faith and love are two inseparable virtues of the believers in Christ, Titus 3:15

My words are not adequate, but I enjoyed Titus 3:15 all these past few months, especially by listening to it being sung, me singing it, singing it with the saints in a spontaneous way, and reading & enjoying the explanatory footnotes on this short verse. It is indeed true: the Word has so much in it, so many riches hidden in the Word as the embodiment of the Triune God! Here is Titus 3:15:

All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in faith. Grace be with you all.

And here is the footnote, which is so enjoyable, rich, and eye-opening – bringing us in the riches and the depth of what this verse says:

[Faith is] Referring to subjective faith, the act of our believing, which brings us into an organic union with the Lord (John 3:15; Gal. 3:26) and operates through love (Gal. 5:6). It is in the element and operation of this faith that the saints who were one with the Lord in His concern loved the suffering and faithful apostle.

Faith and love are two inseparable, excellent virtues of the believers in Christ. Faith is given to us by God (note 1⁵ in 2 Pet. 1) that by it we may receive Christ (John 1:12), the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), and thereby enter into the Triune God and be joined to Him as one, having Him as our life, life supply, and everything. Love issues out of such a wonderful faith and enables us to live out all the riches of the Triune God in Christ with those who have believed into Christ with us, that the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — may have a glorious expression. Faith is for appreciating, substantiating, and receiving the unlimited riches of the Triune God; love is for experiencing, enjoying, and living out the immeasurably rich Triune God. Faith is for the believers to be joined to the Triune God, who is everything to them; love is for the believers to minister and transmit the Triune God to their fellow believers so that, in such a wonderful and powerful faith, all the believers may love one another with divine, transcendent love and live a corporate life in Christ. In this way the Body of Christ is realized and the processed Triune God is expressed today on the earth in the all-inclusive Christ through the immeasurable life-giving Spirit.

The Epistle to Titus is the conclusion of the three books, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, and it concludes with the wonderful faith and the super-excellent love. This implies that, in the current of the church’s degradation, in order to be able to effectively stand firm and overcome the downward trend and factor in the church, this wonderful faith and this super-excellent love are indispensable. We should not walk by sight or care for the outward situation. Rather, in this wonderful faith we should enjoy its source, which is the Triune God, to whom we have been joined through this faith, and by this super-excellent love of the Triune God we should love Him and all those who belong to Him. Only in this way can we become, in the current of the church’s degradation, the overcomers whom the Lord is calling and is desiring to obtain in Revelation 2 and 3.

This wonderful faith and this super-excellent love are out of the Triune God, who earnestly desires to be joined to us to be our everything. This Triune God passed through the process of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection from the dead, and ascension to the heavens on high and was ultimately consummated as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). This Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), who includes divinity, humanity, and Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension and is the reality of the all-inclusive Christ (John 14:16-20), dwells in our regenerated spirit (Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22). When we contact this Triune God through prayer and by looking to Him, by means of our spirit, which was once dead and was made alive, He infuses Himself into us in many ways to become the faith within us toward Him and the love outside of us toward those who belong to Him. Such faith and such love are the reality and expression (1 John 4:8, 16) of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — in whom we believe and whom we worship and receive. Also, they are the rich grace given to us in Christ by the Triune God (1 Tim. 1:14), not only to be the motivating power and expression of our spiritual life but also to become our breastplate (1 Thes. 5:8), which covers and protects the vital parts of our being. It is by such faith that we receive and enjoy the divine life that is revealed and ministered to us in the entire Gospel of John (John 3:16, 36), and it is by such love that we love the Lord and those who belong to Him (John 21:15-17; 13:34-35). Such faith and love are connected and go together: love comes from faith, and faith operates and works through love (Gal. 5:6). Love with faith enables us to love our Lord in incorruptibility so that we may have an overcoming church life (Eph. 6:23-24) for the fulfillment of God’s New Testament economy in Christ for the church. Therefore, it is in this faith that we are well pleasing to God (Heb. 11:6) and in this love that we are blessed of the Lord (1 Cor. 16:22). May this love with this faith be to the brothers from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 6:23).

