Paul is working to get the Corinthian church to live counter to their culture. To be a Corinthian was to live for the moment. To be a Corinthian was to talk yourself up. To be a Corinthian was to be impressed by a good education, a good brain and good speech. To be a Corinthian was to switch political and religious allegiance every time the wind changed. And Paul is writing to remind them, now that they belong to Christ, all of this should fade away. We live in a similar culture, thus, the usefulness of this passage is immense. In the next few verses Paul notches up the intensity. He goes from that which simply motivates to that which compels. What is it that controls us in the NC Ministry of Reconciliation? Constraineth from the greek is to urge or force to an action. Literally “to press in” or “to crowd around”. Pressure that causes action. Ministry is not just knowledge — it is action based upon that particular knowledge. Paul first mentions the love of Christ as that which produces action. The Love of Christ. (14a) 1 John 4:19, “We love him, because he first loved us.” Christ’s love shown to us compels us to love others. Also, Christ’s love within us compels us to love others. Christ’s love for us and ours for Him now defines our lives. It is an internalized, compelling force that “controls us”. “As Paul contemplated the marvelous love which Christ had shown to him, he could not help but be moved along in service for his wonderful Lord.” (MacDonald) Barnett comments that for Paul “egocentricity has given way to Christocentricity.” “The love of Christ keeps Paul from living for himself and instead causes him to pour out his life for others.” (Garland) Why would Paul live this way? Why should we? Because Jesus had lived this way! Philippians 2:6-8, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Just consider the “love of Christ”. He loves the world, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) He loves the church, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;” (Ephesians 5:25) He loves sinners, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) Calvin wrote, “we cannot refrain from devoting ourselves entirely to Christ, when we consider what great love he exercised towards us, when he endured death in our stead.” This brings us to the second constraint… The Death of Christ. (14b-15) Christ died for all! Romans 6:23 teaches us, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” This is all a result of the fall in Genesis: Genesis 2:16-17, “16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 3:22-24, “22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” …so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. When Paul writes here that Christ died for all, then were all dead…He is stating that Christ’s death is sufficient for the death all have earned since the fall. Gresham Machen wrote, “Christ died for all, therefore all died” … is so because Christ was the representative of all when He died. The death that He died on the cross was in itself the death of all. Since Christ was the representative of all, therefore all may have been said to have died there on the cross outside the walls of Jerusalem when Christ died.” Christ died our death! What love! Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” Christ’s command was Paul’s constraint. (15) Hughes writes, “The fact that Christ in love died our death keeps us from living for ourselves, just as it did Paul, so that we are graciously hemmed in by Christ’s love. But gloriously, we’re not hemmed in so that we can do nothing at all, but rather so we can do things that are more worthwhile.” We are kept from doing evil things so that we might do good things. We are kept from doing things that bring death so that we might do things that bring life. And notice Paul’s use of both the negative and the positive. Negative — He died. Positive — He rose again! This is the New Covenant “fuel cell”. It is our battery, the power source for Reconciliation ministry. Romans 6:3-4, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” We not only died with Him, but we also were raised with Him that we might “walk in newness of life”. Because we have died with Christ, we can overcome sin; and because we live with Christ, we can bear fruit for God’s glory. Christ died our death for us that we might live this life for Him. The New Life. (16-17) v.16 — From now on (wherefore, henceforth)… We no longer regard others by the standards of the world. To be a Corinthian was to live for the moment. To be a Corinthian was to talk yourself up. To be a Corinthian was to be impressed by a good education, a good brain and good speech. To be a Corinthian was to switch political and religious allegiance every time the wind changed. Just as Paul’s view/regard of Christ had changed since the Damascus road conversion…so would his view/regard of others. (Even those falsely accusing him to the church in Corinth) “Our experience of Christ’s love moves us to stop evaluating others according to worldly standards and to view them instead from the standpoint of God’s great act of salvation in Jesus Christ and the divine grace that exalts the despised and humbles the proud.” (Sproul) How is this even possible? How can we change the way we are and the way we deal with others? We can’t, but Christ makes us anew. In Him, we’ve become a new creation! (17) Paul had come from being a persecutor of Christ to being a proclaimer of Christ. He explains this process more fully in Titus 3:3-7: “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, 5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Conclusion: The Catalyst of Reconciliation Ministry — v.11- The terror of the Lord, v.12- The testimony of the inward man, v.13- The testimony of the outer man, should all motivate us. The Constraint of Reconciliation Ministry — v.14a- The love of Christ. v.14b-15- The death of Christ. v.16-17- The new life, should compel us to action!