LOVE THAT COMPELS

 

For the love of Christ compels us … Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: (2 Corinthians 5:14-20 NKJV)

An ambassador may live in a foreign country, but he does not belong to it. He is there to represent his own country, and no opportunity of helping forward her interests are allowed to pass. We have to represent Christ to the world. The word "compels" suggests a constant pressure, an urge, as when water is forced down a certain channel. Paul says: "I act as I do because I am under the spell of a mighty constraint; I can do no other; I am not master of myself. Do not wonder at what may seem to be unusual and extravagant. Attribute my eccentricity to Christ. His love actuates me, and bears me along."

What is meant by "the love of Christ?" Is it His to us, or ours to Him? It is impossible to divide them like that, because they are one. As the sunlight strikes the moon, and is reflected from her to the earth, so the love we have for Christ, or to man, is the reflection of His love to us. All love in our cold and loveless hearts is the emanation and reflection of the love which began in Him, was mediated to us in Calvary, and is reflected from us, as sunlight from a mirror.

The love of Christ does not compel all Christian people, because they do not understand the profound significance of the Cross; but when the soul once appreciates that, and passes through the gate of death into the life of God, then it begins to feel the compelling love of Christ. The pivot of our life must be the risen Christ: "We no longer live unto ourselves, but unto Him who rose again." We sometimes hear people described as eccentric, out of the center, so to speak. A man is ex-centric to the world when he is concentric with Christ. It is thus that we become a new creation. When by faith we are united to Jesus Christ in His cross and grave, the transition is made. We pass over into the resurrected life. He has reconciled us unto Himself, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation, Therefore we are ambassadors. We have to proclaim forgiveness to the sinful, the loosening of their chains to those who sit in penitentiaries and the near approach of salvation to all (Isaiah 52:7-10).

PRAYER

This empty cup for You to fill;

This trembling heart for You to still;

This yielded life to do Your will,

O Lord of Love, I bring You.

In Jesus’ name, AMEN.