WOW! Didn’t I tell you? This is indeed good for food, a good portion of the Word & its proper interpretation for the spiritual man. Enjoy…

We can sow and plant Christ as the tree of life! It is God who gives the growth!

Christ said, “I am the vine…“(John 15:1), “I am the bread of life“(John 6:35), and “I am the way, the reality, and the life“(John 14:6). These verses show us that Christ is the tree of life – a vine tree, reaching out everywhere, full of the divine life. And we are the branches in the vine, we are branches and parts of the tree of life(John 15:5)! When we received the Lord Jesus into us, we received the tree of life(either as a seed, or it was planted) into our spirit. Daily, the tree of life in us is growing by us spending time with the Lord, watering the tree of life, being watered by others, taking care of the ground of our heart, dealing with any rocks or other things that hinder the growth in life, by us eating Christ as life every day, taking Him into us as our food and drink, etc.

The Christians – the ones who believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him into them – are a miniature of the tree of life; we are a small tree of life. Just like Paul now(1 Cor. 3:6), we can plant Christ into people, or, like Apollos, we can water the Christ in the believers! When we preach the gospel to our friends, relatives, neighbours, the people around us – we actually sow the seed of the tree of life into them! When we share with them about Christ as life, as the meaning of our human life, and when they call on the name of the Lord and say, “Lord Jesus, I don’t want to be an empty vessel wandering around – fill me with Yourself right now. I want to receive You into me – take You into my being!” – they are filled with Christ as the meaning of their human life, and the tree of life is planted into them, making them a duplication of the tree of life!

We need to be such sowers and planter – sowing Christ as the seed of life and planting Christ as the tree of life into many vacant sinners. No matter how much people eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they will never be satisfied, filled, or find the meaning of their human existence. Only the coming in of the divine life, the continual filling and spreading of Christ in all our inner being, fills us with meaning and with satisfaction! What we can do is pray, ask the Lord for opportunities, to open the hearts of those around us/related to us, and to give us the words to speak to them – and then, at the right time, we will cooperate with Him to just sow Christ into them!

When Christ as the seed of life is sown / Christ as the tree of life is planted into someone, God comes in to give the growth! In a sense, it’s not up to the one who sows or plants, but it is really of the One who gives the growth(1 Cor. 3:7). God takes care of His life in us, He will make sure that the tree of life in us will grow, develop, spread, and eventually fill & saturate our whole being! Lord, grow in us more! Strengthen us into our inner man to speak You forth & plant You/sow You into the ones You placed us with! Fill us more with the divine life, and overflow from us as life to everyone around us, Lord!

we depend on what we eat and we become what we eat: let’s eat Christ!

I’m still considering the picture in the garden of Eden, which is actually what is going on within us today: we are being put in front of the two trees daily – the tree of the knowledge of GOOD and evil, and the tree of life. The simple fact that God cares so much about our eating shows that what we eat is what we depend on as our source of life, and also – what we eat, that is what we become!

God presents Himself to us as food – as the tree of life: God in Christ is the tree of life, coming to us as the Spirit to be received and enjoyed! Our God has been processed: He became incarnated in Christ(John 1:14), and He became the Spirit(1 Cor. 15:45) – to be the life-giving tree of life, available for all humanity to eat! Even more: in the New Jerusalem the tree of life grows on both sides of the river(grows in the river), so when we drink the water of life, we eat the tree of life(Rev. 22:1-2)! The Triune God has done everything so that He may be available to man, for man to take in and receive, so that man would be life-d, enlivened, strengthened, and continually supplied! He called us into the fellowship of His Son!

