2 Corinthians 5:9-21
9 Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.
11 Knowing, then, the fear of the Lord, we persuade people. We are completely open before God, and I hope we are completely open to your consciences as well. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in the outward appearance rather than in the heart. 13 For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we have a sound mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: if One died for all, then all died. 15 And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.
16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him like that. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. 18 Now everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us, we plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.[1]
When Paul wrote his second letter to the church in Corinth, he was a battle scarred, embattled old soldier for Christ. He had been beaten, stoned and shipwrecked. He had gone hungry, slept on cold ground, without enough clothing to keep him warm. He had been opposed by both Jews and Gentiles. Constantly, false teachers came along behind him trying to undermine his work. Now, some of the people he had led to the Lord were buying into the talk that he was a crazy old man; that he was losing it, that all those beatings had taken their toll. His foes were saying that it was time for the Apostle to the Gentiles to hang it up and walk away.
It is one thing to have your enemies speak out against you; it is something else when you own children take up the chant. That hurts!
As a young Jewish theologian, Paul had committed social and political suicide. He had been positioned to “have it all.” His education was comparable to degrees today from Yale and Oxford. He was in the upper echelon of the Pharisees, the conservative interpreters of the Law. Today, his books, exposing the cult of the Nazarene, would be on the religious best-sellers list. His blog would take thousands of hits every day. He would be in demand as a conference speaker. His seminars would garner him a fortune in fees, and back-of-the room CD, DVD and book sales. Then, he took himself out of the loop of Judaism’s religious elite.
He declared, “Everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:7-8)
Concluding his letter to the churches of Galatia, he wrote: “From now on let no person trouble me [by making it necessary for me to vindicate my apostolic authority and the divine truth of my Gospel], for I bear on my body the [brand] marks of the Lord Jesus [the wounds, scars, and other outward evidence of persecutions--these testify to His ownership of me]! (Galatians 6:17, The Amplified Bible)
He had laid it all on the line. He had not left anything on the field. Somebody in Corinth should have stepped forward to defend their spiritual father, but no one did. So, Paul did the most difficult thing a father will ever have to do; he defended his authority and position to his own children. Above all else, he wanted them to understand the motive for his ministry. That is the theme of 2 Corinthians 4 & 5.
Paul’s motive was to please God: “Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:9-10)
Twice in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul wrote, “we do not give up” (vv. 4 & 16).
In the movie, “Rocky Balboa,” Rocky is verbally going one-on-one with his son, Rocky, Jr. He says, "Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you get hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done."
What compelled the Apostle Paul to take one hit after another and keep moving forward? He was driven by three powerful incentives: fear, love and commission.
FEAR
In 2 Corinthians 5:10-11, Paul wrote: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad. Knowing, then, the fear of the Lord, we persuade people.”
During his days as the University of Alabama football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant inspired awe-struck respect from his players. Jim Bunch, an All-America offensive tackle for the Tide from 1976 until 1979, recalls, "You could walk into a meeting room, and you could hear yourself breathe. You could hear your own heartbeat. Everyone had so much respect for Coach Bryant."
That is just a hint of the kind of fear Paul was talking about when he wrote “knowing, then, the fear of the Lord.”
Paul was constantly in the grip of something that is too often lacking in the minds and hearts of Christ’s servants in the 21st Century. He was overwhelmed by the awesomeness of God. For him, “reverence” was not a word glibly spoken. Every thought of Christ was weighed down with respect, worship and exaltation. The words had not been written; but, if they had, Paul would have sung from his heart:
Come, Thou Almighty King,
Help us Thy name to sing,
Help us to praise: Father all glorious,
O’er all victorious,
Come, and reign over us, Ancient of Days.
Paul’s reverential fear of God was the controlling force of his life. It drove him through any fear of what men might say or do. He so feared God that he was bold and fearless before kings, accusing religious zealots and angry pagan mobs.
B.F. Westcott, a 19th Century English Bible scholar, wrote, “Every year makes me tremble at the daring with which people speak of spiritual things.”
What would he think of the rampant blasphemy of our day?
Phillips Brooks used to warn about “clerical jesters” whose jesting about the Bible robbed the Scriptures of their glory and power.
