Let Love, Constrain Us!
“For
the love of Christ constrains us, judging this, that if one died for all, then
all died; and He died for all, that the living ones may live no more to
themselves, but to Him who died for them and having been raised.” (2Co 5:14-15)
One of the most important
questions we will ever ask ourselves is, why do we do, what we do? A flaw in
the thinking of most people who consider themselves “believers,” is that they attribute the course of their life and
actions to the pull, which our fallen natures in a fallen world exert over us. Certainly
it is true that man has fallen, that we live in a fallen world, and by all we
can discern, in a world that will continue to deteriorate until Christ returns.
If this is true, then where is the victory over sin that Scripture speaks of? Scripture
reveals that Paul struggled to bring every action and thought unto the
obedience of Christ. It is for certain that Paul was not perfect, but one thing
you never hear Paul offer, is an excuse for when he may have acted contrary to
the purposes and will of the Lord. Paul understood all too well, the weight of
sin, and the power of grace. But Paul also understood that he would be held
accountable for every idle word he would speak. For it was Jesus Himself who said,
“A good man out of the good treasure of the heart
brings out good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings out
evil things. But I say to you that every idle word, whatever men may speak,
they shall give account of it in the Day of Judgment.” (Matt. 12:35-36) The tension of being a fallen
creature to Paul, was never sufficient, so as to excuse him for his actions. Although
Paul realized his own imperfections, he saw something more powerful than the
nature of sin he personally possessed, and that was his love for Jesus. Paul
said that in every instance he was faced with doing what he wanted, verses
doing what glorified the Lord, he was controlled by his love for Christ. To
Paul, the power of his devotion to Jesus was greater than the power, which sin
tried to exert over him. This leads us to one of the most important things we
as believers must come to recognize, and that is, as long as we frame the
argument for why we sin in the context of fallen natures, and a fallen world,
there is no limit to the number of excuses we may offer ourselves for why we do
what we do. On the contrary however, if we frame the argument for why we do
what we do within the context of our love for Christ, we shall quickly find, there
is never really any excuse at all!
Rev. Joel M McDuffie Jr.
6/26/17
