Col 1:3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always concerning you, 4 Because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have unto all the saints 5 Because of the hope laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,
Faith is to realize and receive what is in Christ, love is to experience and enjoy what we have received of Christ, and hope is to expect and wait for the glorification in Christ. Every genuine Christian has faith in the Lord Jesus and love toward all the saints [believers] . These two things prove that we are real Christians. Suppose I contact a certain person and tell him that I am one who believes in the Lord Jesus. If he does not respond to me in love, he himself may not be a genuine believer in the Lord. Love for the saints must always go along with faith in the Lord Jesus. They cannot be divorced. From the time we first believe in Christ, we spontaneously have love for other believers, no matter what their nationality may be. According to my nature and my background, I could never love the Japanese. When I was a youth, I actually hated them because of the damage Japan had caused to China. But after I had been saved and had entered into the Lord's ministry, I was invited to visit some Japanese brothers in Manchuria. I attended a small gathering held in the home of a Japanese believer. As soon as I entered into the room, spontaneously a love for those brothers welled up within me. My hatred for the Japanese vanished. Those brothers believed in the Lord Jesus, and I believed in Him also. Therefore, we could love one another as fellow believers in Christ. This love is not a natural love, but a love that comes out of our faith in the Lord Jesus. We have to love all the saints, just as the Colossians loved all the saints, regardless of their nationality and regardless of whether they were Jew or Gentile. When I contact brothers from Japan, I do not have any consciousness that they are Japanese brothers and that I am a Chinese brother. On the contrary, I simply have the sense that we are all holy brothers in Christ. (c) 2007 Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Colossians, pp. 12-13. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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