Let us read from 2 Corinthians 5:14,15, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” Jesus died for me and I died with Jesus. If someone asks me, ‘Why did Christ die for you?‘, with reference to 1 Corinthians 15:3, I can say; Christ died for my sin. Because of this, we have forgiveness and have been redeemed. This is one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is what we saw apostle Paul say in 2 Corinthians 5 – We are not to live for ourselves but for Him who does for us. This is what God wants from our life. When we understand both these truths, we can live a life according to it. Jesus died for my sins and I should live for Him and not for myself. God wants to deliver us from our self-centered life. Our selfishness and self-loving nature will hinder us from living for our Lord.
We should live a life glorifying the one who dies for us. In Christendom today, most people emphasis only on the first truth – Christ died for their sins. Once they are born again and have taken baptism they are satisfied with living a self-centered life. Many Christians do not give importance to the other side of the coin – We have to live for the one who died for us. In Galatians 2:19,20 we read, “For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” This should be the way we should live. This is what God wants from our life. In Philippians 2:21, apostle Paul talks about Timothy that he sought God’s interest unlike the other brethren who were all seeking their own interests. We need the spirit of Timothy – his longing to seek God’s interests over his own.
How can we get deliverance from our self-centered life and live for God? In 2 Corinthians 5 we read that the love of Christ will compel us. When we realize that God is our everything and have love for Him, we will live for Him alone. In some translation we read that the ‘love of Christ controls us’. The love of Christ helps us to serve Him, to live for Him, to long to keep His commandments and not seek one’s own. In 1 Corinthians 13 we read that ‘love does not seek its own’. When we have the love of God within us, we will not seek our own. We will long for God alone. Love is the foundation of the Christian life. We love because He first loved us. God wants our hearts to overflow with His love. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and while He was on the cross, He went through unimaginable pain for us. There we see His supreme love. God wants us to be gripped by this love. He died for us while we were still sinners. Think of His marvelous and precious love for us. We are eligible only for hell, but He saved us. In Ezekiel 16 we read of God’s love for Jerusalem and it is a picture of God’s love for us. When we were thrown out and despised and had no one to take care of us and in the hopeless state, God redeemed us. He has shown His compassion and love for us. We have to understand God’s love for us. In Isaiah 49:15 we read, “Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.” This is God’s love for us! We need to be deeply rooted in God’s love and thus love Him more and more and live for Him.
If we examine our loves, we can see that we lack the fervent love. In Romans 5:5 we read that the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We need the filling of the Holy Spirit to have God’s love in our heart and that will help us to live for God and not for ourselves. We heard that the coming of the Lord is very near. When we approach the end times, lawlessness and sin is increasing around us and peoples love will grow cold. This is a warning for us. In our Christian life, our love shouldn’t grow cold. Let us be careful to increase the spiritual temperature. God doesn’t want a lukewarm love from us. In Leviticus 6:13 we read that the fire should be continually burning. This is the way God wants the love in our hearts for Him to be. Never allow the love to grow cold. In Jude 1:21 we read, “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” Let God’s love be filled in our hearts and let our desire to live for him grow day by day. If our deeds don’t originate out of love for God, on the final day it will result in nothing. They will be just dead works which only look good on the outside. Even if we give a glass of water out of love, it is counted by God. Our actions, deeds and expressions should be out of love. In 1 Corinthians 13:2,3 we read, “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” If I do not have love, I am nothing. Maybe I can prophesy and have great faith and can do miracles, but if I don’t have love; it is all useless. In Mathew 7 we read of the person who did a lot of deeds for the Lord, but on the last day ended up hearing from the Lord that He didn’t know Him! If I don’t have the love of God in my heart, in front of God all that I do are dead works. We have to build our superstructure on the foundation of God’s love! In 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 we read, “Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” Everything should originate through God’s love. Each one must be careful how we build – if it is not through God’s love, it will all be burned up. In Ephesians 3:17-19 , “O that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” May this be true in our lives.
When God’s love fills our heart we can say as Asaph said in Psalms 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.” Nothing must be greater in our life that God Himself. Not to live for ourselves, but to live for Him because He died for us. As the deer pants for the water let us long and thirst for the living God. Let us have no other idols in our heart. The love of Christ compels us to live for Him. Let us be rooted and grounded in God’s love. In Luke 7 we read the parable of the two debtors and the instance of the woman who poured alabaster oil on Jesus feet. In verse 47 we read, “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” We all love Jesus but God desires us to have a much deeper love for Him. Our love for God will increase, when we realize how much we have been forgiven. This woman did a lot; but it was all out of love for God. She loved much! All her actions were out of love. God is expecting a more intense love for Him through our lives. Jesus expected a greater love from Peter when He asked, “Do you love me more than these?” In John 17:26 Jesus prayed to the Father, “The love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” This is Jesus’ desire for us. We have to abide in God’s love and be filled in it so that we may be more pleasing to our God. Through our life, we can show God’s love to all.
May God help and bless us all!
