I'm here at home tonight.
My wife Jenny is out - she has a hair appointment.
That makes sense for her. For me, not something I need...ever.
But as I sit here and fold laundry for the family, I am listening to a message from Dr. David Platt. He is speaking on video from a conference in 2013 and his title is "Why The Great Commission Is Great" (click HERE to listen to the the actual message).
The Great Commission comes to us in Matthew 28:18-20 where we read this:
"And Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
This got me thinking about a passage in 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul says these words:
"Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died."
Note the words Paul uses here. In verse 11 he says we persuade others.
In verse 14 he notes that the love of Christ controls us. Some translations use the word 'compels' - the love of Christ compels us.
And so let me ask you a question:
What is your motivation in life? What controls you?
Some will answer that motivations are complex, and that motivations are often mixed.
That's fair -life can be complicated.
But I want to give an image here of something Paul seems quite clear on. His motivation - which leads him to work on persuading others - is the love of Christ.
The love of Christ leads him to try to persuade others. Naturally the question arises: persuade them into what? Persuade them to believe what?
The answer is to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We live in a confused world.
On one level, the message we constantly hear the chorus that we are not to ever - at any time, nor for any reason - try to change a person's perspective, opinion, or approach to life. This is a cardinal sin in our day. Interestingly though, the entire narrative we see in American politics and media is that one side is completely in the right and the other side is completely wrong.
One message is don't ever change people, the other message is you must change people.
Paul would agree with the latter - we must work to change the perspectives of people.
But Paul's motivation - rather than being identity politics (an identity that will always fail to fulfill)
is love. Love motivated Paul to travel to distant lands and to suffer at the hands of the people with whom he wanted to share the Gospel (see a list of Paul's sufferings HERE).
And so I ask again:
What is your motivation in life? What controls you?
While we have examined just one image of Christ and the Gospel and the love of God as the motivating factor for Paul, this is the theme of the evangelistic and missional drive of the church.
The love of Christ controls us and sends us to share that message with others.
Has that love captivated you? If it has, praise God for the clarity He has given you.
If that love has not yet controlled and compelled you, pray that your heart would be blown open to see the love Christ has shown for you, and in turn the loving message of the Gospel that He wants you to share with the world.
- tC
