2 CORINTHIANS 5:14-15 – For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
THEME OF THE DAY: UNDER THE CONTROL OF CHRIST’S LOVE. In today’s scripture, the Apostle Paul describes the greatest experience a person will ever know – the control of Christ’s love. It also defines what the Christian life is intended to be; a life lived under the control of Christ’s love. The Apostle John wrote that such a life is the result of our union with Christ; our oneness with Him that produces a life of love – In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him (1 John 4:9).
All this truth sounds wonderful, but you may ask, I know I do, what does that look like practically? First, let’s dig a little deeper into the definition. Kenneth Wuest was a lecturer in Greek at Moody Bible Institute in the last century. He wrote an expanded translation of the New Testament in an effort to capture more of the nuances of many Greek words. Here is how he translated 2 Corinthians 5:14 – The love which Christ has for me presses on me from all sides, holding me to one end and prohibiting me from considering any other wrapping itself around me in tenderness, giving me an impelling motive.
The key to understanding what it means to be controlled by the love of God is these words Wuest wrote – “holding me to one end.” What is the “one end”? It is found in verse fifteen in today’s scripture – and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised (2 Corinthians 5:15). The “one thing holding me to the end” is the Christ-consumed, Christ-centered life. To live under the control of Christ’s love is to have life abandoned to His will, His desires, His mission, and His people. When the love of Christ is known in the hearts of His people, death to self occurs, the crucified and risen with Christ life becomes reality (Galatians 2:20). All of life goes through the lens of the Apostle Paul’s testimony – for me to live is Christ, to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).
From the deeper definition, we move to what it takes to “get” such a life. It begins with prayer and not just some vague prayer. It is the prayer of the Apostle Paul found in the third chapter of his letter to the Ephesians – For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19). If we are to be controlled by the love of Christ, we must experience the love of Christ. Seek it. God has provided it in Christ and longs for us to know it that we might be controlled by it.
PRAYER: “Father, show me the beauty of Christ’s love that compels me to surrender to Him.”
QUOTE: “The greatest experience we will ever know is to live under the control of Christ’s love.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim