We will be packing boxes for Operation
Christmas Child this year. For those
unfamiliar with Operation Christmas Child,
it is part of the international relief
ministry Samaritans Purse. They have
delivered over 146 million shoeboxes in 160 countries. For more
information visit Samaritan’s Purse website.

Prayer Requests

In Good Faith - Week 4
Love for the World Outside
Evangelism, Church, Witness, Reconciliation

Big Idea of the Series: This series calls Christians to relate to neighbors, strangers, and enemies alike with kindness, sincerity, and Christian love. Showing good faith is a humble but powerful way to live out our faith.

Big Idea of the Message: Paul reminds his readers that the church is the visible sign of Jesus in the world, and so we must focus our efforts on giving people an opportunity to be reconciled to God.

Paul’s emphasis in this section is about the concerns the Corinthian churches had for his own behavior. He served the churches in ways that others had not, or in ways that they had not experienced themselves outside of the body of Christ. Paul’s rationale had to do with his heart to serve Christ first and then, as a result, serve others. Sometimes people don’t understand why followers of Christ serve the way they do—many even find it reprehensible to serve in those ways. It seems like nonsense, but the follower of Christ knows that nothing makes more sense. Wright explains, “The gospel is not just a mechanism for getting people saved. It is the announcement of a love that has changed the world, a love that
therefore takes the people who find themselves loved like this and sends them off to live and work in a totally new way. The energy to get up and go on as a Christian, as one who works for the gospel, therefore, comes not from a cold sense of duty, not from a fear of being punished if you don’t do your bit, but from the warm-hearted response of love to the love which has reached out, reached down, and reached you” (Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians [London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004], 62, Logos).

We all feel the pressure of living for Christ in our lives in such a way that others look at our lives and ask deep, intentional questions. Our understanding of the call to live for Christ is what pushes us to love others in ways that seem otherwise inexplicable. Loving others through hardship, sadness, and betrayal seems very different from loving them in seasons of ease, joy, and comfort. However, Paul seems to argue that the love we live out is the same because of how that love presses us forward (2 Cor. 5:14). “It is the pressure applied not so much to control as to cause action. It is motivational rather than directional force. The verb here in verse 14 is in the present tense, which emphasizes the continuous nature of the pressure upon Paul. The source of the pressure is the love of Christ. This can be construed either as Paul’s love for Christ (objective genitive), or Christ’s love for Paul (subjective genitive). In the light of what follows (vv. 14b–15 where Paul speaks of Christ’s death for all), the second option is to be preferred. It is Paul’s recognition of Christ’s love shown in his death for all
which acts as the motivation for his ministry” (Colin G. Kruse, 2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, rev. ed., Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 8 [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015], 165, Logos).

Recognizing that the greatest display of God’s love can be found in the Son dying for the sins of all humanity and as the only means to correct what sin has done to creation is vital to understanding what life is all about. Without the critical link to each of our lives being found in the death of Jesus Christ, we all walk without direction or even hope of direction. In Jesus’s death, however, all humanity has hope if we are willing to place our trust in Jesus. Beyond the death of Jesus, we find our true hope is answered in his resurrection. His resurrection points to the confirmation that his death was sufficient, God’s promises have been fulfilled, and the future hope of all believers is rooted in the same resurrected Jesus (5:14–15). While we will spend our lives learning to die to ourselves, we have no fear of having to die for our salvation. This makes all the difference in how we understand our lives and the lives of others (2 Corinthians 5:16–21). As members of the new creation, we cannot look at people the same way, so it pushes us to love them Christ has loved us. All of this is rooted in the
person and character of God. Kruse writes, “Wherever the language of
reconciliation is found in the New Testament, God is always the subject of the reconciling activity. There is no hint that Christ is the gracious one who must overcome unwillingness on God’s part to be reconciled with sinful humanity. It is God himself who initiates and effects the reconciliation through Christ. On the other hand this does not mean that there existed no obstacle on God’s part that had to be overcome before reconciliation could be effected with humanity. God’s wrath, revealed from heaven against the wickedness of humanity, had to be dealt with (cf. Rom. 1:18; 5:9–11). What is stressed in the present passage is the amazing grace of God revealed when he himself took the initiative in Christ to remove the obstacle to reconciliation existing on his part. It is only on this basis that there exists a gospel of reconciliation by which humanity can now be called to be reconciled to God” (Kruse, 2 Corinthians, 124–25).

Here’s a great story from William Barclay about the importance of wanting to see the world saved: “Rudyard Kipling tells how, on a world tour, General William Booth of the Salvation Army boarded a ship at a certain port. He was bidden farewell by a horde of tambourine-beating Salvationists. The whole thing revolted Kipling’s fastidious nature. Later, he got to know the general and told him how much he disapproved of this kind of thing. ‘Young man,’ said Booth, ‘if I thought that I could win one more soul for Christ by standing on my hands and beating a tambourine with my feet, I would learn to do it’” (William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians, 3rd ed., The New Daily Study Bible [Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002], 247, Logos).

Timothy Keller on the significance of the Father saying no to the Son in the
garden and on the Cross: “We who live after Christ and who believe the gospel, however, have even greater resources for assurance that God will hear our petitions. We know God will answer us when we call because one terrible day he did not answer Jesus when he called” (Timothy Keller, Prayer [New York: Penguin Publishing Group, 2014], 237, Kindle).

People will see followers of Christ in many ways, but the love of Christ should always be what comes to mind. Our character, actions, and attitudes are all the outflow of our understanding of God’s love for us as expressed through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The world around us longs to see—whether it has realized it or not—the display of God’s love to them in Jesus Christ. We are called to see people in terms of God’s love for them, not in terms of our experiences with them. As we consider the depth of God’s love for us, it should naturally bubble over into our lives as the expression of the love we have come to experience and that we still experience. Other people matter to God just as much as we do.

Application Point: As believers, we must remember that we would not know of Jesus unless someone had shared with us the truth of the good news. We are a people who hunger for opportunities to tell the world of God’s great love.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is one thing that stood out to you from this week’s message?

2. Next to salvation, what is the best news you have ever heard that affected you personally? Does it still impact you, or has the significance faded?

3. Read 2 Corinthians 5:11–21. As you read, consider the different ways
Paul describes the work of Jesus and what it means for the world—first for
believers and then for nonbelievers. How has knowing that Christ has died
for you affected the way you treat other people? Do sense that you are
serving them more than you did before? If so, how? If not, why?

4. Read 2 Corinthians 5:14–15 in at least five different translations. How do they differ? What is Paul trying to communicate? How does knowing that Christ’s love compels us enable us to share the good news through our lives, not just our words?

5. If you are follower of Christ, how does knowing that you are a new
creation impact the way you see life? How has it changed the way you
treat others? In what ways could it?

6. How can we pray for you?