01.13. The Spiritual Man Is "Made Perfect In Love"

The word " perfect " or " complete " which is " full-grown " in 1 Corinthians 2:6, R.V. margin, and joined so often with the mind or knowledge, by Paul, is joined with love by the Apostle John. He speaks of the believer being " made perfect in love " (1 John 4:18) and tells how " perfect love casteth out fear ", and " love made perfect " gives " boldness in the day of judgment ". The Epistle of John shows the " spiritual " man, therefore, as one with the affections of the soul fully possessed with the love of God, and so entirely as to be completely filled full with love flowing from Him Who dwells in the spirit. " God dwelleth in us and His love is ’ perfected ’ in us," writes the Apostle, i.e., the vessel of the soul is perfectly filled with Divine love, so that up to its measure and capacity it is " complete " with the love of God, and so filled that " fear " has no place, and no room. But John’s language means even more than the fact that the Divine Love of Him Who dwells in the spirit of the believer, can flow freely through the soul-vessel. He is really describing the life in the Spirit of the spiritual man, i.e., what living and dwelling in the sphere of the " God-consciousness " means. " God is love," he writes, " and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him " (1 John 4:16). The " spiritual " man who lives and walks in the spirit of love is thus " abiding in God ". If " fear " or " hate " comes in, he has descended to the soul-realm, and admitted some element of the natural soul-life, or else, through the attack of evil spirits, he has ceased to co-work with God in his spirit. Upon discerning it he must at once go to the Cross, to submit the soulish element to its severing power; whilst Godward he calls it "sin", and seeks the application of the cleansing blood according to 1 John 1:7, at the same time resisting the powers of darkness, and taking up once more the " whole armour of God " for victory. The spiritual man is " perfected into one " with all believers The " spiritual man " is perfected into one spirit with others in Christ. The word " perfect " used in 1 Corinthians 2:6, was also used by the Lord Jesus in His High Priestly prayer, to describe the union between His redeemed ones, which lay as the burden on His heart on the eve of His going to the Cross to make that union possible. " As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in us ... that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one . . . " (John 7:21-23, R.V.). The essential union which exists between Father and Son the Union of essence in spirit with spirit-is the union of the believer each with the other who is IN God. The language of the Lord is unmistakable. He said, " That they may be one, even as WE are ONE! " This means Father and Son, dwelling in the spirit of the believer, by the Holy Ghost, in perfect-or complete-union; and of necessity it means also the same union of spirit with other believers. The " spiritual " man is therefore not only one with Christ in God, Who is Love, but he finds the same union with the same God abiding in others. Therefore, he cannot be fully abiding in God if he in any degree admits the soulish life of nature which is manifested in (I) divisions, (2) partiality (James 3:17, R. V. margin), or (3) partisanship (Galatians 5:20, R.V. margin).