians Paul surely reveals to us the incorruptible things. Christ is incorruptible, the church is incorruptible, and all the positive items related to Christ and the church in chapters one through six are incorruptible. We must love the Lord in these incorruptible things. This means that we must love the Lord in the new creation and not in the old creation. We must love the Lord according to the Father’s predestination unto sonship, according to the Son’s redemption, according to the Spirit’s sealing and pledging, according to the hope of God’s calling, according to the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, according to the surpassing greatness of His power which made Christ the Head of all things to the church, and according to Christ’s resurrection which made us alive, resurrected us, and seated us in the heavens. We need to love the Lord according to all the incorruptible things revealed in the six chapters of Ephesians; that is, we must love the Lord in incorruptibility.
To love the Lord in incorruptibility is to love Him in the regenerated and renewed spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit. If we do anything in our flesh, that is in corruptibility. I believe that when Paul was writing the book of Ephesians and was giving a conclusion to his writing, he was filled with the feeling that whatever he had taught in the preceding six chapters was incorruptible. Then he concluded by saying that we should love the Lord in incorruptibility.
If we would love the Lord in incorruptibility, we have to love the Lord according to everything revealed in Ephesians. At the end of Ephesians 1 is the church which is Christ’s Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. This surely does not refer to any religious organization. The church is incorruptible, but religious organizations are corruptible. To stand on the proper ground is something incorruptible. To take any ground other than that of the unique oneness of the Body of Christ kept and expressed in each local church in its locality (Rev. 1:11) is to take the ground as something corruptible. We should not love the Lord in corruptibility; we should love Him in a pure way, in the way of incorruptibility that can stand forever.
The Lord’s word in Revelation 2:4 indicates that the church in Ephesus did not keep Paul’s word. Here the Lord says, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Although the church in Ephesus had many virtues, it was degraded because it had left its first love. The Greek word for “first” is the same as that translated “best” in Luke 15:22. Our first love toward the Lord must be the best love for Him. The church in Ephesus had left this best love toward the Lord.
As the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23), the church is a matter of life; as the new man (Eph. 2:15), it is a matter of the person of Christ; and as the bride of Christ (John 3:29), it is a matter of love. The first epistle to the Ephesians tells us that for the church life we need to be strengthened in our inner man that Christ may make His home in our hearts, that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19); and that it is for the church that grace is with all them who love the Lord Jesus (Eph. 6:24). Now the second epistle to the Ephesians reveals that the degradation of the church begins with our leaving the first love toward the Lord. Nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord. The church in Ephesus had good works, labored for the Lord, endured suffering, and tried the false apostles, but she left her first love toward the Lord. Leaving the first love is the source of all the degradation in the following stages of the church.
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