Living "For" Who?

"For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." II Corinthians 5:14-15



Tucked away in the middle of Paul's second(or maybe third*) correspondence to the Christians in Corinth is a powerful phrase declaring yet another purpose for the death of Jesus..."...(so) that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him..."



Since discovering this verse, I have meditated on it quite often. Just beginning to 'scratch the surface' of understanding its meaning and implications is inspiring and yet sobering at the same time. I have often wondered why it was 'hidden' from me for so many years. Possibly because there are no outstanding spiritual words in the phrase. Since His agonizing death is the greatest and ultimate act of love EVER, I wonder if we don't think that GREAT words must accompany its defining purpose as well. Words like reconciliation, santification, justification, and propitiation. Now, those words are what we believe to be appropriate in defining the purpose of His death.

But the simple word,"for"? Nah! No way! Forget it!

Yet,we all know that great gifts come in small packages.

And so it is true with this little English word "for". In the original writing(Koine Greek), Paul uses these phrases, for themselves and for Him, in the dative case. So what does that mean? Case has to do with the function of the noun/s as it relates to the verb(or other parts) of the sentence(There are eight of these cases in Koine Greek). The dative case is the case of interest(the key word). Another preposition used at times in the dative case is "to".

Understanding that to some degree, I go back and look at this verse again and understand a little more clearly what Paul is saying..."...Christ died in the interest of all, so that those who live, because of His death, might no longer live for their own selves and self-interests, but live for Him and His interests..."(LWT).

"Wow!" "Really?" "So what does that look like?"

I do not know completely. I do spend alot time pondering the implications of this truth. I do believe it should be a 24/7 thing though. I do find myself at times living in the midst of my own interests. Are all of my interests His? Do I try to justify them by saying they are His too? Whose interests am I walking in at 9:30 am Wednesday morning; 2:00 pm Friday afternoon; or 9:00 pm Saturday night?

I want to grow to the point where I am always aware of and walking in the middle of His interests!







* In I Corinthians 5:11, Paul refers to a previous correspondence.