“And I will very gladly spend and be spent
for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.” (2 Cor.12:15) Once our hearts experience “the love of God” we begin our journey as a
follower of Christ. We experience that
love and have hope because of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit to those who
believe and obey. “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit.” (Acts2:38) –“Now hope
does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts
by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5) We have identified ourselves with Jesus
Christ and strive to follow His interests and purposes in life,
our goal is help others as Christ would do, to influence the lives of others so
they too will desire to follow our Lord.
Jesus has an interest and cares about every individual person. As “bond servants” of Jesus Christ we have no right to be guided by our own interests and desires. One of the greatest tests of our faith and our relationship with our Lord is shown in the way we live our lives with regard for The Lord. “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:12-13) Jesus as He was preparing to lay down His life for a world of enemies gave direction to “His friends.” As I have loved you – you should love each other. The delight of sacrifice is that Jesus was willing to lay down His life for His Friends. Jesus did not throw His life away. His life was not wasted, He deliberately laid down His life in the interest of other people.
As followers of Christ we must desire and purpose to have the same attitude as Jesus, the same attitude that Paul carried in his heart. That attitude is simply put – “I do not throw my life away, but I am willing to live my life, even lay down my life in for Christ and the things which are important to Christ.” We must be willing to do this with no purpose of our own (with no hidden agendas or motives), but do so with the same purpose of mind of Paul who spent His life – that he might win others to Jesus Christ. Paul did so by simply proclaiming “Christ and Him crucified.”
Paul always
attracted people to his Lord, but never to himself.
“For though I am free
from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more;
and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are
under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law;
to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God,
but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to
the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save
some.” (1Cor.
Many in the world today, believe
that to be holy and have a holy life they must separate themselves and be alone
only with God. To do such a thing makes
us of little use to the master. As
followers of Christ, we must be cautious not to place ourselves and our faith
on a pedestal, isolating ourselves from the rest of the world, and in a sense
proclaiming ourselves and what we believe over Christ and what the world
needs. Many examples are given in scripture
of men who desired to do things other than what God had chose and directed them
to do (ex. Cain, Moses, David, Solomon, Jonah).
They had their own special interests, goals and agendas in life. They proclaimed to love and follow God. But the truth of their love was seen in the
unwilling attitude to just simply go and do God’s will. When we are totally surrendered to Jesus, His
goals and desires are our goals and desires and nothing else in this life is
important as His goals and desires.
Think about it!!! Mike
“For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone
who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Romans1:16-17