Controlled by Love (I wish)

[Okay, this is the last of my posts on 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. I've been reading and re-reading this passage, journaling this passage, and just generally chewing on this passage for about two weeks now I guess. I have no illusions that these ruminations are particularly enlightening or "life changing" to anyone else, and so there is no particular reason that I should share them here, but hey, it's what I do.]

As I've been saying all along, the question underlying my fixation on this passage is, how do I get to the place where I too can say with Paul, I am controlled by the the love of Christ? I mean, for Pete's sake and dog gone it, them's strong words! And as I've been repeating all along, Paul says that the reason he is able to say that about himself is because he has an understanding of the world and of people that is controlled by the fact that Christ died for them. If you really get that, you will deal with these people for whom Christ died (that is, all of us), in a way that is remarkably similar to the way that Christ dealt with people. You will be "controlled by the love of Christ."

Well, that's how I read verses 14 and 15 anyway. That's my working hypothesis. Paul says next that having this fundamental understanding of people means that we would no longer regard them according to the flesh. That's verse 16. The HCSB rendering puts it this way:

From now on them, we don not know anyone in a purely human way.

I like that. Peterson's Message renders it:

We don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look.

I would suggest of course that's there's still more to regarding people according to the flesh than that, but those are two primary ways such regarding takes place.

Now, I want to be this way. Like Paul. Like Jesus. I want to have that "same mind" in me. Not understanding people by worldly categories, by appearances, by ethnicity or color, by economic status, or other cultural codes. All "according to the flesh" considerations have been made irrelevant by Christ's death for all. I want to get that and get it good! Perhaps as a matter of focusing my understanding properly I might practice this spiritual discipline. Today, all day, I will remind myself that everyone I meet, everyone that passes into my circle of awareness, is one for whom Christ died and was raised. This will be the first thing I think when I think of them. Holy Spirit, renew my mind!

Okay, that's all well and good. But thinking about people is not loving them. One of Paul's points is that loving people properly is founded on proper understanding, but there is more to loving than thinking lovely thoughts.

Well, where does Paul go from here. Within this passage there are two parallel purpose statements that apply to those of us who are "in Christ."

v. 15b -- that we should no longer live for ourselves but for him who died and was raised.

v. 19 -- we have been entrusted with the message that in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself. This is our ministry.

To be controlled by the love of Christ, then, is to live for him by sharing the message about who he is and what he has done with everyone we meet. This is our job as "ambassadors."

We're talking about having our fundamental understanding of the world changed by reason of what Christ has done, and then having that new understanding well up into action, lifestyle, words and deeds, which convey a message of reconciliation.

That's what Paul is getting at here. Note, it begins in Christ and what Christ has done, and proceeds to a radical change in our understanding of people (a change which, I will add, few Christians are particularly far along in), which then proceeds to the level of message. To try to convey the message without having the understanding is deadly. DEADLY! In other words, to try to convey the message of reconciliation while all the time regarding people according to the flesh is deadly. We should examine ourselves carefully on this matter.

That's it. I'm out of time, and I've said enough anyway. Later!