PAUL – JOINED AT THE HIP

If I were to choose the lesson that had the profoundest influence on Paul’s life, what would it be?

We have Paul’s answer dotted throughout his letters, but summed up in one short sentence.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 NIV
[14] “FOR CHRIST’S LOVE COMPELS US, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. [15] 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.”

The context suggests that Paul, speaking of himself, was using the royal “we”, referring to himself and his ministry as “we”.

Paul was not motivated by theology or religion. His only passion was Jesus. The change in his life from hater and persecutor of God’s people to the inner peace he enjoyed, the love and fellowship he shared with people of many colours and cultures all over the known world, had no other explanation apart from Jesus.

Who Jesus was and what He had done had such a profound influence on Paul’s life that Jesus was everything his heart had ever craved. Paul, at heart, loved God, even when his love was misguided and misdirected in his youth. He was passionate enough, then, to protect what he believed in, even if his passion led to murder.

It took one face-to-face encounter with Jesus to redirect his passion forever.

Was it Paul’s love for Jesus that compelled him to face rejection, hatred, persecution, and dangers of every kind? No! It was, Jesus’ love for him, and for all mankind, that compelled him to persevere in his mission to the end of his days.

Paul had drunk so deeply of the love of Jesus that he was compelled to share it with all, whether they heard him or not. He discharged his duty with such joyful passion that, rejected by some, he simply went on to others.

He gave away the love of Jesus with every word he spoke, with every stroke of his pen, and with every prayer he prayed. The gospel he proclaimed had a pulsating heartbeat that gave it life… God’s love expressed through Jesus.

Romans 5:8 NIV
[8] “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God’s love, revealed to us through Jesus Christ, goes back in time to time’s beginning in the mind of God.

Ephesians 1:4-6 NIV
[4] “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”

God’s love came to earth in the person of His Son to embrace us in our miserable state and to transform us into holy and beloved children of God.

Ephesians 2:4-7 NIV
[4]”But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. [6] And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [7] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

This love took all our debt upon Himself to free us to love Him, and to receive from Him all the blessings and benefits of divine love.

Romans 8:32 NIV
[32]” He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

If this love that has gone so far for us, is challenged, will it fail when the crunch comes?

Romans 8:35, 37-39 NIV
[35] “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
[37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, [39] neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Speaking of his experience of human love, imperfect as it is, Solomon wrote…

Song of Songs 8:6-7 NIV
[6]”Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. [7] Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”

What then of perfect love, God’s love, revealed to us through Jesus?

Paul assures us that we and God’s love are inseparable. No matter what happens or how bad things get, God will not let go of us. He’s working…in all things…for our good…even if our circumstances, and the devil, deny the truth.

So, Paul’s passion, so exquisitely expressed in prayer, is the sum of his heart’s desire for all God’s people. Every other desire expressed in prayer, throughout his letters, must bow before this passionate plea to the Father.

Ephesians 3:14-19 NIV

[14] For this reason I kneel before the Father, [15] from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. [16] I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, [18] may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, [19] and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

How can we ever know this Iove in our hearts that surpasses knowledge in our minds?

The Holy Spirit! He is the one in us who brings life to the Word. When we dwell in the Word, the Holy Spirit writes it on our hearts.

Romans 5:5 NIV
[5]”And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Hope is the promise of God’s love made real, and the Holy Spirit in us does just that. He makes God’s love real…in every situation. Come what may, GOD’S LOVE overrides every other consideration.

Live loved! That’s the key.