Paul’s compulsion to please God was strengthened by his realization that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)
Any athlete who has missed a tackle, committed a foolish foul at a critical time, blown an assignment or failed to play with intensity, knows the awful dread to having to go back to the sideline and face his coach. Knowing that the game film will be stopped repeatedly during next week’s team meeting and a player’s performance will be graded before all of his teammates and coaches is a powerful incentive to not leave anything on the field.
Paul lived every moment with the realization that one day he would stand before his Lord. Even though his work might go unappreciated by men, he desperately wanted to hear the only commendation that counts. He wanted to hear his Lord and Master say, “Well done!”
Here is Eugene Peterson’s translation of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:11, “That keeps us vigilant, you can be sure. It's no light thing to know that we'll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. That's why we work urgently with everyone we meet to get them ready to face God.”
LOVE
Paul was motivated by a reverential fear of our awesome, holy God, but there was another force that drove him, love. He wrote, “For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: if One died for all, then all died. And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
If Paul was ever tempted to be disobedient, to cut-and-run, or to retire and play it safe, he was stirred to renewed diligence by the awareness of Christ’s love that compelled our Lord to empty Himself by assuming the form of a slave, to take on the likeness of men, to humble Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross (Philippians 2:7-8).
Paul was consumed with the awareness that Christ died for us so that we might die with Him, and that He lives so that we might experience His life in us. He testified to the personal experience of this in Galatians 2:20, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Calvin said, “Christ died for us that we might die to ourselves.”
When Paul wrote that “Christ’s love compels us,” two relevant pictures are brought to mind; (1) a strait that forces a ship into a narrow channel, such as The Strait of Gibraltar that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain from Morocco, and (2) a squeeze chute that, pushing in on each side, forces a cow into a position where it cannot move so a rancher can administer medication.
Paul was saying the love of Christ kept him in its grip. It controlled and directed him. It kept him in line, constricted within the boundaries of the gospel. This love had such a powerful hold on him that he was immune to the any other influence.
In 2002, during the month before I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma of the bone, I was crushed by excruciating pain. For 24 hours, before going into the emergency room, I was in the grip of constantly recurring muscle spasms. The pain controlled my mind, body and spirit. I could not think about anything else. I was absolutely dominated by it.
From the day that Paul was blinded by his encounter with Christ, he was compelled, constrained, ruled by his Lord’s love. The Amplified Bible translation of 2 Corinthians 5:14 reads: “For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us.”
Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, was interviewing some young people who had volunteered for the Lord’s service. He asked each one, “And why do you wish to go as a foreign missionary?”
“I want to reach others across the sea because Christ has commanded us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,” one replied.
Another said, “I want to go because millions are dying without ever having heard of Jesus, the only One who can save them.”
Others had similar answers.
Looking at them thoughtfully, Taylor said. “All of your motives are good, but I fear they will fail you in times of severe testing and tribulation—especially if you are confronted with the possibility of having to face death for your testimony. The only motive that will enable you to remain true is stated in 2 Corinthians 5:14. Christ’s love constraining you will keep you faithful in every situation.”[2]
There is the legend of a group of American tourists visiting an Asian leper colony. One man in the group was the stereotype of the ugly American; pale legs protruding from baggy shorts, sandals worn with black socks, a loud Hawaiian shirt, an ill-fitting straw hat, dark sunglasses, the stub of a cigar clapped in his teeth, and an expensive camera sitting on a pot belly. Seeing a young nurse ministering to a deformed man, the obnoxious intruder raised his camera to capture another shot for his travel album. When he zoomed in on what was happening, he saw the repulsive, puss-oozing sore which the nurse was attempting to cleanse. In disgust, the tourist dropped his camera and loudly asserted, “I would not touch that for a million dollars!”
Turning her head and giving the American a sad look, the young nurse replied, “Nor would I, but the love of Christ compels me.”
COMMISSION
Paul was compelled by fear of God, the love of Christ, and the commission of Christ.
When you look into a mirror, who do you see? What do you see? Who are you? What are you? Do you really know?
