New Things Have Come
1. Love Controls Us
A few years ago, a ministry magazine reported that over 80 percent of those involved in full-time ministry experience “ministerial burn-out,” which is causing clergymen to leave the ministry at a higher rate than those who are entering the ministry, and which results in the average pastor staying in the pulpit for less than three years.
2. Love Died for Us
3. Love Killed Our Old Self
4. Love Compels Selfless Living
In 1858, Frances Ridley Havergal visited Germany with her father who was getting treatment for his afflicted eyes. While in a pastor’s home, she saw a picture of the Crucifixion on the wall, with the words under it: “I did this for thee. What hast thou done for Me?” Quickly she took a piece of paper and wrote a poem based on that motto; but she was not satisfied with it, so she threw the paper into the fireplace. The paper came out unharmed! Later, her father encouraged her to publish it; and we sing it today to a tune composed by Philip P. Bliss.
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. Love Compels a New Look
Because “all things are become new,” we also have a new view of people around us. We see them as sinners for whom Christ died. We no longer see them as friends or enemies, customers or coworkers; we see them the way Christ sees them, as lost sheep who need a shepherd. When you are constrained by the love of Christ, you want to share His love with others.
Not only did Paul’s view of people change but also his view of Christ. He had once known Him according to the flesh; he had made a human assessment of Him, concluding that He was merely a man. Worse, he had decided Jesus was a false messiah; a heretic and a rebel against Judaism; one worthy of death.
6. Love Demands a New Reality
Kainos (new) means new in quality, not just in sequence; believers’ “old self was crucified with Him”