“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Corinthians 5: 14-15)
It’s hard to make it any clearer than this. Paul hasn’t held anything back in this chapter. He’d rather be dead and in heaven with the Lord than here on earth feeling homesick and naked and cold in the tent of his fragile human body.
But he’s made a grim determination not to be grim. By the power of the Holy Spirit he will live to please Jesus until the day comes that he can see Jesus face to face. He will live like it matters how he lives, because it does. Because there is a judgment seat where the light will shine on all the good and bad secret places in our lives.
How about us? What better reason for living this life away from heaven could there be than to live for the one who died for us before he was raised back to life? Does his act of love “compel” us to love him back with our choices for him in the here and now?
Think: What is the difference, in your real life, between living today for yourself and living it for Jesus?
Pray: Ask God to give you the hope and courage to live this day for the one who died for you and was raised again.
Do: Paul also wrote Galatians 5:22-23. Read it to find out what his determination to live this hard life for Jesus in the power of the Spirit looked like from day to day.