Once “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit,” we deliberately begin to identify ourselves with Jesus
Christ’s interests and purposes in others’ lives (Romans 5:5).
And Jesus has an interest in every individual person. We have no right
in Christian service to be guided by our own interests and desires. In
fact, this is one of the greatest tests of our relationship with Jesus
Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my
Friend, Jesus (see John 15:13).
I don’t throw my life away, but I willingly and deliberately lay it
down for Him and His interests in other people. And I do this for no
cause or purpose of my own. Paul spent his life for only one purpose—
that he might win people to Jesus Christ. Paul always attracted people
to his Lord, but never to himself. He said, “I have become all things to
all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).
When someone thinks that to develop a holy life he must always be
alone with God, he is no longer of any use to others. This is like
putting himself on a pedestal and isolating himself from the rest of
society. Paul was a holy person, but wherever he went Jesus Christ was
always allowed to help Himself to his life. Many of us are interested
only in our own goals, and Jesus cannot help Himself to our lives. But
if we are totally surrendered to Him, we have no goals of our own to
serve. Paul said that he knew how to be a “doormat” without resenting
it, because the motivation of his life was devotion to Jesus. We tend to
be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which allow us more
spiritual freedom than total surrender to Him would allow. Freedom was
not Paul’s motive at all. In fact, he stated, “I could wish that I
myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren . . .” (Romans 9:3).
Had Paul lost his ability to reason? Not at all! For someone who is in
love, this is not an overstatement. And Paul was in love with Jesus
Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment