What compels you? What impulses within, or what pressures without, prompt you to take action?
Appetite within me impels me to eat. Competitive spirit, as in getting hammered by my defender’s elbows in the paint, with no call by the ref, incites me to guard my opponent…aggressively…at the other of the basketball court. A recognition of my helpless need for communion with the Lord motivates me to study His Word and to pray and to join with other followers in worship.
External pressures also incline, and at times force, me to act. I contribute a significant percentage of my income to an organization in Washington, DC, that I probably wouldn’t support apart from the legal coercion that the organization enjoys. I wear suits to weddings and funerals, and other occasions, even during summer months in Texas, not because I like suits, or sweating through my suit, but because I bow to social convention in seeking to honor the people I am with.
What compels you?
The Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians about what motivates him, and Paul’s finely threads his account. This assembly of Christ-followers in Corinth had come into being when Paul first preached the Gospel of the Kingdom there in approximately AD 51-52. Paul had left Corinth on mission to other cities, but had written them a letter (First Epistle to the Corinthians) responding to a number of questions they had sent him by messenger.
Now Paul is writing again to these Christ-followers who frustrate him but still thrill him, because of their shared love in Christ.
"For the love of Christ controls (or compels) us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
When you wake up, what compels you? In your commute to work, what compels you? At work? In recreation?
When you think about what your hopes for the summer, for the year, for the next block of years, what compels you?
How does the love of Christ work in and through you in everyday life? What does it look like in your life as the love of Christ compels you?
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