Paul knew who he was. He introduced himself to the church at Ephesus as “an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will.” (Ephesians 1:1)
“Apostle” is the English transliteration of the Greek word “apostolos” (ap·os·tol·os). It means a delegate, messenger, someone sent forth with orders. Paul knew that he was a “sent one.” He had a message from his Master.
Paul could never forget what he thought he knew about Jesus before he really met Him. Perhaps, as a young Pharisee, he had been among those who badgered the Galilean Teacher with questions about the Law. He had been so sure that he was serving God when he brutally persecuted the early believers. Then came that day on the road to Damascus; since then, he had not been able to think about Christ in merely a human way.
When he wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come,” he was writing out of his own transforming encounter with his Lord. He knew from experience the truth of the message he was sent to proclaim. He understood that God has taken the initiative to reconcile rebellious men to Himself; that Christ died so that we might have peace with God and therefore know the peace of God.
That is why he wrote, “Now everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us, we plead on Christ’s behalf, ‘Be reconciled to God.’ He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
Dr. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “The key idea in (verses 18-21) is reconciliation. Because of his rebellion, man was the enemy of God and out of fellowship with Him. Through the work of the Cross, Jesus Christ has brought man and God together again…God does not have to be reconciled to man…It is sinful man who must be reconciled to God. ‘Religion’ is man’s feeble effort to be reconciled to God, efforts that are bound to fail. The Person who reconciles us to God is Jesus Christ, and the place where He reconciles us is His cross.”
Charles Spurgeon said that we are imploring people to “yield to the grasp of those hands which were nailed to the cross for you.”
This is the message Paul was sent to proclaim as an ambassador for Christ. This is the message we are sent to proclaim. It has been entrusted to us. We are its delegated messengers. We are commissioned to do this.
Someone asked the Duke of Wellington, “Is it of any use to send missionaries to India?”
He responded by asking, “What are your marching orders?”
Those orders are plain: “Go…and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19)
Over the years, I have had many opportunities to observe the circumstances in which “sent ones” serve their Master. I have watched pastors endure the hostility of those who should be their greatest supporters. I have seen the heartache of missionaries as they sent their small children away to distant boarding schools. I remember sharing sleeping quarters at an Africa pastors’ retreat with a dear friend who had risked everything while braving the madman Idi Amin’s reign of terror in Uganda. For the week we were together, I watched him suffer the fever and chills of a vicious malaria attack, and I asked. “What has kept him here through all of this?”
Then I remembered talking with a mission volunteer who had worked briefly with a missionary in an extremely difficult place. He had been shocked to discover that this man of God was without needed equipment, he was under attack from people who opposed his work, and he was separated from aging parents. Finally, the volunteer asked, “Why do you stay here?”
Amazed, the missionary replied, “Because God sent me here. That’s why I stay. He sent me!”
In 1963, just as I was stepping out by faith into a ministry of evangelistic preaching, John W. Peterson put music to a poem that Margaret Clarkson had revised from an earlier version. Over these years, its words have been used to reinforce my Lord’s commission:
So send I you- by grace made strong to triumph
O'er hosts of hell, o'er darkness, death and sin,
My name to bear, and in that name to conquer-
So send I you, my victory to win.
So send I you- to take to souls in bondage
The word of truth that sets the captive free,
To break the bonds of sin, to loose death's fetters-
So send I you, to bring the lost to me.
So send I you- My strength to know in weakness,
My joy in grief, My perfect peace in pain,
To prove My power, My grace, My promised presence-
So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.
So send I you- to bear My cross with patience,
And then one day with joy to lay it down,
To hear My voice, "Well done, My faithful servant-
Come, share My throne, my kingdom and My crown!"
"As the Father hath sent Me, So send I you."
We are sent to a world that has declared war against God with the good news that God has declared peace for those who will be reconciled to Him through Christ.
As Christ’s “sent ones,” we have His authority. As we go, in obedience to Him, we have His power. We are not responsible for how His message is received; we are responsible for faithfully delivering the message. Our faithfulness is not be determined by how people treat or mistreat us. Convenience and safety are to have no bearing on where we take the message of the King. Our motive is to please Him. We are compelled to keep moving forward by a reverential fear of God, the love of Christ and our commission as His ambassadors!
We cannot do more. We must not do less!
© 2007 Wayne Bristow All right reserved.
