Quote:
Originally Posted by JJ
When our first love includes both loving the Lord and love for all the saints there is a correlation to Jesus’ own commandment “Love one another”.
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I repeat that love is not a feeling but an action of stretching out of one's selfish needs and giving of oneself and one's possessions, done even where there's no reciprocation.
This is God's economy which is in faith.
Luke 6:32-36 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Luke 8:3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
Acts 4:32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.
Acts 2:44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
This is God's economy (stewardship/administration/plan) which is in faith (cf 1 Timothy 1:4)
Luke 14:13,14 But when you host a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, and you will be blessed. Since they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
This is God's economy which is in faith
Proverbs 22:9 A generous man will be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.
Luke 19:8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
Matthew 6:3,4 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
This is God's economy which is in faith
Matthew 6:19-21 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
2 Corinthians 8:15 as it is written: "The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little."
This is God's economy which is in faith.
Matthew 6:28-34 And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Galatians 2:10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor,
the very thing I had been eager to do all along.
This is God's economy which is in faith.
I believe that Paul told Timothy to remain in Ephesus to charge certain ones to teach God's economy. Witness Lee said that this was to exercise one's spirit via pray-reading to take in God as spirit and become transformed into God. But the text doesn't say that, it merely says to charge them to teach God's economy. I believe the supporting text of the NT which I've referenced above suggests something quite different from what Lee taught.
And to go back to "love", the "God's economy" of Lee was self-oriented affair: I take in God, and then I become God in life and nature (but not the Godhead). But love is a reaching out of oneself, to the "other", i.e. one's neighbour, even when that person can't reciprocate in a mutually-beneficial material transaction. This then becomes faith in action, the exercise of which produces a result: "Your reward will be great in heaven".