THE CONSTRAINING LOVE OF CHRIST
\n2 Corinthians 5: 14: For the love of Christ constraineth us;<\/p>\n
When it came to believing and preaching Christ, some accused the apostle
\nPaul of being beside himself. Others accused him of being too serious.
\nBut by the Holy Spirit of God, he answered, \u201cWhether we be beside
\nourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
\nFor the love of Christ constraineth us\u201d (2Co 5:13-14). The love of
\nChrist toward his people constrains every believer to do all that we do
\nfor God and for our brethren.<\/p>\n
We see Christ\u2019s love for God his Father and his brethren on the cross.
\n\u201cGreater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
\nhis friends\u201d (Jn 15:13). The greatest love of all is the love of Christ
\nmanifest when he laid down his life to declare God the Father the
\nJustifier of his elect while justifying his people. Christ\u2019s love is the
\nlove of the law that he declared to be the fulfillment of the law! When
\nthis love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Christ
\nconstrains his redeemed to believe on him and to love our brethren for
\nwhom Christ redeemed by his precious blood. Faith in Christ and love
\ntoward our brethren is lived out as we, the church and body of Christ
\nwho he has fitly framed together, assemble ourselves together under the
\npreaching of Christ crucified. In love to our brethren we do for one
\nanother whatever our Head enables us to do so that our brethren can
\nfocus on Christ rather than the trials of life which are so distracting.
\nAt the same time, in faith to our Lord, we trust our brethren to their
\nown Master, knowing that Christ alone is able to make them stand and
\nshall make them stand (Rom 14: 4).<\/p>\n
Does the love of Christ really accomplish this in his people? Did
\nChrist\u2019s love for Paul really make him forsake will-works religion and
\npublicly identify himself with the church of our Redeemer? Did the love
\nof Christ really constrain Paul to never forsake assembling together
\nwith his brethren under the preaching of the gospel? Did Christ\u2019s love
\nreally constrain Paul to hazard his own life as he preached the
\nunsearchable riches of Christ? This is not a theory to those Christ has
\nunited. It is not merely a doctrine to those in whom Christ dwells. This
\nis a sure and certain reality that Christ\u2019s sanctified people experience
\nfrom the first hour he calls us to the last. \u201cWhosoever believeth that
\nJesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that
\nbegat loveth him also that is begotten of him\u201d (1 Jn 5:1) Christ\u2019s great
\nlove for us really constrains his people to persevere in faith and love,
\n\u201cendeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace\u201d (Eph
\n4:3).<\/p>\n
Let folks say we are crazy or let them say we are too serious. We say
\nwith Paul \u201cthe love of Christ constraineth us!\u201d
\nClay Curtis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE CONSTRAINING LOVE OF CHRIST 2 Corinthians 5: 14: For the love of Christ constraineth us; When it came to believing and preaching Christ, some accused the apostle Paul of being beside himself. Others accused him of being too serious. But by the Holy Spirit of God, he answered, \u201cWhether we be beside ourselves, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,71,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-clay-curtis","category-believers-rule-of-life","category-christ-and-his-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5200,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5199\/revisions\/5200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}