Friday

Related Verses
Eph. 1:4-5
4 Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love,
5 Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

1 John 4:19-21
19 We love because He first loved us.
20 If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God love his brother also.

1 John 3:14, 16, 23
14 We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. He who does not love abides in death.
16 In this we know love, that He laid down His life on our behalf, and we ought to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers.
23 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, even as He gave a commandment to us.

1 John 5:1
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God, and everyone who loves Him who has begotten loves him also who has been begotten of Him.

Related Reading
We are God’s species because we have been born of Him to have His life and nature (John 1:12-13). We have been regenerated to be God’s species, God’s kind, and God is love. Since we become God in His life and nature, we also should be love. This means that we do not merely love others but that we are love itself. As His species, we should be love because He is love. Whoever is love is God’s species, God’s kind. (CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” p. 121)

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God does not want us to love with our natural love but with Him as our love. God created man in His image (Gen. 1:26)…God’s image is what God is, and His attributes are what He is…God created man according to His attributes, the first of which is love. Although created man does not have the reality of love, there is something in his created being that wants to love others. Even fallen man has the desire within him to love. But that is just a human virtue, the very expression of the divine attribute of love. When we were regenerated, God infused us with Himself as love. We love Him because He first loved us [1 John 4:8, 19]. He initiated this love.  

God’s predestination of us unto the divine sonship was motivated by the divine love…[In Ephesians 1:4-5] the phrase in love can be joined with the phrase predestinating us unto sonship. God predestinated us unto sonship in love. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world. He loved us before the foundation of the world.  

God’s giving of His only begotten Son to us that we may be saved from perdition judicially through His death and have the eternal life organically in His resurrection was motivated by the divine love (3:16; 1 John 4:9-10)…First John 4:10 says that God sent His Son to us as a propitiation for our sins. This is judicial through His death. Verse 9 says that God sent His Son to us that we may have life and live through Him. This is organic in His resurrection.  

God’s love is the source of the grace of Christ dispensed to us through the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). This is for us to enjoy the processed and consummated Triune God.  

God’s love motivates us, His children, to love our enemies that we may be perfect as He is; He loves the fallen human race, who became His enemies, by causing His sun (signifying Christ) to rise on the evil and the good indiscriminately and sending rain (signifying the Spirit) on the just and the unjust equally; thus, we may become the sons of the heavenly Father who are sanctified from the tax collectors and the Gentiles (Matt. 5:43-48). The entire human race became His enemies, but God still loves the human race. If God sent Christ to us with discrimination, we would be disqualified from receiving His salvation.  

We should be like God in our love for others. The tax collectors love only those who love them. The Lord said, “If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (v. 46). If we love only those who love us, we are of the same species as the tax collectors. But we are of the super, divine species, so we love the evil ones, our enemies, as well as the good ones. This shows how God as love prevails.  

A proof that our vital group is prevailing is that we love people without any discrimination…While Christ was being crucified on the cross, two robbers were crucified with Him (27:38). One of them said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (v. 43). The first one saved by Christ through His crucifixion was not a gentleman but a criminal, a robber, sentenced to death. (CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 121-123)

Further Reading: CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 2, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle of James,” ch. 1