1 Corinthians 2 Review: Day 5
Let all that you do be done in love - ἀγάπη (ag-ah'-pay) brotherly love, benevolence, goodwill, affection
How is God’s character revealed and demonstrated in 1 Corinthians 2 as the Apostle Paul follows his own divinely inspired instructions to “let all that you do be done in love”?
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
1 Corinthians 16:13-14
Paul opens this second chapter by recalling his reliance upon God’s strength and the demonstration of the Lord’s power as he persevered through weakness and fear.
What was it that pushed and strengthened him to stay the course and carry out his mission? Paul’s own words in his following letter to the Corinthians shed clear light on his motivation:
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 5:14-15
The word “controls” here also appears in other translations as the word “constrains” which basically means to compel, preoccupy, or hold together.
Essentially, it was Christ’s love that not only rescued Paul, but also drove him to share that same love with unbelieving men at the expense of his pride or reliance on the flesh. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
In John 14:15 Jesus plainly told his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
The Bible also commands us to love others because it is a direct reflection of God’s divine character that uniquely identifies them as his children.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:7-8
Moreover, Scripture also says that our ability to love God and others is only made possible because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
Paul’s love for the Corinthians had only been possible through God’s merciful and miraculous intervention in his own life and had stripped away all the idolatrous trappings that had once fueled his hatred for God’s people.
What remained was a heart devoted to the Lord of love, shown in the ultimate act of agape: God becoming human and taking on the Father’s wrath on the cross for humanity's sins.
Paul’s simple message had borne fruit because pride was absent. This could only be explained by the power of a loving God who chose to dwell among and save those who were lost in their sin.
For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:10-11
Grace past and present
What can easily get lost during this brief interlude is the realization that Paul wrote this letter as a strong rebuke to a church that had forgotten they were the recipients of God’s unmerited favor.
His opening reflections were not just meant to recall their humble beginnings, but to gently remind them that both he and they had been given a very special gift reserved for a select few.
Each of them who had been saved could now understand and comprehend the things of God because his Spirit now lived in them, giving them the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:10-16)
His words here were not meant to serve as a sweetener to help them swallow the difficult and seemingly bitter medicine that would follow. Mere reproof for the sake of encouraging better behavior would only encourage a deeper dependence upon religious legalism that would only result in deeper self-reliance.
No. Paul’s aim was to remind them that any wisdom and power they possessed was rooted in the same source that enabled him to preach through fear and persecution in the church’s earliest days.
Victory had not been achieved through his educational merits or religious clout, and nor would it be theirs. Their secret was not that they had been made better people but had been made brand new.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Questions for Consideration
Read 2 Corinthians 2:1-2
What influence has the message of “Christ and him crucified had upon your life?
If you are a follower of Jesus, have you decided like Paul to “know nothing” beyond this as you carry out the mission God has given you?
What thoughts, attitudes or behaviors demonstrate one’s absolute reliance upon God? How has his love shaped and guided your own motivations to trust and obey him?