Sermon Bible Commentary
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
Either there is a contradiction in this passage, or St. Paul's conception of love and its power is not the same with the one which is most prevalent among us. "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we judge." Here seems to be a process of the understanding strangely mixed up with a compulsion acting on the feelings or the heart. If the Apostle had to argue with himself that Christ died for all, because all were dead, and that men might not live to themselves, how can he affirm that a mere sense or passion of devotion to his Master urged him on to act or to suffer? If he was under the influence of such a passion, what need or what possibility of thinking, of deliberating, of concluding?
I. I would remark, at the outset, that the love of Christ can scarcely mean the love which the Apostle had, or which any man has, for Christ. The very word "constrains" seems to suggest the thought of an atmosphere surrounding us, compressing us of a power bearing upon us. It would be the strangest phrase imaginable if it meant something which proceeded from ourselves, a smoke or incense rising up to heaven. But a love coming down upon us, the love of a superior Being speaking to us, is not limited. The sunlight of a parent's or a teacher's countenance does not act merely on the affections of a child, it acts upon his intellect; it gives him courage to think, power to perceive, vivacity in all parts of his being. The love of Christ, then, might well constrain the judgment to a right and reasonable conclusion, as well as the hands to right and reasonable acts. If you suppose the Divine love to work on any creature, you would expect it to act generally, diffusively to leave no faculty just as it was before, to bring those out into particular clearness and vigour which were most ready for the influence; sometimes to cause an immediate glow in the passive and susceptible feelings, sometimes to stir up the active powers; sometimes to reach the heart directly, sometimes to reach it through the narrow and winding passages of the understanding.
II. The sense in which these words were most applicable to the Apostle of the Gentiles, is the sense in which they are most applicable to us to us as forming a society of men; to each one of us as an individual man; to the layman and to the priest. A man may confess the constraint of the love of Christ who is most conscious of his own struggle against it, of the effort he has made to be independent of it, of the fierce determination he has often come to that he will entirely break the bonds of love asunder and cast away its cords from him. Still the love of Christ has been pressing him round, above, beneath, seeking to penetrate and possess him. If he yields to it, it will not be less felt as a constraint; he will not boast that now it is his own choice which is governing him, and not another who is guiding and leading him. He must rejoice to feel that his will has been made captive by the true will which it was formed to obey. He must distinctly and deliberately judge that such authority, enforcing such obedience, is the true source of all freedom.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons,vol. iii., p. 223.
The Service of Love.
We have in these words a true answer to the question most important for us all; namely, What, in its true essence, stripped of all its accidents and outer garb, what is true religion? To St. Paul religion is not a service of fear, not a service of necessity, not that which a man does because he dreads, not that which he does because he must; but it is a service of love, that which he would wish to do even if he might leave it undone.
I. All true religion begins in the response of our hearts to the love of God as manifested in Jesus Christ our Lord. We begin to live a life which is a service of love, which has been rendered ever since, just so far as by God's grace we have been able to render it, under the controlling influence of the love of Christ in our hearts.
II. It is a service of love, again, inasmuch as it is a service which is accepted and rewarded solely out of the great Father's tenderness and love toward us. The loving Father, who has implanted these instincts within us, could not be content if His children served only from fear.
III. See what an error it is for us to be overanxious about success when engaged in rendering this service. Very often in the Christian service we miss success for the simple reason that we are too anxious for it. Be not overanxious about your spiritual success. Let the motto of the Apostle be the motto of your life. Whatever cometh, go forth joyously, gladly, untiringly, the love of Christ constraining you.
IV. See once more what a useful test this should apply, by which we are to judge the degree of the efforts we are making in seeking the direct spiritual good of those around us. It is very often wise for us to take counsel of our affection rather than of our intellect. Let us not be mean here; let us not stint in our measure here; let the love of Christ constrain us.
S. Newth, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxiii., p. 300.
I. The love of Christ is an interpretation of the sorrows of the world. Nowhere are the mysteries and the sadness of life presented more impressively than in the Bible. The gospel does not in any way dissemble the evils by which we are saddened in manifold forms, the pitiless havoc wrought by the forces of nature, the terrible workings of human selfishness, the action of sin within us, of which we are severally conscious; it lays all bare that it may more surely conquer all: it reveals a Divine purpose in suffering; it spreads over all the pure, unsullied light which falls from the Father's eye; it teaches still to look on the whole world as the work of God's wisdom and the object of God's love. Such a view of the world must present all things under a new aspect, and if with open hearts we allow the love of Christ, incarnate, crucified, ascended, to have its perfect work, it enables us to face the mysteries of earth and man with confidence and with hope. The fact of sonship presses upon us the utmost obligation of service as our answer to the Father's will; and it also reveals a Father's compassion as our sure refuge when we mourn over duties imperfectly fulfilled. The love of Christ affirms an unconquerable purpose where we see partial disaster, an inalienable fellowship where we mourn over jealousy and strife, the germ of a heavenly nature where we struggle with a masterful selfishness.
II. The love of Christ is a personal call. The hierarchy of nature is ruled by a scale of duties corresponding to endowments, of service corresponding to strength. All duties, all service alike are tempered together, and contribute to one end through the love of Christ towards us and in us. And here human love reveals the law of highest fellowship, which prejudices of race or class or caste or education are always trying to hinder and to hide. Nothing will go well with us till we have mastered the lesson, till the strong feel that they need the weak to teach them the grace of considerate tenderness, and the weak feel that they need the strong to inspire them with the joy of thankful reverence, till weak and strong alike feel that they are labourers together in Christ with God, joint-heirs of the grace of life.
Bishop Westcott, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxiv., p. 106.
References: 2 Corinthians 5:14; 2 Corinthians 5:15. W. Cunningham, Sermons,p. 365; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiii., p. 132; F. W. Robertson, Sermons,3rd series, p. 90. 2 Corinthians 5:15. F. Emerson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxiv., p. 246; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 9. 2 Corinthians 5:16. Ibid.,p. 331; J. Vaughan, Sermons,vol. vii., p. 160. 2 Corinthians 5:16. T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. i., p. 129.