The last time I spoke we saw that what we believe about Jesus Christ is the most important thing about us. How we VIEW Jesus Christ determine how we VALUE Him. Our response to our Lord depends upon our relationship with Him.
Now, how do we show our value for Him? Let us read 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.”[1] If we really value Jesus Christ, we will VALUE what He VALUES.
Look at verse 14: “For the love of Christ controls us”. Circle the word “For”. In the context of our passage, Paul was explaining the motivation for serving God. We read this in verse 13: “If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.”[2]Paul was so all-out for ministry that people thought he was so crazy for Jesus. He was regarded as a fanatic. “Who but one out of his mind would show such disregard for himself? Would a sane person willingly face a riotous mob intent on destroying him? Who would be crazy enough to walk back into a city in which he had just been stoned and dragged out? Only a person who was utterly devoted to God would show so little regard for himself. Such a man was Paul.”[3]In verse 14, Paul gave his reason why: “For the love of Christ controls us”. The New Living Translation goes like this, “If it seems that we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Whatever we do, it is because Christ’s love controls us.”The Message version translated verse 14 this way: “Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.”
Note that Paul was not saying that our love for Christ controls us. Instead, it was the love of Christ that controls us. It was not our love for Him. It was His love for us. Christ’s love should move us to reach out to people. Matthew 9:36-38 gave us a glimpse of Christ’s love for people.“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”Underline the words “he had compassion for them”. His heart went out for them. That’s why He commanded them “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Why would He command them to pray for laborers? It is because, as my mentor would say, “This is a prayer that God cannot not answer.” This is a prayer that God would always answer because He has “compassion for [people who] were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” This is the heart of God. Our hearts should beat His heartbeat. This is what our Lord loves. And if we really love Him, we will love what He loves. This is what our Lord values. And if we really value Him, we will value what He values.
“For the love of Christ controls us”. The word“control” is a very rich word.[4] When an invading force has surrounded or pressed a city on every side, it compels its citizens to surrender. They have no other choice but to give up. The word that they used at that time to describe that no-choice situation was the Greek verb for the word“control”. It is also used to describe what a cattle squeeze does to a sick farm animal. It pushes the cow in on each side so that it is forced into a position where it cannot move so that the veterinarian can treat it. The word that they used back then to describe that action is the same Greek word for “control.” In view of these backgrounds, what does it mean that “the love of Christ controls us”? 1 John 4:19 tells us, “We love because he first loved us.” Since we experienced His love, we cannot help but love others. In a sense, Christ’s love forces us… compels us… controls us to love also. We cannot help but to value what He values.
In fact, Christ’s love for us drove Him to die for our sins. Twice in our passage Paul wrote that He “died for all”. He loved us to the point of death. Verse 21 tells us: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Here we see also that there are two results when we appropriate Christ’s death on the cross. Two things happen to us when we put our faith on the Lord Jesus. One is negative and the other is positive. First, verse 14 tells us that, because of Christ’s death, “therefore all have died”. When we accept the Lord as Savior, we die to our old life. The New Living Translation goes like this,“we have all died to the old life we used to live.”Second, verse 15 talks about “those who live” or, as the New Living Translation goes, “those who receive his new life”. When we believe in Him, we become alive spiritually. Someone wrote, “He died that we might die. He died that we might live.” This is beautifully summarized in verse 17:“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” In Christ, we are a new creation, not just a renovation.
And what was Christ’s purpose for dying for us? Let us read verse 15 again: “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.” Circle the conjunction “that”. It can be translated “so that”. So, Christ died for us in order that we “might no longer live for [ourselves] but for him”. Because Christ died for us, we will no longer value what we used to value. Because Christ died for us, we will only value what Christ values. He died to give us a new life and not to bring us back to our old life. We will not value our old life. We will value our new life in Christ.
And if we value this new life in Christ, we will share its value to others. Look at verses 18-19: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” God “gave us the ministry of reconciliation” and He entrusted“to us the message of reconciliation.” We have a ministry to discharge and a message to deliver. We have a ministry to care for and a message to share. We must commit to this ministry and we must communicate this message. It is work—hard work. But it is worth it. If we really value Christ, we will value what He values.
Because husbands are supposed to love their wives to the point of death just like Christ, whenever I would do something sacrificially for my wife Ellen, she would always say, “Thank you for dying for me.” Let me rephrase that in view of our passage today. If you shared and are sharing the Gospel, thank you for dying to your old life and living your new life for Christ. If you take care of a new believer, you follow them up, thank you for dying to yourself and living for Christ. If you gave up your favorite seat or your preferred parking space for a newcomer, if you reach out to people even if they do not have the same status in life or the same race, if you are serving even if no one notices what you are doing, if you are serving at the expense not only of your pocket but also of your personal needs, thank you for dying and living for Christ. If you are thinking of what you can give rather than what you can get, thank you for valuing what Christ values.
Warren Wiersbe wrote about a woman who saw a picture of the crucifixion with these words underneath: “I did this for thee. What hast thou done for Me?” She was so touched that she wrote this poem based on those words.
I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might’st ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead;
I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou given for Me?[5]
The Lord is saying “I valued you this much.[Stretch out your arms as if you are nailed on the cross] How much do you value me?” If we really value Christ, we will value what He values.
Let us pray…
[1]Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2]New International Version.
[3]John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-c1985), 2:567.
[4]James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible : Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order., electronic ed. (Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996), G4912.
[5]Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, “An Exposition of the New Testament Comprising the Entire ’BE’ Series”—Jkt. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1996, c1989), 2 Co 5:14.