Man is not independent – he cannot live alone because of a source of life that is within him and is inexhaustible. We are made to depend on what we eat, and even to become what we eat. If we eat knowledge – be it a good knowledge, knowing and doing good things, etc – we are dying/we eat death and become dead. If we eat the tree of life – so simple, just LIFE, the tree of life and the river of life, growing and flowing – we are enlivened, we are filled with life, and we become life! These two trees are two principles and two ways of living - both create dependence of one and independence of the other, and both result in something that is totally opposite of one another(the eating of the tree of life results in life, and the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil results in death). If we do not eat of Christ as life, no matter how good that thing we feed on is – we take something of Satan into us. Anything that is not of the simple-uncomplicated-pure divine life is of the enemy and leads to death!

So, let’s eat Christ! He’s so available. He’s so real. He’s so near. The Bible even says: He’s in your heart and He is in your mouth(Rom. 10:8-9) – whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved(Rom. 10:13)! We need to be saved more, and to have more of Him added to our being by us opening to Him and eating Him! May we take care of our eating, taking in the tree of life and having nothing to do with the tree of knowledge! Our only constitution and the only food we should depend on is Life. This is our Christian life – not merely a matter of working or doing(which need to be done, in their time…) – the Christian life is a matter of eating Christ as the tree of life and drinking Christ as the river of water of life. This is what sustains, supplies, and keeps the divine life in us growing and developing.

We need to eat Jesus every day as the tree of life, He is our real food!

God’s original intention in His creation of man can be seen in Genesis – after He created man, He placed man in a garden with lots of trees good for food! God gave man only one “commandment” – take care of your eating! Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but eat of the tree of life! In this whole universe, only God is life, and so here we see that God presented Himself to man as life in the form of food! If man eats of the tree of life, he shall live forever! This is God’s desire, that man would eat of the tree of life, enjoy Him as life, and live forever as His expression!

Also, in John 6:35 and 57 we see that Christ – God embodied in a man – says that He is the bread of life, the heavenly bread, the living bread, even the true bread that comes out from heaven. Again we see that God in Christ presents Himself to man as food, as the heavenly bread of life, for man to eat! Even more: when man eats of this bread, when man eats Jesus, he shall live because of Him! God wants man to partake of Him as life in the form of food – He simply wants man to take God in! What we eat is what we are constituted of and it is what we become – if we eat Jesus every day, we are constituted with God and live out God. If we eat God as life daily, we express life, we become persons of life, and we give life to others.

In Revelation 2:7 the overcomers will be rewarded by God with eating of the tree of life – the full taste of the tree of life for those who overcome! This is a particular enjoyment of God as life reserved for and given to the ones who overcome. Again we see that God will even reward us with more enjoyment of Himself as the tree of life! We eat Christ as the tree of life today, and we will be rewarded with more of this wonderful delicious amazing tree of life in the coming age, for a full taste of what we have had a foretaste of.

At the end of the Bible(Rev. 22:2) we see the tree of life again – in the New Jerusalem! For eternity, the tree of life will be the food supply of the New Jerusalem, who is composed of us – all God’s redeemed – and our Redeemer. Our destiny is to enjoy God eternally as our everlasting never-ending source of life, the tree of life, that we may live because of Him and express Him fully!

Today, in the church life, we need to enjoy Christ as the tree of life – every day we need to eat Jesus and drink Jesus! Our enjoyment of Christ builds up and enriches the Body of Christ. Actually, what we enjoy today is just a “foretaste” of the full taste we’ll have of the tree of life in eternity – what we enjoy today will be also our reward in a fuller way in the next age! To enjoy Christ – to eat Christ – should be the primary matter in our Christian life and in our church life. Lord Jesus, You are indeed our real food, You are the tree of life! Keep us eating of You every day!

we were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ

1 Cor. 1:9 says

God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Our God is a faithful God – He called us into the fellowship of His Son – He called us and placed us in the vine, Christ as the embodiment of God! Here in the vine we have the enjoyment of the riches of Christ, the expression of God, the rich fellowship of the co-branches(the other saints), and here we have the purpose of God. These are all related to us abiding in Christ as the vine!

