Wierwille, V.P.-The Love Way

THE LOVE WAY

Another Study in Abundant Living by VICTOR PAUL WIERWILLE This book is in the public domain. For more teachings by V. P. Wierwille, E. W. Bullinger and others, go to: www.eternallyblessed.org The Scripture used throughout this study is quoted from the King James Version unless otherwise noted.

I want to teach in the field of love for a moment, because so little is understood and known about this great field which came specifically into concretion and reality with the new birth on the day of Pentecost. This new birth on the day of Pentecost brought a new kind of love, which had been made available to us, however, by Jesus Christ. As we understand this new kind of love, we come to the great realization that there really never was any love before the day of Pentecost, that the love that came with the day of Pentecost is a spiritual thing on the inside, and it only comes into concretion, in manifestation, as we put it on in our mind and manifest it forth.

There are three words, three Greek words, translated "love." It’s the word agapaō, the word phileō, and the word erōs. Erōs is nothing more than just the kind of love that one animal would have for another, basically speaking. The word phileō love is the kind of love where one person loves another because one person scratches your back you’ re gonna scratch the other fellow’s back, so forth. It’s the word from which we got the English word, for instance, Philadelphia, brotherly love. The other is the word agapaō. Agapaō is translated in the King James "charity" as well as "love." The word "charity" and "love" translation are way too weak for this word agapaō. The word agapaō literally means that it becomes yours when you’re born again of God’s spirit, when that eternal life which is Christ in you comes in at the time of the new birth. He brings with him many things, this new birth has many things, among which it has agapaō, which is love of God. Then we have the love of God spiritually, but how do I get it into manifestation, into concretion? This I do by putting this love of God which I have received spiritually into my mind, and manifest it forth by my walk. This is why every place where the word agapaō, or "charity," is used, it should be translated "the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation."

Now with those basic truths set before you, again let me say that this new kind of love, the agapaō love, was brought to the world by Jesus Christ. The thing that people have called "love" has been basically nothing more than sexual attraction, or brotherly love where you scratch my back, I scratch your back. If you do not do right to me, I’m not going to do right to you. But we’ll get along good together in a brotherly fashion because it’ll be profitable for me, it’ll be profitable for you, therefore we just have this kind of love.

Both of these, the phileō love and the sexual love of the erōs, are relatively insignificant and never build a certainty within life or within the depth of the soul of a man which is lasting. This thing which we have called love has been basically nothing but sex attraction. You see, this sex attraction which we refer to as love is hardly any higher than that seen in the animal world which is nothing but erōs. But Jesus Christ brought a new thing. This word translated "charity" or "love" in our Bible should always be translated "the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation." When we are born again we are born in love. God is love, and so the new birth is the impartation of the nature of the Father which is love. Then by birth spiritually we become children of love. This family to which you and I belong then is a love family because we are born into this family.

Paul speaking in Romans, chapter five, and I’ll just read this to you, Romans chapter five, listen to this from the New Testament, Romans 5:5, and I just flip to it,"...And hope maketh not ashamed; because," listen, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which is given unto us." The love of God, the agapaō, is shed abroad in our hearts, within the spiritual part of man, by God who gave this unto us. So you see, the love of God has flooded us within, it’s our spirit, it’ s on the inside. You don’t feel, smell, taste, or touch spirit, but the Word says it’s in there because when Christ came he brought it with him. This love nature which we now have spiritually is the great law of the new creation in Christ Jesus.

Remember in John 13, in verses 34 and 35, Jesus had declared, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love (agapaō) one another; even as I have loved (agapaō) you, that ye also love (agapaō) one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love (agapaō) one another." This love was to be the stamp, the brand if you please, that would differentiate the believer from the people of the world. The Apostle Paul declared, "...I bear, or I have branded on my body, the marks of the Lord Jesus." He meant that he had the scars and wounds that had been given to him due to persecutions, but the believer, the born-again believer, bears the marks, the brands, of the love of Christ upon his spirit. In Romans, chapter 12, verses 5 to 6, it says that every man when he comes into the family of God has the measure of faith given to him. This measure of faith is spiritual faith. Now in order to manifest this in the believing world, in the senses realm in the believing world, he must renew his mind. He has it spiritually but it comes into concretion into manifestation, when he believes with his mind what he has spiritually. He has to cultivate faith, spiritual faith, to make it manifest into the senses realm and develop it. Likewise, the same thing is true regarding this new kind of love which is given unto us when we are born into the family of God. That measure of love is given unto you and it comes with the new birth. This is the love nature. This love nature spiritually must be developed as you develop your faith life and manifest it forth by believing into the senses world. As you give love freedom to grow and act, it naturally will gain in ascendancy in your whole life, in your whole being. This love of God which is in the renewed mind in manifestation must be fed by the Word of God and then it will express itself in action as we operate it. Remember according to Matthew 4:4 Jesus declared, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." You see, the real man of whom I am speaking is your spirit. If you’re born again of God’s spirit that is the real man. Your spiritual hunger and your spirit needs are just as great as your mental or your physical needs. Your spirit must have the privilege of meditating in the Word. You must learn to feed upon this Word of God as Jeremiah did when he said he ate it, he ate the Word (Jeremiah 15:16).

