This book of three chapters covers some vital matters related to the Lord’s present recovery. In this first chapter, we want to see the crucial matter of keeping oneness in love. In chapter two we want to study the Word concerning God’s administration on this earth. Finally, in chapter three we will fellowship about our going on.
The church life is a life in oneness in love. We are one in the Lord. Once a person believes in the Lord Jesus and gets regenerated and saved, he immediately begins to have a good feeling within him toward other Christians. He begins to love other Christians. When we were new in the Lord’s salvation, we had a loving thought, a loving feeling, and a loving intention within us to love the other Christians. However, because of our human nature, troubles arise after we are in contact with one another for a longer period of time. If a married couple had never fallen in love, there would have been no possibility of divorce. How could love produce divorce? Love brings us together, and this togetherness is always the real source of trouble. If a husband and wife are away from one another for a period of time, they will miss each other. When they reunite, a problem may arise between them after a short time. Our contact with one another can create problems because of our fallen human nature.
Ephesians 4:2-3 says, “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.” The word all governs both lowliness and meekness. We need all lowliness and meekness. We need longsuffering, and we need to bear with one another in love. We have to pray ourselves into the reality of these verses. We need to pray so that our prayer can bring us into lowliness and meekness. To have this oneness among us is not a small matter. It is very, very crucial. This oneness in the church life governs our daily life, our family life, and our church life.
This oneness cannot be prevailing unless it is in the Spirit. This is why it is called “the oneness of the Spirit.” If we have a kind of oneness that is not in the Spirit, that oneness is not genuine and will not last long. The oneness of the Spirit is constituted with virtues such as lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, and diligence. We have to be diligent to keep the oneness in the uniting bond of peace. These are not natural virtues, but they are the divine attributes expressed in our humanity to be our human virtues. We should live a life full of the divine attributes expressed in our humanity to be our human virtues. In these virtues there is the keeping of the oneness of the Spirit.
In Philippians 2:2-3, Paul says, “Make my joy full, that you think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking the one thing, doing nothing by way of rivalry nor by way of vainglory, but in lowliness of mind counting one another more excellent than yourselves.” The apostle Paul’s joy could be made full when the saints were thinking the same thing. Our unrenewed mind is like an unbridled, wild horse. It runs in many directions and is out of control. In addition to thinking the same thing, we need to have the same love for all the saints. If I love one brother more than another brother, this will create problems. If we live by our natural life, it is impossible for us to have all of the items in Philippians 2:2-3. These items can only be realized through the divine life expressed in our human life. In the divine life are the divine attributes. When these divine attributes are expressed in our human life, they become our human virtues. It is in these virtues that we have the oneness of the Spirit.
This oneness of the Spirit is altogether the basic element of our church life. If we are short of this, we “commit suicide” in the church life. Some of us may have experienced this kind of spiritual suicide already. Because the oneness is so crucial to our spiritual life, we have to go further to see what we have to be aware of in order to keep the oneness of the Spirit.
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