AUGUST 6

HELD TOGETHER BY LOVE

“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.” (2 Cor. 5:14-15)

Constraineth – from the Greek “sunecho” meaning: to hold together. When it is love that is holding us together, girding up our thinking, what a positive walk with Christ.

In contrast to being “held together by love,” the same word is used in Luke 8:37, “They besought Him to depart from them; for they were taken with (held together with) great fear…” They had observed from afar that Jesus had cast a legion of devils out of a man living in the tombs, and that those destructive devils had caused a whole herd of swine to run down a steep place, into the sea, and were choked. Being ignorant that it was the power of God bringing deliverance to this tormented man, fear gripped them, it held them in torment, until they rejected the very One who came to bring liberty to the captives.

Wuest gives a beautiful translation: “For the love which Christ has for me presses on me from all sides, holding me to one end and prohibiting me from considering any other, wrapping itself around me in tenderness, giving me an impelling motive, having brought me to this conclusion, namely, that One died on behalf of all.”

This is truly being held together, when love presses on us from all sides, and holds us to one glorious viewpoint – LOVE’S VIEW, and so girds up our mind that we are prohibited from considering any other, until we become one in the truth that Christ died for all, to give life to all.

Love that girds the mind until no evil thoughts ensue,
Love that covers every sin, forgiveness to imbue,
Love that lasts beyond all time, negation to subdue,
Love that turns all loss to gain, creation to renew.

Ray Prinzing