We were called into this fellowship – an intimate fellowship with Christ. We were called into an organic union with Christ, into a participation into Him, into enjoying Christ as our God-given portion(see note). This fellowship that we have is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ(1 John 1:3) – a union and communion with the Triune God, in our mingled spirit! Also, this enjoyment and fellowship of Christ is not just personal / individual – it is corporate/collective, it is a co-enjoyment, a co-participation, a mutual fellowship of this flow of life among all the branches in Christ. This is the church life – the fellowship, the communion, the co-participation of Christ, the branches loving one another and fellowshipping with one another in oneness!

We are one in His life – in the same divine life. We have the same life – Christ’s life – flowing in our being. This flow is the Triune God, who flowed from eternity unto eternity, and now is in us! This flow is also the “circulation of blood” in the Body of Christ, flowing in all the members of the Body/the branches and in the vine – if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another… (1 John 1:7). We just need to allow this flow of life to circulate continually in our whole being, and flow into us(by us enjoying the Lord) and flow out of us(by us “reporting” to others of what we have seen and heard – 1 John 1:3). This is our vertical fellowship (with the Triune God) and our horizontal fellowship(with the other believers, the saints in Christ) – the same one unique fellowship into which we were called by God!

Our God is faithful to remove anything that damages or hinders this fellowship! He wants us to be in this continual flow of His divine life – bringing God into man and bringing man into God. Let us all seek the experience and the enjoyment of the fellowship of God’s Son. The more we enjoy the co-participation of this fellowship, the better the church life will be! Lord, thank You for calling us into the fellowship of Christ – the Head and the Body! Keep us in this flow of the divine life!

loving one another has a lot to do with our bearing fruit, which is our destiny

In John 15:16 the Lord told us that it wasn’t us who chose Him, but He chose us, and He set us to bear fruit – and that our fruit should remain! Our goal and our destiny, as branches in the vine, is to bear fruit! All we need to do is to abide in Him, and He will actually bear fruit in us. No matter the circumstance or the environment we are in – they cannot be an excuse for our barrenness. The Lord set us for this – He destined us to bear fruit! Therefore, if we are barren, if we didn’t bear fruit for a while, we need to consider this before the Lord and pray about it to Him, even be desperate that we would abide in Him and bear fruit in a normal way.

Going on from verse 16 to verse 17, we see that loving one another has a lot to do with bearing fruit. As the many branches who are abiding in the one vine, we need to love one another. How do we love another & what does it really mean? Many times we love the ones we like, we love with our natural affection, and we love in our natural human life. This kind of love is not real and leads not to life/building up, but to death. In our emotional way, for our own purposes, and with our own love – this is not how we should love one another.

We love one another by the divine life in us! The branches are one and love one another by the same life that they share! The Lord in us, the divine life in us, is the supply and the source of our love. The love that we can manifest from ourselves, unless it has the Lord as its source, is “stinky” and also lasts not for long. But the divine life in us, the life of the vine, can love everyone! It is because we love one another not with our own love, but with the divine love! Because He loved us first, we love Him back with the love He poured out in our hearts through faith(Rom. 5:5)! And this love increases in us, fills us, until we love one another and eventually love everyone! Loving one another is the church life, the Body life.

The divine life in us is the source of our love, love is our condition, and the goal is our fruit-bearing. The divine life in us is expressed in the love we show one another, which love is actually the divine love. And the purpose is that we may bear fruit! This is our commission – to bear fruit for the glorification of the Father! If we live by the Lord’s life as the source, in the Lord’s love as the condition, and for the fruit-bearing as the goal, we surely will love one another(see note 1 in John 15:17)!

Apart from Christ we are and we can do nothing! We just need to abide in Him

I was enjoying John 15:4-5 this morning, which says

Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 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.

Through our regeneration, Christ as the universal vine tree(the tree of life) has branched out into us and made us branches of Himself. Now we are branches in Christ, joined to Him as one spirit(1 Cor. 6:17). As the branches in the vine, we are filled with Christ as life – His life has become our life, and He is our unique source of supply. We are organically united with Christ, grafted into Him, joined to Him in life. Our entire existence now depends upon Him. Christ is our life now(Col 3:4) – all that He is, has, has done, has attained to, has accomplished – all His life, is ours. As the branches, we need to absorb and enjoy all that He is in our spirit, so that His riches in us will overflow into bearing fruit.

