Note 3 at 2 Cor. 5:14: Paul had just spoken of how some people considered him crazy because of the way he had neglected himself for the sake of others. Now he gives the reason why he lived that way. It was because the love of Christ constrained him.

The early Christians had experienced the love of Christ in a intimate and life transforming way. This motivated them to reach their known world with the gospel of Christ more than any generation of Christians has done since. They didn't have the benefits of our modern technology, but they did have the benefit of being full of the love of Christ. Experiencing the love of Christ causes us to be filled with the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19) and makes us a witness which the world cannot resist (Jn. 13:35).

Today, much of the emphasis of the church is placed on techniques of evangelism or spiritual warfare. We motivate people to witness through feelings of guilt or punishment if they don't. Much of our evangelism has become as dead and non-productive as the cults who knock on doors and argue people into their way of thinking.

Paul, and most of the early Christians, had a much greater impact on their world just because they were full of, and motivated by, the love of God. The church today needs a revival of our personal relationship with the Lord. When we can say with Paul that the love of Christ constrains us, then we will impact our world for the Lord, too. You can't give away what you don't possess. We need to personally know the love of Christ in an experiential way before we try to share it with others.

Note 4 at 2 Cor. 5:14: There are two main ways of interpreting Paul's statement here. One, Paul could be saying that Jesus died for everyone, taking the sins of all men because they were already dead in their sins and needed His atonement (Eph. 2:1). However, some commentaries imply that Paul is saying that through Christ's death, all those who believe on Jesus die also. Both of these views are scriptural.

In either case, Paul is explaining his fanatical zeal spoken of in the previous verse. He could be saying the reason he is "beside" himself (v. 13) is because all are dead in their trespasses and sins and they desperately need what Christ has provided. Or he could be saying that our death to sin and all its consequences has already been accomplished through Christ and he is desperate to inform believers of what is already theirs.

The Living Bible paraphrases these verses in the following manner, "Since we believe that Christ died for all of us, we should also believe that we have DIED TO THE OLD LIFE we used to live. He died for all so that all who live-having received eternal life from him-might live no longer for themselves, to please themselves, but to spend their lives pleasing Christ who died and rose again for them."

With the latter view, the point is that Christ's death was an all-inclusive death for all. Within that death all died (v. 14). Do you believe that the Lord Jesus died? Then what about your death? The reason that God tells us that we've died to our old life in Christ is because we have died (Rom. 6:11). It is a fact. But that death is not made effectual in us by looking at our flesh, but by looking away from our flesh to Christ.

Watchman Nee, in his book The Normal Christian Life, gives us the perfect illustration when he states, "You probably know the illustration of Fact, Faith, and Experience walking along the top of a wall. Fact walked steadily on, turning neither to right nor left and never looking behind. Faith followed, and all went well so long as he kept his eyes focused upon Fact; but as soon as he became concerned about Experience and turned to see how he was getting on, he lost his balance and tumbled off the wall, and poor old Experience fell down after him" (p.78).

The temptation of the Christian life is to look at the flesh, ourselves, and our experience. The victory lies in looking away from self and unto Christ and the new creation facts. God's "divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him..." (2 Pet. 1:3). But that power is in Him, within the New Creation, within the indwelling Christ. I'm no match for the devil, the flesh, and sin. But the devil, the flesh, and sin are no match for the living Christ. So my death to sin is receiving, by faith, the fact of what is already true in Christ.

All believers have already died unto sin (see note 3 at Rom. 6:2, p. 776; see note 7 at Rom. 6:6, p. 778) through Christ's death (Col. 3:3).