If two brothers hate one another, someone may pray for them and advise them to love each other. It seems that it is right to do this. However, the brothers cannot love out of themselves. John 15:12 says, “This is My commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you,” and verse 17 says, “These things I command you that you may love one another.” However, verse 5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” On the one hand, the Lord Jesus tells us that we have to love one another. On the other hand, in the same chapter He says that apart from Him we can do nothing.
The love mentioned here by the Lord is the spreading and increase of Himself. Within a tree there are the riches of the life-juice of the tree. The bearing of fruit is simply the spreading of the riches of the life-juice of the tree. By this we can see that in John 15 the love which we should have toward one another is not a kind of behavior. It is the growth of life, the increase, expansion, and spreading of Christ. Even if we could love one another, that is not the real love mentioned here. The real love spoken of here may look like a behavior, but it is not. It is the increase and spreading of the indwelling Christ, the expression of the inner life. Therefore, this is the growth of life, not the mere improvement of behavior.
A brother may have a disposition full of pride, but he realizes that to be a Christian brother in the church among the other brothers, it is not right to be proud; pride is ugly. He may then pray and try his best to improve his behavior in order to be humble. We all may be surprised at this brother’s humility. We may say, “Look, just last week this brother was very proud. Now see what kind of change he has had. He is so humble.” However, we need to ask what kind of change this is. Is this a mere improvement of behavior, or is this an expansion of Christ within? The way to have the expansion of Christ from within is not to adjust ourselves or to improve our behavior, but to open ourselves to the Lord, to let Him come in to fill us, swallow us up, permeate us, saturate us, and spread Himself throughout us. Then in the circumstances in which we need humility, this spreading Christ will be humility to meet the need. This humility is not a kind of behavior but a kind of spreading of Christ and an expression of Christ.
This may be hard to understand, because our understanding, concept, and mentality are focused too much on behavior, morality, and the improvement of conduct. However, now we have seen that the growth of life is the increase of Christ, the spreading of Christ, the permeating of Christ, and the expansion of Christ.
There are two kinds of humility and two kinds of love. One kind is merely something out of ourselves whereas the other kind is the expanding of Christ. I may love the brothers fervently, but it may be a love out of myself. There is another love, that is, the spreading and expression of Christ. I may have no intention to love someone, but day by day I open myself to the Lord, and He comes in to fill me, swallow me up, and saturate me with Himself. Then when I come to you and there is the need for love, spontaneously something of Christ will come out to meet the need. That is the real love. This kind of love is not something out of me but something of Christ spreading and living out through me.
Again, formerly I may have been a proud person, but now that I am saved, I have learned to love the Lord, and I realize that if I am going to be a proper brother, I should not be so proud. Rather, among the brothers I need to be humble. Therefore, I may all the time try my best to be humble. To some extent I can be successful and have a certain kind of humility. This is one kind of humility, but there is another kind. I may not regard that I have to be humble among the brothers, but I contact the Lord, open myself to Him, and let Him come in again and again so that He fills me and saturates me. Then when the situation among the brothers demands humility, the Lord meets the need by spreading Himself through me. In this way, the humility I manifest is not merely my behavior. This humility is Christ spreading Himself through me and living Himself out of me.
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