2 Cor 5:14-15: For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died. And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised. [HCSB]
Such a self-centered and selfish people we are. Some more so, some less maybe. We see it supremely in children when they learn that little word mine. And while we learn to cloak it somewhat as we mature, that self-centered and selfish nature still abides in us. Mine never quite leaves our vocabulary or our heart and often dominates every decision and action.
Scripture is quite clear, however, that mine is to disappear in the depths of Christ’s love. Mine is to die at the cross and be resurrected into a life dominated now by the word Yours. Yours, Father, is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Your love compels me, Father, to live in the desires You have for my life.
That word compel, or constrains as some translations render it, means to hold together, to preoccupy.
No longer are we to be preoccupied by our self-centered sin nature, but now we are held together by the love of God brought to us by God’s Son, who died for us and was raised again for us. His arms of love which were once stretched wide and nailed to the cross now encompass us, hold us together, lift us into the Father’s love.
As John the Baptizer said, He must increase, I must decrease. Life, no longer mine, now Yours LORD. [John 3:30]