A love that presses

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; . . . [ESV]

For Christ's love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: if One died for all, then all died. [HCSB]

I said yesterday that this verse (and those following) were having a "piercing and discerning" impact on me. That is, of course, what the Word of God does. Hebrews 4:12:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Paul, writing to the Corinthian church and explaining his ministry to them, says that he is constrained, controlled, or compelled (depending on the translation), by the love of Christ.

Take those words seriously. Paul is not simply using high-blown rhetoric here. He's stating a fact. Can I say as much about myself? "The love of Christ compels me...."

All I want to do here is look at that word: control [ESV], compel [HCSB]. Using the Greek lexicon at Crosswalk.com, I discover that the Greek word is sunecho, and is used once by Matthew, nine times by Luke, and twice by Paul.

In Matthew 4:24 it is used to describe people afflicted by or in the grip of illness or disease.

Luke uses the word in a similar context at 4:38 of his Gospel.

At Luke 8:37 he uses the same word to describe people siezed by fear.

At 8:45 he describes how the throng of people pressed in on Jesus, so that he was constrained by them.

At 12:50 the word is variously translated with the verbs "distressed" (ESV, NIV, NKJV), "consumed" (HCSB), or "straitened" (KJV). Jesus is saying here that he is controlled by that ruling purpose for which he came, to undergo the "baptism" of the cross.

At Luke 19:43 we come back to the idea of being surrounded or hemmed in, in this case by an enemy.

And at 22:63 the word is used to describe the way the Temple guards surrounded and beat Jesus from all sides.

We can see from these usages that the word speaks of powerful constraint. In the one other time that Paul uses the word, at Philippians 1:23, it is in the same manner. He is "hard pressed," he says, between two choices, whether to live and go on with his fruitful labors, or whether to die and be with Christ (which is far better).

Back to Paul's use of the term in 2 Corinthians. Paul is saying that he is controlled by only one thing: the love of Christ. The love of Christ rules over him and in a manner powerfully constrains his actions. Because of the love of Christ, his whole perspective is changed, and he regards people -- all people -- differently than he otherwise would have.

Now, if someone were to tell me that he was controlled by the love of Christ, well, I'd probably think the guy was posing. Mr. Super-Christian! But let us assume that Paul is not posturing here, but assessing reality accurately. His understanding and therefore his actions, which after all proceed from the understanding, are controlled by the love of Christ.

I've said enough for one morning, but if you haven't caught the breathtaking grandeur of what Paul is saying here, just ask yourself how often you have been able to say, with Paul, that the love of Christ utterly controls you.