How Does the Love of Christ Compel Us?

The Apostle Paul speaks of Christ’s love that “compels us” in a passage where he is describing his own ministry, particularly the fierce opposition he has had to face while proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:14). Intriguingly, despite being “afflicted in every way” (2 Cor. 4:8), despite his outer self “wasting away” (2 Cor. 4:16), despite “groaning” and “being burdened” (2 Cor. 5:4), Paul says that he is “always of good courage” (2 Cor. 5:6) and that he will continue to try to persuade others of the veracity of the Christian message.

To many, this would seem unreasonable. What could possibly incline someone to endure such hardships voluntarily? This is where Paul’s argument comes in. He says: “If we are beside ourselves, it is for God. . . . For the love of Christ controls us” (2 Cor. 5:13–14, emphasis added).

The term “controls” is translated as “compels” in the NIV and the NKJV, and “constraineth” in the KJV. The idea is that the love of Christ is what makes Paul act in a certain way—namely, to persevere in mission despite the suffering it entails. There is an ambiguity, however, as to whether “the love of Christ” means the love that Christ has for Paul, or the love that Paul has for Christ. But solving the ambiguity may not be necessary, since love aims to be bilateral. So, to put it bluntly: what Paul is doing may seem crazy, but such is the power of love.

In the 1980s, rock singer Huey Lewis sang about the power of love being “a curious thing” that can make people act strangely (the song was featured in the 1985 movie Back to the Future). Indeed, anyone who has ever been in love knows how impelling and transformative love can be. If such is the power of romantic love, how much stronger the kind of love whose object, or subject, is divine?

But how does it work? How does the love of Christ compel us? Paul explains, “The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died” (2 Cor. 5:14). The Greek ties the first two clauses even closer together: “The love of Christ compels us who have concluded this” (or “discerned this”). The point is that having come to a certain conclusion, particularly through study and discernment, we are now gripped by the love of Christ.

The love of Christ does not compel those who simply have a passing thought about Jesus or who have some vague notion of who He was and what He did. One must look carefully at Christ, contemplate His work, and truly think on these things in order to come to an ever-deeper realization of the implications of the gospel. It is there that the love Christ has for believers is demonstrated and the love believers have for Christ is stirred up. In the same way that one would admire a work of art in a museum—not by looking at it just in passing, but by taking the time to examine its detail and let its richness penetrate the mind—one needs to understand that there are wonderful spiritual benefits to habitually contemplating the person and work of Christ.

Paul draws attention to the fact that Christ gave Himself up as a substitute for many. In that sense, Christ is the hero of the Christian faith, and such heroism is supposed to move us. Our Lord Jesus was willing to die for all whom He came to save. He died in the place of those who deserved to die in such a way that it is as if we who have faith in Him had died with Him and are resurrected with Him.

In the phrase “one has died for all,” “one” refers to the only One to have ever lived who was not worthy of death; “died” refers to His death on a cross, which was the atonement of a multitude of sins; and “all” refers to the total number of guilty human beings whom Christ came to save. In other words, Christ died the worst of deaths for the worst of people, yet He did it voluntarily.

How could we not be moved if we are the recipients of such a costly sacrifice? This is how the love of Christ compels us. We think on what He has done for us as we study His Word, as we worship privately and corporately, and as we observe the sacraments. As we do, the richness of the person and work of Christ will penetrate our minds and hearts, gradually transforming our lives under the influence of the Holy Spirit as we desire more and more to serve Him “who for [our] sake died and was raised” (2 Cor. 5:15).

As we contemplate Christ’s love for us through the means that He has ordained, our own love for Him will grow, and through the power of that bilateral love being “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5), we may very well end up acting strangely in the eyes of the world.