You feed and exercise this new love that has come into you by practicing love. The exercise makes it strong, just as exercise makes your body strong. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly...", gaining the ascendancy over all of your faculties. This agapaō love, this love life, makes you gentle, makes you Jesus Christ-like, it makes you strong and vigorous like the Master. It makes you absolutely fearless in your walk with the Lord. You know, some people have imprisoned love, and I recently heard of a father that locked up his boy in a room and kept him a prisoner until that child was nearly dead. How many have done that same thing to love? Instead of letting love have its perfect sway and control we have limited it. The greatest thing in the world today is the manifestation of the love of God in the renewed mind. To the end that we are born again of God ’s spirit and have renewed our mind on what we have in Christ Jesus, and we manifest forth this love of God, we really become new men and women in concretion in the senses realm. In the great chapter of I Corinthians 13, in the first verse of that chapter, we read: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels , " and that’s tremendous, "and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." The word "charity" is the word agapaō. There are three words used, three different Greek words used, and translated "love." One is the word agapaō, the other is phileō and the other is erōs. Both phileō and erōs were in the world practiced and operated before the day of Pentecost, and still are, but these basically are nothing more than sex love or sex attraction, or animal love, that’s all. But the word agapaō has a new connotation. It signifies and means the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. And though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, which you do when you speak in tongues, but if I do not have the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation, there’s nothing wrong with the speaking in tongues of men and of angels, but I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

We have forgotten that love will make a man a success. It will put him over where nothing else will make him a victor. Love never fails, it is the Master’s rule. It will lead a man out of selfishness, out of weakness and failure, into the very strength and ability of Christ. There is no force in the world that it cannot dominate. It makes us wanted, it makes us a blessing, it enables us to take the place of Jesus Christ here upon earth.

I have sometimes wondered what would happen if a man really desired to go all the way out to the limit of love. Some have neglected it, acting as though it did not exist, even in those who are born again of God’s spirit. Utterly ignoring its very existence, and yet, somehow or other they want the Father’s help in time of need. Ladies and gentlemen, love must be enthroned in our lives in manifestation. It must govern our lives. You know, Paul’s friends had challenged him one day, saying that he was off his rocker. They accused him of being beside himself. But he wasn’t. Why? Because the love of God had so set him on fire that he was an extension, a manifestation in the senses realm, of the man who goes all out with the love of Christ. His very being was saturated with the passion that sent Jesus to the cross.

You know, you can understand I Corinthians 10:24 where the Word of God declares, "Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbor’s good." When love, the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation, is at white heat, selfishness stops reigning. Selfishness, my friend, is a deadly poison. It is poison to the spirit, it is poison to the Body of Christ, it causes practically all the diseases in the human body. It is a strange thing how selfishness has never been feared by man. He fears it in another man, but he never fears it within himself. Selfishness is the cause of all the wars that have come, and of all the strikes, the battle between labor and capital, the strifes in politics, and in every other realm. The epistle of I John, chapter four, verse 16, was one of the most difficult verses of scripture that I ever had to face up to. It didn’t seem to me that I could ever master it or understand it or bring it into concretion. This is what it says: "And we know and have believed the love which God has..." In our case, God is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God and God abideth in him. Here are some great truths. First I have come to believe in love. I believe that the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation is the best there is to allow to govern my life. I have come to believe that the best method of ruling a home, a business, a government, is the love of God in the renewed mind. There are very, very few people who ever believe in love. They believe in force, they believe in intrigue, they believe in self and sense-knowledge judgments and arguments, but do they believe in love?

