Besides God, what else persuades you the most in life?
That might be an easy question to answer, but it also may be a difficult or disturbing question to answer. Our lives have been compelled by so many different things throughout the course of our days. What compelled us 10 or 20 years ago may not compel us today. I began to think about this when I was reading 2nd Corinthians 5:12-15. "For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."
Specifically, in verse 14, the NIV translation says "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died." The word constrain used in the King James text, means “To compel by physical, moral, or circumstantial force”. We have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts and this causes us to love God intensely. We desire to spend and be spent for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. In the New Testament the apostles endeavored to persuade men of the grace and salvation of God. It was the love of Christ that constrained them to act in this manner.
The word sunechoo [Constraineth us] properly means that the "impelling, or exciting motive in the labors and self-denials" of Paul was the love of Christ. It was this love which Paul showed to those he came in contact with and tried to persuade and compel them to Christ. The bible says that Jesus Christ so loved the world that he gave himself for it and His love for the world was a demonstration that people were dead in sins and needed a way out of that sinful life. We are now urged by the same love and we are prompted to acts of zeal and self-denial to save the world from ruin. Those of us who have been redeemed by the one who for their sake died and rose again should now live wholly for their Lord. Not for ourselves.
1 Cor 6:19-20
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
The love of God has a way of inciting and compelling more from our lives than would have ever been possible without God. We are the work of the potter’s hands and we are being shaped and molded into what God so desires us to be. His love should be manifested from our lives in all that we do, so that we example the Lord through our words and actions. We must be constrained by the love of Christ.
Eph 3:17-21
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
I desire to be compelled by God’s love to fulfill His will,
Pastor Hoffman
That might be an easy question to answer, but it also may be a difficult or disturbing question to answer. Our lives have been compelled by so many different things throughout the course of our days. What compelled us 10 or 20 years ago may not compel us today. I began to think about this when I was reading 2nd Corinthians 5:12-15. "For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."
Specifically, in verse 14, the NIV translation says "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died." The word constrain used in the King James text, means “To compel by physical, moral, or circumstantial force”. We have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts and this causes us to love God intensely. We desire to spend and be spent for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. In the New Testament the apostles endeavored to persuade men of the grace and salvation of God. It was the love of Christ that constrained them to act in this manner.
The word sunechoo [Constraineth us] properly means that the "impelling, or exciting motive in the labors and self-denials" of Paul was the love of Christ. It was this love which Paul showed to those he came in contact with and tried to persuade and compel them to Christ. The bible says that Jesus Christ so loved the world that he gave himself for it and His love for the world was a demonstration that people were dead in sins and needed a way out of that sinful life. We are now urged by the same love and we are prompted to acts of zeal and self-denial to save the world from ruin. Those of us who have been redeemed by the one who for their sake died and rose again should now live wholly for their Lord. Not for ourselves.
1 Cor 6:19-20
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
The love of God has a way of inciting and compelling more from our lives than would have ever been possible without God. We are the work of the potter’s hands and we are being shaped and molded into what God so desires us to be. His love should be manifested from our lives in all that we do, so that we example the Lord through our words and actions. We must be constrained by the love of Christ.
Eph 3:17-21
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
I desire to be compelled by God’s love to fulfill His will,
Pastor Hoffman
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