2 Cor 5:11-15 Compelled
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· 9 viewsCompelled by the love of Christ, we reverently live for him and make him known.
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Compelled
Compelled
2 Corinthians 5:11-15
We are living in a culture compelled by guilt or self-love. Sometimes both.
As followers of Christ, we live and respond from different motivation.
Main Idea: Compelled by the love of Christ, we reverently live for him and make him known.
2 motivations that are tightly connected and must not be seen in opposition to one another. Flow from v. 10—our whole lives and ministry are going are under the scrutiny of Holy God—culminating in the judgment.
Motivation # 1: The Fear of the Lord (v. 11)
It is said that whatever it is that one fears the most that is what one will serve the most. (Garland 268)
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
Fear=reverence...
reverence of who God is and his mighty acts resulting in faith and obedience.
28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
Had sin never entered the world it still would be fitting for us to fear God--to bow in reverential awe before Him. We would gladly join the seraphs in calling out, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” But sin did enter the world--and because of His holiness, God now reveals Himself as the hater of sin and the just punisher of sinners. But He also reveals Himself in the person of His Son as a merciful and gracious Savior. Our awe of His holiness can be joined with amazement at His love. (Bridges, The Joy of Fearing God 75)
Motivation # 2: The Love of Christ (v. 14)
14 For the love of Christ controls us ...urges, motivates, compels
Compelled by the love of Christ, we reverently live for him.
Compelled by the love of Christ, we reverently live for him.
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
Substitutionary atonement...Christ died for our sins in our place. (1 Cor. 15:3) one has died for all, therefore all have died;
This is not teaching universalism that everyone will be saved because of the work of Christ.
Arguments will be made for Particular redemption or Sufficient atonement/Efficient application.
Do not get hung up in this debate in GG. The point of this text is tied tightly to the beginning of v. 14 For the love of Christ controls us.
Trusting in Christ alone for salvation results in radical change in motivation and in life. See this explained in v. 15
15 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.
Hear echoes of 1 Cor. 15:3-4…death and resurrection.
We no longer live for ourselves not because we are trying to obtain something. Redemption has been accomplished.
Redemption has been applied...that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Humble awareness of who has saved us and reigns over us. Also, awareness of who we are. we are the Lord’s...Rom. 14:8 The one who is the Lord of the living and the dead…therefore...
Compelled by the love of Christ, we reverently live for him and make him known.
Compelled by the love of Christ, we reverently live for him and make him known.
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.
knowing understand and experience the fear of the Lord…we persuade others.
Not a He is going to get you motivation…compelled by the love of Christ, the price for salvation has been paid, and out of reverence we rightly persuade others, not with manipulation.
...Verse 11 could be seen as Paul’s concession that he practises persuasion while asserting that his is not a persuasion which sacrifices the truth in order to please his hearers. His persuasion is quite straightforward, carried out with a proper fear of the Lord. (Kruse 163)
But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.
Dealing with accusations against Paul. He basically says, I am not going to defend myself by outward appearance—Paul knows that he is not a powerful and prestigious man…
He does not want to give reason for others to boast in him. “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 1 Co 1:31.
what we are is known to God…God looks at the heart.
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Changed heart…worships the Lord with reverence and awe and makes him known.
Prov. 4:23 heart is the well spring of life. Everything flows from the heart...
13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
Does Paul have in mind worship, utterances that are beyond words or does he mean that his life and ministry seem crazy...not sure. The unexplainable or understandable is not what he puts before people, before God. He speaks and acts from his right mind…that is in clear and comprehensible language before people. “it is for you”
He speaks and acts for their sake in the fear of the Lord..
Next week, we will unpack the culmination of his argument. For now let’s read it together...
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 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. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
So What?
So What?
Am I compelled by the love of Christ to reverently live for him and make him known?
Cancel culture: fear of consequences leading people to make all sorts of decisions. People are compelled and controlled by the media, social media, or the mob.
[Sidebar: some things need to be dealt and changed with by civil discourse.]
We, as followers of Christ—the church, must not and should not use coercion or guilt. We proclaim the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the need for salvation, and the provision of Christ.
Christ cancelled our debt through his own suffering in our place. Christ laid down his life for ours.
When we repent of our sin trust in Christ alone for our salvation, our motives and the trajectory of our lives change.
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You are what you love.
You live for what you love.
Who are you and what do you live for?
Prayer.
Song/baptism
Offering
Next week communion…proclaim his death together…you are sent to proclaim his death wherever you go.
END