2 Corinthians 5:11-15: a reflection

11Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God, and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences. 12For we are not commending ourselves to you again, but speak as giving you occasion of boasting on our behalf, that you may have something to answer those who boast in appearance and not in heart. 13For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Or if we are of sober mind, it is for you. 14For the love of Christ compels us; because we judge thus: that one died for all, therefore all died. 15He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.

Paul names the force that drove his whole life: For the love of Christ compels us. Not duty, not fear, not ambition, but the love of Christ, taking hold of him and pressing him forward. And he explains the logic of it: we are convinced that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised.

Notice the motive and its aim. The motive is the love of Christ, his self-giving death for us, which, once truly grasped, does not leave us the same; it compels, it moves, it takes over the steering of a life. And the aim is a fundamental reorientation: no longer living for ourselves, but for him. The natural center of a life is the self, our own comfort, advancement, preference. Christ's love, Paul says, is meant to shift that center, so that we live for him instead of for ourselves.

That is a searching description of what Christ's love does when it is truly grasped. It is not merely admired; it compels. It reorients the whole direction of a life away from self and toward the One who died and rose for us. Ask yourself what compels you, what really drives your days, and whether the love of Christ has begun to shift your center off yourself. Let his love, his death for you, be the force that moves you, and live no longer for yourself but for him who loved you and gave himself for you.

Lord, Paul was driven not by duty or fear but by the love of Christ that compelled him. Let your love, your death and resurrection for me, take hold of me like that, moving me, reorienting my whole life. Shift my center off myself, and help me live no longer for myself but for you, who loved me and gave yourself for me. Let your love be what compels me.