Daily Devotions
The Love of Christ Controls Us
Title: The Love of Christ Controls Us
Reading for July 3: Proverbs 12-14
Weekly reading for July 1-7: 2 Corinthians 1-5
For the love of Christ controls us...
2 Corinthians 5:14
The word translated "controls" is a Greek word that means "to press together with the hand." (Strong's) It could be used of someone wielding a tool, like a hammer.
It was used of sick people who were brought to Jesus "afflicted" with various diseases, of Peter's mother-in-law who was "ill" with a high fever, and of the father of Publius who "lay sick" with fever (Matthew 4:24; Luke 4:38; Acts 28:8). In other words, these diseases had taken hold of them and disabled them from doing what they wished. They had lost control over their own lives, being taken captive (in a sense) by their illnesses.
This verse in the Amplified Bible reads, "For the love of Christ controls, and urges, and impels us..." The New King James says, "For the love of Christ constrains us..."
While I reject the Calvinistic idea of irresistible grace, there is something to the fact that when we drink deeply at the well of God's love, we are taken by a force so powerful it will control and compel and urge us to do things we wouldn't otherwise do. It is like the hand of God wraps around us like a carpenter laying hold of a hammer. It's like an infection that takes hold of our heart that renders us unable to do anything else but love him with all that we have.
Father, through the power of your Spirit, help us to see how deep and how powerful your love for us is, and may this knowledge take control of our lives.
