by T. Austin-Sparks
Beloved of the Lord,
One sang long since, "I love the habitation of Thy House, and the place where Thy Glory dwelleth" (R.V.).
He thought of an earthly habitation, a temple exceeding magnifical that crowned Mt. Zion; but those infinitely higher thoughts of the Holy Spirit had in mind the Body of the Christ, that heavenly habitation of the Lord of Glory; for the church when complete, shall be the everlasting tabernacle of His Glory.
The true mark of Christmindedness is a discerning of the Body of Christ, and surely the seal of Christlikeness is a love for His Body, and this is a practical and therefore a present love for that Body in its members. Let no one deceive himself in this, for there can be a perception of the truth concerning the Body without this practical, and present love of the members. The former illumination of the Spirit is necessary but the Spirit Himself within us would energise in the latter as "the Love of" the Christ. Oh, how we need a Divine discerning of the members, a knowing of one another after the Spirit Who dwells in us and upon us as the Spirit of the One Life of the Christ. Then shall we give ourselves as a living sacrifice to that ministry which is the Lord's supreme desire, namely, the up-building of His Body in the Increase of a Divine Life, which is the Divine Love.
Observe how the apostle in his heart burden of Eph. 3:14-21, speaks last of all before he comes to "the power that worketh in us" of "the love of Christ which passeth knowledge" for it is in this love we come into the fulness of God. Are we, beloved, living in the fulness of God? We are if we are now living on the earth for the Body's sake.
Did not the Saviour close His appeal for His Church with these words, "that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them," and thus, "I in them"? What a love is this! His Spirit yearns for the complete glorifying of His Son in that Habitation made up of His living members, and within us His Spirit would be as a consuming fire unto this end. Let us yield our hearts to Him that in these last days our love for Him may be manifested in our love for His members, for whosoever loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him.
We love them as we find them, discerning them in the Lord. They are scattered abroad these days, hidden away, often hungry for fellowship, food, and consolation. And there are those unborn ones, in every land that wait to hear that living Voice of His Love in the Gospel's proclamation. In every way either in prayer or preaching it is the task of an inward constraining Love, Christ's own love in our hearts.
May it be said of each of us, as of Him, "the zeal for Thy House hath consumed me".
Yours by His grace,
T. Austin-Sparks.
T. Madoc-Jeffreys.
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