If in your heart, innermost part of your being manifested in the renewed mind, you believe that love is the way and that it is the best way, then you must act it. Not only is it best, but it is the only way. It is the way that you are going to walk regardless of how anyone else walks. You’re going to walk the love way, if you renew your mind, and when you do, you discover that you are living in the love realm. Your home is in love. And whenever you step out of love, you step into darkness and unhappiness. And so you must learn to stay put, to live in the love way. You have found that living in love is actually living in the highest and sweetest fellowship with the Father, it is actually living with Him. He has come into your body to make it His home. And in I John 4:11, which is the verse following 16 which I read a moment ago, it says, "Herein is love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, even so are we in this world." Isn’t that wonderful? What does that mean? It means that love is perfect in itself. But it also means that this love of God, the agapaō, which is ours at the time of the new birth, must now be put on in our minds, and we have to walk in this newness of love, and it must gain the ascendancy in our life. When this love of God in the renewed mind becomes the rule of my life, I grow up into it until my life is dominated, it is ruled, it is governed by it, and that gives me a quiet fearlessness in His presence as well as in everybody else’s.

You see, God is love and I am a love child if I’m born again by the spirit of God, and as I renew my mind I walk in the realm of love. I think in the terms of love. I act according to the rule of love, and my whole life is pitched to the key of love. Then you can understand that there is no fear in love. There is fear in everything else, but the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation has no fear. And when you’re out of love, everybody says and does things that they are basically afraid to face up to. You think things outside of love that you wouldn’t want to become public property. But this perfect love in the renewed mind casts out all fear, because fear has punishment. You know, my friend, the Word of God says he that feareth is not made perfect in love. He’s made perfect spiritually on the inside, this is a work of God, but not on the outside because this man has not put on the mind of Christ, he has not renewed his mind and manifested forth the greatness of this wonderful love of God. So you see, you can understand that if we walk the love way, and the love life, we will say nothing, we will do nothing, we will resolutely refuse to think anything outside of the love of God. Can’t you see what a fearless life that would be? No matter what happens, you know you’re walking in love. When you speak you know it is love. Ephesians 4:15 illustrates this great truth where we read, "But speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things unto him, who is the head, even Christ." Speaking out of love is speaking out of tune and off key. It breaks the harmony. It jars the ears of men and women who are walking and endeavoring to walk in love. So our whole life swings into the orbit of this new kind of love, this new creation life, when we manifest forth the greatness of the love of God which we have spiritually, in our walk, by renewing our minds and manifesting it forth as the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. This is why Christian workers, when they are born again of God ’s spirit, manifest forth the greatness of the power of God, it just melts the men and women with whom they walk and talk and to whom they minister. What soul winners we are, what mighty men and women of God we are, when we manifest forth the greatness of the love of God in the renewed mind! This is the great walk, the great privilege of being so dynamically different and powerful in this our day and in our time. When a person is born again of God’s spirit he receives the new nature. But he receives this spiritually and it doesn’t do a thing for him in concretion, in manifestation in the senses realm, until he renews his mind and walks on that which he receives spiritually. A man may be born again of God’s spirit, have the love of Christ within him, but you never see this love of Christ in manifestation unless he renews his mind. This is why the word "charity" in I Corinthians 13 should always be translated "the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation". This new kind of love which is given to us when we’re born again of God’s spirit, if we renew our minds and put on the mind of Christ and manifest it, is so big that selfishness is utterly eliminated. You see, in the new creation we were given a new self, a new love. A self born of God, a self like Jesus Christ himself, that he had in his earth walk. We are not seeking our own. They cannot provoke us and we refuse to take any account of evil. We never rejoice in unrighteousness if we manifest the love of God in the renewed mind. We only rejoice in the truth, in the things that are real. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh verse of I Corinthians 13 are singly and dynamically significant. Charity, verse four, which is the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation, suffereth long, and is kind. The love of God in the renewed mind envieth not itself. The love of God in the renewed mind vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Verse eight says, the love of God in the renewed mind never fails. Isn’t that tremendous?

