“Christ’s love controls us.” “Controls” is a word that means constrains us, drives us out, motivates us, and then guides us after we get there; that sets the limits to what we should and should not do.
Many are motivated by their fear of what God can do to them if they don’t behave. But God does not want us to be motivated by fear; God wants us to be motivated by God’s love for us. God is for us, God stands beside us, God delights in us. Knowing that love should move us like nothing else.
Paul writes that God’s love gives him a sense of security, of self-worth and a good self-image. If we suffer from a bad self-image, we should think about what God says about us, how God loves us, and that will change everything.
Paul says that the death of Christ freed him from the need to live for himself. Nothing is more relevant to us than that. Everywhere, we hear people talking about what they must do to “meet their needs.” Whatever they do or wherever they go is determined by how well their needs are met. But Jesus died to liberate us from that syndrome. We do not need our needs met; Jesus has met them—only Jesus can.
“One Person has died for all,” and that means, “all have died” so that they might understand that they live no longer for themselves. After Christ has met our needs, we discover that living as we ought means that we then turn and try to meet the needs of others: “He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves,” no longer with their needs at the center of their life, trying to build everything around them, “but for Him who, for their sake, died and was raised.”
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