Love Changes People
"For Christ's love compels us..."
2 Corinthians 5:14
This month we continue a commentary series on Messiah's Guiding Principles.
2 Corinthians is a remarkable letter in many ways. Paul's apostolic authority had apparently been questioned by the Corinthian Christians, the Christians of the church which he had founded (3:1-3)! And yet it contains some of the Bible's most touching passages on God's transforming love. Here are some examples:
a. God comforts us and thereby enables us to comfort others: "comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (2 Cor 1:4).
b. The difficult ministry which God gave Paul and his associates (see 6:4-11 and 11:23-12:4 for some lists of the challenges which they faced) was given through God's mercy, i.e. God's mercy first, ministry second. "through God’s mercy we have this ministry" (4:1).
c. "Christ's love compels us...." (5:14), says Paul, to be Christ's ambassadors, to make the offer on God's behalf to be reconciled to God through Christ.
d. Jesus' death, i.e. Jesus' love for us, results in our love and a living our life in thanksgiving to Him. "...He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." (5:15).
e. As we have been transformed by God's love, we no longer look at others like we used to. We see others instead as objects of God's love and therefore objects of our love (5:16).
f. In chapters 8-9, by various methods Paul encourages the Corinthians to contribute towards the needs of the Christians in Jerusalem. The fact that God has graced them ought to produce an outpouring of good will and good works. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." (9:8).
All of these examples show an important pattern of Paul's thinking, God's grace to us in Christ produces people who love God and others. This love for others is expressed primarily in offering others the reconciliation we now have in Christ.
This love is so strong that we are willing and able to experience much suffering, travel far away from home and family, divest ourselves of our hard-earned money in order to get the message out to more and more people. Because we have been comforted by the message, we can comfort others as well.
Soon after you receive this issue, my family and I will travel to northern Sweden for some time with Anki's family. It will have been five years since the three older children and I have seen that part of the family. Anki's family is not perfect, but it does illustrate in many ways the transforming power of love. Anki's father Rolf Smetana is from southern Sweden, Skåne. He came to northern Sweden to do his obligatory military service and met Anki's mother, Ruth, a local girl, at a Bible study. As his father before him, Rolf started a small painting business. Together, Rolf and Ruth decided to move to the small town of Vännäs in order to start meetings of the Bible True Friends. In addition to painting, Rolf has been a lay preacher most of his adult life. Eventually, they procured an old army barrack in Vännäs and Rolf used his skills to transform it into a Christian retreat center. In addition to Christian services of the Word, fellowship and camps, the center (Fridhem) also housed a (private) Christian day care center, something which was not favored by the Social Democrat government (which only wanted public day care centers). When her own children were young, Ruth welcomed many other day children into her home and so when the day care center was opened, it was natural for her to work there. Out of this nexus of love, Rolf and Ruth produced eight children.
Hans-Inge is a
Christian-Democrat politician and his wife Marianne is also a day care provider.
Their oldest son, Fredrik, is studying for the ministry (possibly
missions) in Norway and married a Norwegian girl, Monica, who is studying to
become a nurse. Their oldest daughter Stina, also recently married to a
Norwegian (the son of the former leader of the Norwegian Lutheran Mission), is a
social worker. Their third child, Malin, got married to a Bible School
classmate, with whom she lives now in Denmark while they await their first
child. Hans-Inge's fourth child, Susanne, just completed gymnasium and
will be studying at a Bible school in Norway this Fall.You
already know
Anki, R and R's, second child. Anki also studied early childhood education
and taught primary school children in a Christian school in southern Sweden
before taking a job to teach missionary kids in Kenya. (You know some of the
rest of her story.)
Desiree met her Swedish-speaking Finnish husband in the context of northern
Sweden and northern Finland Christian Christian youth group meetings. She now
works in the local Lutheran parish in Finland as a Christian educator.
Tord followed in his father's footsteps and took over the painting business.
He and his wife recently adopted baby Alice.
Birgitta married a young man from the youth group and lives with him and her
children at the Christian retreat center (Fridhem)
which her father founded.
Janne first followed in his father's footsteps as a painter and later as a
preacher. He is now an ordained pastor of the Mission Province and works as the
director of Fridhem.
Paula married a Skåne man (the nephew and cousin
of Kenya missionaries) and moved with him down South. She has worked at day care
centers like her mother, but recently became a nurse. She and her family have
participated in the Oasis-movement within the Swedish Lutheran Church.
Rakel is a social worker and has worked with battered women and undocumented
refugee children in northern Sweden. She also founded Bethesda Children's
Ministry in Nakuru, Kenya,
which attempts to rehabilitate street boys to return to their families in the
surrounding rural areas.
Including the ones I have already mentioned, Rolf & Ruth have 24 grandchildren. They were transformed by love and have loved all their children which has resulted in nearly exponential growth of people in caring and Christian ministry professions. They are a wonderful example of how love, Christ's love, changes people.
It is my hope that this summer, you will also go deeper into your love relationship with Jesus. Seek out His love in the Word, the Sacraments and among His people. As you do, He will transform you so that you love others as He has loved you.
- Pastor Dean