The branch cannot do anything of its own – it depends entirely upon the flow of the richness of the vine. If the branch abides in the vine, it will bear much fruit(John 15:5); if the branch does not abide in the vine, it simply has no use(it will be taken away and burnt…). That’s why the Lord said that apart from Him we cannot do anything – our destiny and our goal is to abide in Him. We are nothing, we can do nothing and we have nothing apart from Christ as the vine. All that we are, we do, or we have must be in the Lord and of the Lord – who is in us. In our Christian life, we must not do anything of ourselves, but by abiding in the Lord.

We abide in Him first, and then He abides in us. Our abiding in the Lord is a crucial matter – our life and living, our fruit-bearing – all depends on this. We need to clearly see that we are branches in the vine – we need to have a clear vision that we need to abide in Him. Actually, it is our pleasure and enjoyment to abide in the Lord – we were created and destined for this! Our real life is hidden with Christ in God(Col. 3:3), and we cannot do anything good apart from Him! Of course, we can do many things in ourselves – but they are not part of what the Lord is doing today.

Lord, show us clearly that we are just branches abiding in the vine! Supply us continually today, Lord, with Your divine life! We want to abide in You today!

God is glorified in the church, where His wisdom is made known to His enemy!

God’s original intention in creating man is expressed in Genesis 1:26 “Let Us make man in our image and according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over…” – Image and Dominion.

• Image: God wants to be expressed, manifested, shown to the entire universe in what the depth of His riches are – He wants man to be His image, His expression. Man here is corporate – collective – and is designed and purposed to be God’s full expression and manifestation to the physical and spiritual world, to the entire universe!
• Dominion: God has an enemy, Satan. He does not deal with Satan directly – if He would, it would not be “dignified”: the Creator to deal with the creature – but He chooses to deal with His enemy through man(another creature). If this would happen, as a Wise God, He will get the glory!

But Satan came in first and deceived man, so that he got into man – now we, all the humankind, are born with the sinful nature and are inclined to sin(Rom. 7:15-24) and not do the will of God – not fulfill the purpose we were created for! Seemingly, Satan won the victory by defeating God – in his ruining of humanity so that it would not have dominion over him….

YET God became a man! The Lord Jesus Christ fully defeated Satan in every respect: in His birth, in His human living, in His death, in His resurrection – in everything, the enemy had no ground, no way, no opportunity in anything(John 14:30)! He fully expressed God the Father in all He was, He did, He accomplished, He said, He lived, and He also defeated the enemy to the uttermost – even took the keys of death(Rev. 1:18; which death is the power of Satan). Christ fully defeated Satan and He fully expressed God! Now there was a man on the earth who actually lived a life according to God’s purpose in creating man, fulfilling God’s intention!

By regeneration, this One came into us and there began a process of sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation – so that we, sinners and beings corrupted by the enemy, would be made the glorious church who defeats God’s enemy and fully expresses God! In His wisdom, God became a man and then He became the Spirit to come into our spirit and fully sonize us (make us sons in full) from within by growing in us, spreading in our being, and being expressed in us and through us! This is the church: a built-up Body of God’s redeemed who are undergoing the process of sanctification, transformation, and glorification, to become God’s expression and defeat His enemy!

In the church and through the church, God can say to His enemy “Satan, watch this: though you ruined man and you thought you defeated Me, in the church I have the shining ones filled with My life who bring the whole universe in order and defeat you!” God’s manifold wisdom is expressed in the church(Eph. 3:10).

Lord, for Your expression and Your dominion, for the fulfilling of Your heart’s desire and original intention, build us up with the saints into the church who expresses You and defeats Your enemy! Make us willing to be built up into Your expression as the church in our locality at any cost!

