Archives: Sermon

The Pledging Of The Spirit

The more I receive of Christ, the more my appetite for Him increases. Some believers do not have a very large appetite for Christ. The reason for this is that they do not care for the pledging/promising of the Spirit. We need to be practical Christians that say, “O Lord Jesus, You are so sweet. Amen, Lord.” If we do this, the sense of the Spirit’s pledging will increase within us. The spirit’s pledging and sealing by experience is not once for all, but it is continuously increasing in us to all parts of our life. The more I receive of Christ, the more my appetite for Him increases, the more the sealing of the Spirit I experience.

The Noble Love-Agape Love

The Greek word for love in verse 7 is agape, the word used in the New Testament for the divine love, which God is in His nature (1 John 4:8, 16). It is nobler than phileo; it adorns all the qualities of the Christian life (1 Cor. 13; Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:13-14). It is stronger in ability and greater in capacity than human love (Matt. 5:44, 46), yet a believer who lives by the divine life (2 Pet. 1:3) and partakes of the divine nature (v. 4) can be saturated with it and express it in full. Such a love needs to be developed in brotherly love, to govern it and flow in it for the full expression of God, who is this love.