Over the next several posts, I plan to walk through 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. For me, the passage is life-changing, because it seems to provide a life mission for me, and if I am reading it correctly, at least to some degree, for all lovers of Jesus. This passage speaks to my heart, helping me find who I have been all along, without fully realizing it.
This first post focuses on the first few words of our passage. Before reading those words, however, I think it helpful to review four well-known passages that will help remind us of God’s heart, which is necessary as a foundation to better understand our main passage.
- “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV).
- “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions” (Ephesians 2:4-5, NIV)
- God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4, ESV).
- The Lord does not want anyone “to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NASB).
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These four passages say to me that
- God loves people very much
- Jesus was sent into the world as a sign of God’s love
- Jesus provides the way for reconciliation with God, through faith
- Without being reconciled to God, people perish
- God does not want anyone to perish, because he loves people!
Now let’s consider the phrase that starts this passage from 2 Corinthians 5: “Christ’s love compels us”. What a passionate way to begin a passage! It says that we are driven to do what we do by the love of Jesus. Christ’s love is a driving motivation and force that makes us do crazy things sometimes.
What is it about Christ’s love that compels us? To answer that, we need to ask ourselves what the object of Christ’s love is in this verse. The main answer is “us”! We are the object of His affection! And once we grasp how much it is He loves us, and who it is that is doing the loving (the Creator of the entire universe), we get overwhelmed! We feel fulfilled, valued, complete, at peace, and filled with joy! We feel like we can do anything because of that love. Therefore, we can say our motivation — what compels us — is that we are loved by God.
Paul goes on to write about his motivation “because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died.” Here we get reminded that Jesus’ love for us was so great that He actually died for us. Many of the greatest love stories of all time have this as a theme: the Lover gives up his life or her life for his or her Beloved. And that is part of the Greatest Love Story of all time — the story of God pursuing the one He loves — us, His Bride, His Church, His People.
The story the Bible tells goes something like this: We, the Beloved, were trapped and held captive by the wicked enemy. In our captivity, we were utter slaves, and forced to do things that affirmed that we were unworthy of freedom or love. But God, so rich in love, died while setting us free. He could see the Beauty that we would exhibit once we were freed and restored. And he loved us so immensely. We must also remember that Jesus died for ALL. That is, there are still many others he died for who have not yet been freed, though the potential for freedom is there.
So I think it is also correct and a possible source of motivation to realize that Christ loves everyone with such a great love, and that once we realize that the object of our affection deeply desires to have a relationship with others who don’t know him yet, we feel motivated to help them experience Christ’s love. Isn’t it true that if the object of your affection really desires something, you desire it for him or her, and will do what you can to make it come true? It works that way for anyone we love deeply. So the second way that Christ’s love compels us is we take on the love for others that Jesus has.
Given how amazing Christ’s love is for us, and how much he loves other people, can we live by any other motivation? Look for the next post on this passage to see how the Apostle Paul suggests this motivation should play out in our lives.
Questions for Discussion:
1) How does Christ’s love compel you? Does it fit into the two motivations suggested above, or is it a different motivation that didn’t occur to the author?
2) Do you think that the phrase “Christ’s love compels us” is for all followers of Jesus, or just some?
Tim I think you should consider writing a book or teaching books on God’s love and getting them published. You are very expressive and transparent and love to read anything your write.
Jenna Nicolette
Jenna, you are very kind! I want to get a book written in the next year or two that does exactly that! People need to know not only about God’s love, but also how to walk in it so others will know. Maybe between us and our friends, we can yet change the world!