Week 40 · Day 6: Evangelism
Compelled by the Love of Christ
Paul names the motive behind his urgency to persuade.
What the labels mean
- Scripture explicitly says
- This states what the biblical text itself says, in the passage being read.
- Direct quotation or allusion
- One part of Scripture quotes or clearly alludes to another. The citing reference is named so you can check it.
- Canonical theme
- A connection across the whole Bible. The passages develop the same theme; one is not quoting the other.
- Interpretive conclusion
- A conclusion drawn from the text. The reasoning is given so you can weigh it against the passage.
- Application
- A step, prayer or question for the reader. Not a claim about what the passage states.
Today’s verse
Loading 2 Corinthians 5:14…
2 Corinthians 5:14
Today’s focus
The truth of the day
Paul explains his own drive to persuade people, mentioned in the verse just before this one, by naming what compels him: not fear, not obligation, but the love of Christ.
He reasons from one fact, that one died for all, to a conclusion about everyone: therefore all died. The logic of the cross reshapes how Paul sees every person he speaks to.
Today’s reminder
Scripture explicitly says- The right motive for evangelism is love received, not duty performed.
- Christ's death for all is the fact evangelism carries to others.
- Urgency and compassion belong together in Paul's example.
Deeper insight
What the passage says in its own setting
This passage sits between two striking claims: verse 11, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, and verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. Paul holds together the seriousness of what is at stake and the tenderness of the appeal, refusing to let either one crowd out the other.
Verse 17 follows directly: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Paul's evangelistic urgency is inseparable from what he has just described as reconciliation, God reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them (5:18-19). The message he carries is the message that made him a new creation.
Christ connection
Where this leads to Jesus
Canonical themeVerse 21 states the exchange at the center of the gospel Paul carries: He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Reflection
ApplicationIs your evangelism, or your silence, driven more by love or by fear right now?
Today’s action
ApplicationPray specifically today that love for one person would replace whatever fear has kept you from speaking to them.
Today’s prayer
ApplicationLord, let Your love be what moves me to speak, not guilt or performance. You died for all; let that truth compel me the way it compelled Paul. Amen.
Another layer