“For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that One has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him Who for their sake died and was raised.” 2 Corinthians 5:13-15
Devotional Thought For The Day
We have often observed that many things about the unbelieving and sinful world around us are insane – rejection of God, His love for us in Christ Jesus, and His precious Word of instruction, the Bible. It is not difficult at all for us to understand the dynamics of this insanity – we have the same sinful flesh as others, the same tendencies to sin and immorality, the same lack of faith and trust in God, the same struggle to grasp His Word, and we were also raised within this sinful world and have integrated and embraced much of this insanity in our own thinking. In fact, each day we are seeking to remove these things from our hearts and minds – as the love of Christ gains greater control of us, and we become ever more painfully aware of just how deeply this insanity runs in our being. And as we move away from this insanity we often recognize how difficult it is for us to even communicate clearly with those who remain enmeshed in sin and unbelief, who are unenlightened as to God’s love for us in Christ and what Jesus has done for us.
So it should not be surprising that the world would also look at us as being “beside ourselves,” as drifting into a religious insanity. And I’m certain that those who are of the world often find communication with Christians just as difficult. The apostle Paul acknowledges this – that being “in our right mind” will appear to those who are unbelievers as some kind of insanity. Still, there really is no choice for us “for the love of Christ controls us.” We know what Christ has done for us and the obligation of love that we have toward God, that we can no longer live for ourselves but rather are privileged and blessed to live for Him Who died for our redemption and was raised again for our justification. We understand that our whole life, being, and future is tied to Him, rescued and redeemed by His love. So we are “beside ourselves” for God, which is insanity to the world but in reality “right minded.”
Paul was not writing to the world, however, but rather to those who belonged to the church at Corinth. He was acknowledging that even some in the Corinthian congregation considered him to have gone too far, to have lost his mind [just as Festus concluded about Paul – Acts 26:24, and just as Jesus’ family concluded about Him – Mark 3:21]. We can understand this – not all are as fully immersed in God’s love and informed or transformed by His Word. So, even within the church there is often difficulty in understanding one another and suspicion that others are “beside themselves.” And this is always the way that it is when we confront people who cannot understand the logic that determines our being and behaving, or whose being and behaving is beyond our understanding – we know our own internal logic and so we feel compelled and justified to reject the other as “insane.” However, there is an objective standard by which to sort all of this out, and that is the Word of God. It is this Word alone which draws us out of the insanity of unbelief and worldly thinking and restores to us a right mind.
And this is important – not only because the love of Christ controls us and because it is right, but also, as Paul puts it, “for you.” It does no good for those who are right minded to conform to the insanity of the world for the sake of peace with others, even within the church. Jesus remained “out of His mind” [right minded] all the way to the cross – for our great good and blessedness. Paul remained “out of his mind” [right minded] for the sake of the church, for Christ’s dear people of faith, not only those of his time but for children of God until the end of time, until Christ’s return. And we must withstand and resist the demands of those who consider our right minded conformity to the Word of God to be a form of insanity and who insist that we capitulate and side with their worldly minded insanity. It is certain that they will press upon us whatever kind of coercion is available to them, as people did to Jesus and to Paul [and to most of the Old Testament prophets]. But again, the love of Christ controls us, and it is for their sake also that we remain “out of our mind” [right minded].
The legalistic zealotry of some within the church is also a form of worldly and unbelieving insanity – based in the self-righteous delusion which calls God a liar [1 Jn. 1:10], and rejecting the redeeming love of God in Christ Jesus. These too demand that we conform to their insanity – but thankfully God’s love compels us differently! So we must devote ourselves to the instruction of God’s Word, the Bible, so that God may continue to restore us to soundness and rightness, and we must be prepared to endure and resist those who remain committed to their own form of insanity – anything that conflicts with the love of God in Christ Jesus and the instruction of His Word.
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, we cannot trust the inner intuition of our minds or the certainty that we manufacture in regard to our thinking and being, but we require Your love and the guidance of Your Word. Thank You for the rightness of mind that You displayed, that sanity given to Your prophets and apostles, through which You have provided for our salvation and our own restoration to sanity and soundness. Protect us from stubborn resistance to growth in what is good and right, and protect us from those who would drag us back into their own sinful and worldly insanity. Protect Your church and make it a haven of rightness of mind and growth for those who are controlled by Your love. Amen.