You see, one of the translators translates the seventh verse, which really startled me, he translates it "covereth all things." The King James reads "beareth all things." Young translates it "covering closely," and someone else translated it "cover over with silence," I like that. Covers over with silence. What are they talking about? Oh, it’s scandal for instance. It’s something that has happened that is unseemly. Something that if it were known would injure perhaps a lot of people, might cause a division in the body of believers, might break up a family. What do we do if we have the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation? We cover it closely with silence, we never mention it, and the thing dies there and no one is injured. Isn’t that wonderful? It believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. And then the great climax, the love of God never faileth. We should remember this. The agapaō, this new kind of love which is in our spirits which we have renewed our minds to in manifestation, this new kind of love never goes into bankruptcy. The red flag is never seen flying over its dwelling. Here is where love holds sway and rules. It’s not just "queen for a day, " it is queen for a lifetime because this has gained the ascendancy. In I John 4:4 we read, "Ye are of love, my little children, and greater is love in you than hatred and bitterness that is in the world." When I read this and I studied it and I worked it so it became manifested in the renewed mind, my spiritual life and my natural life in the senses realm entered a spiritual dynamic. I began to take a diagnosis of my heart life, I began to investigate love’s realities and possibilities. I saw that I Corinthians 13:1-4 was a sort of resume of the failure of men walking with the renewed mind. "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels," which is the highest manifestation of the achievement of the born-again spirit of God as a man renews his mind and speaks in tongues, but he writes across it, "if I have not love (the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation), I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." Nothing wrong with speaking by the spirit, speaking in tongues, speaking with tongues of men or of angels, nothing wrong with it. But it’s me. I am become a sounding brass or a clanging or tinkling cymbal. My linguistic ability spiritually is but a noise, a jangling, unharmonious discord. Then if I have all knowledge and know all mysteries, and if I had all faith, believing, so that I could remove mountains, it would be tremendous, but if I have not love, nothing wrong with the manifestations of the spirit, but something wrong with me. I am nothing. And if I had all knowledge, so great that the universities would honor me with all the doctor degrees, and he says it softly and tenderly when he says, but have not love, I am nothing. This is God’s clinic, ladies and gentlemen. This is the most heart searching thing that the human individual will ever have to face; He can get born again of God’s spirit in a moment of time, in the twinkling of an eye, for as it declares in Romans 10:9-10, "If thou wilt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." The new birth occurs in a moment of time, the twinkling of an eye. But what about the walk? What about the manifestation of the love of God in the renewed mind in the senses realm? This is a lifetime. This is a walk of victory, this is a walk of glory. This is something you have to discipline yourself to, day after day and week after week. You see, this most heart searching thing that the human has to ever face is how to walk in love once he has the love of Christ. I simply stand amazed in the presence of the integrity and accuracy of God’ s Word here in I Corinthians 13. I can see now that scholasticism, culture, everything that modern facilities have given us, travel, music, art, all are of no value unless love, this new kind of love, the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation, dominates my life. When at the end of the list, if that is all I have, without love, I go to my Maker empty handed. I am a failure.

You see, the new creation, the new birth in manifestation, is the only solution. This new creation, created in love, created in Christ Jesus, is the workmanship of God in Christ. God made the first man out of the dust of the earth. The second man He made out of Himself. The first man is of the earth, earthy. The last man that He made was created out of righteousness and true holiness and reality, out of the very nature of the Father Himself. You see, when this new creature, this Christ in you, is born in there, this is the greatest thing in the world. Why? Because it is God’s nature imparted to us. It is God working in us. It is God doing that which is well-pleasing unto Himself. It is God building Himself within us, until His spirit within us dominates our sense-knowledge reason faculties, and brings them into harmony with the knowledge of the reality of His Word. Then when I manifest forth the greatness of the love of God in the renewed mind, it makes us more than well-pleasing. It gives to us love’s creative genius that fills the very heart of the Father with joy. We become so Christ-like that the vine and the branches illustrate our union. We become a mirror in which the Father sees Himself, a Jesus Christ self. The old religion of fighting self and crucifying self is medieval. It doesn’t belong to Christianity. It belongs to the religions of the East. We see man through the new eyes of the love of God in Christ Jesus.

It’s this new kind of love that gives to us genuine eyesight. We can only see the good things. Remember that translation we mentioned about love, that love "beareth all things?" It literally covers closely or covers over with silence all that is unseemly. There is no scandal. There are no old sores to uncover.

Love can see only God in us and God can only see Himself in us. We see men’s overloads in order that we may bear them. We see men’s infirmities that we may share them with them. We see their weaknesses in order that we may give unto them our strength. We see their poverty in order that we may give unto them our abundance. We become Jesus Christ men and women. As a battery is charged with electricity, we are charged with the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. We stay in His presence feeding on the Word until our whole being is saturated with Him. Then we go out and we minister to people. We are lights, like luminaries, blazing a path in life where sin has no part and the misery that comes from sin can never enter. Now you understand what it means to walk in love, what it means to be in Christ. This is the nature of the Father, and this is that life which I speak of as the life which is more than abundant.