We are the branches in Christ as the vine(who is the organism of the Triune God)

John 15:1-2 tells us that Christ is the real vine, and the Father is the husbandman. We, the many believers in Christ, are the many branches in the vine – and we are set to go forth and to bear fruit! In this whole universe there is a vine-tree, a universal vine-tree: Christ as the embodiment of God as the tree of life(John 1:14). This vine tree is actually the organism of the Triune God – in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells(Col. 2:9).

The Lord Jesus came as the seed of life and then He died and resurrected – in His resurrection He regenerated/brought forth many believers(John 12:24) – who now are the many branches in the vine! We as the believers were “grafted”(Rom. 11:17) into the Triune God – who is embodied in Christ. Just like the physical branches, we now need to abide in the vine and we will automatically/spontaneously bear fruit(John 15:5). Actually, as normal branches, we need / are responsible to bear fruit, or else the husbandman(the vine-keeper) will cut us off as un-fruitful branches. As we enjoy the rich sap in the vine tree(the rich Christ flowing as the Spirit into our spirit – spreading through every part of our being), we spontaneously grow and bear fruit!

This fruit that we bear by enjoying the rich supply is actually the increase of the vine, the increase of the Triune God! The expression of the divine life within us is that we bear fruit – and the vine is “glorified” – God is glorified in our bearing fruit! This is His multiplication and reproduction, and this is how the vine – the Triune God – is expressed and manifested: in our bearing fruit by abiding in the vine(being properly connected and supplied)!

Lord, keep us abiding in You today, enjoying all Your riches! Save us from remaining hungry, and also save us from being un-fruitful! Lord, fill us to overflowing with Your riches, so that we may bear fruit by overflowing Your life! Have a way to increase in this age in this world in the place You placed us in – through us!

a beautiful picture of the coordination we need in the church life

Continuing the thought of Ezek. 1:4-5(about the Lord as the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum, out of which come the four living creatures), today I enjoyed this beautiful picture of the coordination that we need in the church life.

The Four Living Creatures – A Picture of the Coordination

The four living creatures had four wings: with two they covered themselves, and with the other two they were joined to the neighbouring ones. Each one of them was facing a different direction/side: one was facing north, another was facing south, another west, and another the east. And as they moved, the purpose of this wonderful coordination was to carry out the divine administration, to express God, to accomplish God’s Government, and it is also for God’s move. God basically didn’t do anything by Himself – everything He did was through and by the four coordinated moving living creatures.

It seems like they were all back-to-back, not facing one another and not having almost anything in common(in the direction they were facing). The coordination of the four living creatures was not in themselves – it was in the joining wings, the eagle wings. The eagle wings in the Old Testament represent the divine power, the divine strength, and the divine supply. Our coordination in the church life, for God’s move / administration / government / expression is not of or by ourselves – but in our joining God as our power. Whatever we have / do / can do / are in ourselves leads not to oneness but to division and separation; in the church life, we need to deny ourselves and take God as our strength, power, supply, and as the joining One!

The most interesting thing about the move of the four living creatures was that they did not turn – they all went straightforward as they moved! So if the one facing north took the lead to go forward, the others followed by not turning but going either backwards or sideways. This is what we should do in the church life: when one takes the lead to preach the gospel, for example, we all follow by being joined to him in spirit. We just have to follow the leading of the Spirit in the other adjacent members of the Body the Lord put us with. Even if this means that we deny ourselves and take someone else’s way and burden as ours, this leads to the sweet coordination that is actually God moving on the earth. This is again not in ourselves(all we want in ourselves is our own way / burden) – but in the spirit(mingled with the divine Spirit) – in the touching of the wings, in the praying together in the Spirit, in the much and thorough prayer to be built up and blended…. and here, in this touch of the wings, in the vital prayer together, seemingly-different people become one with one another and the Lord for His move, administration, government and expression!

Lord, gain the reality of the four living creatures today with us in the church life! Not for ourselves and not in ourselves – only for You and in You this can be possible, Lord!  Have Your way in us – gain the coordination among us!