2 Cor 5:14 says “For the love of Christ constraineth us”.  In v.15, it constrains us to not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for them (in v.14) and rose again.  To constrain is to hold back by or as if by force.  The force of his love constrains us to not live for ourselves but for the lost for whom Jesus died.

Michael Ellzey, second generation missionary to Bolivia, and I discussed what keeps a man on the mission field.  In his reply, he said that just having a love for the people isn’t enough.  Your feelings toward them might wane after you have been hurt and discouraged by them.

But if Christ’s love constrains you, then you are more likely to continue to minister to those for whom Christ died.  His love is a love that extends to his enemies and to those who would hurt him.  The love of Christ constraineth us.

In Matt 23:37, he called out to Jerusalem to proclaim how often he would have gathered her children together, despite that in Jerusalem the prophets had been killed and those sent to her have been stoned. In Lk 19:41, when he saw the city before his crucifixion, he wept over it.

In Rom 9:3 Christ’s love is seen in Paul’s testimony of his love for Israel.  He said, “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh”.  These are the very people who tried repeatedly to kill him.

We see this same kind of love in David, a man after God’s own heart.  In 2 Sam 18:33 he cried “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee”.  This is the son who usurped his throne and tried to kill him while he was in exile.

It’s this kind of love that we see in Jesus, Paul and David that should constrain us to go as ambassadors for Christ with the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Cor 5:17-20.  The love of Christ constraineth us.

We don’t want to set the bar so high that you feel inadequate to ever love people, for whom Christ died, so much as this.  But we do want to realize that we certainly have much more capacity to love them.

Shouldn’t we ask God to help us to be constrained by his love so that we are willing to minister even to those who don’t love us.  It’s this love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holly Ghost, Rom 5:5.

I am reminded of Jim and Elisabeth Elliott who went to the Waodani tribe in Ecuador.  Jim and four of his missionary friends were killed by members of this tribe in 1956.  Nevertheless, Elisabeth returned to the same people in 1958, constrained by the love of Christ, to love them and lead them to Jesus.  And this she did.  Likewise, our testimony should be, “the love of Christ constraineth us”.