The Delight of Sacrifice

I'm afraid I have only random thoughts this morning.

1) The literal translation of 2 Corinthians 12:15 according to my Wycliffe Commentary: "But I, I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent out for your souls. If more abundantly you I am loving, the less am I being loved?" Paul's words are all the more true of Christ. How am I responding to this abundant love? When he seeks me out and invites me to dine with him, am I grateful for the invitation or angry that the party isn't in my honor?

2) "When the Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we begin deliberately to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ's interests in other people, and Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is. We have no right in Christian work to be guided by our affinities" -- Oswald. Some people are so much easier to love than others. Last night, my daughters and I served a special appreciation dinner for the men at the Mission where I work. These men are easy to love. They have been humbled and broken. There are few pretenses among them, and they are enormously grateful for every kind gesture. The challenge for me is much greater with my fellow workers, but Oswald admonishes me not to make distinctions. "Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is." So must I be.

3) "Paul spent himself for one purpose only -- that he might win men to Jesus Christ" -- Oswald. On how many purposes do I spend myself? How many are really necessary?

4) "We are apt to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which emancipate us spiritually" -- Oswald. I'm not sure what Oswald means by "emancipate us spiritually" -- make us free in spirit? -- but in my case, I'm taking it to mean that I am apt to be devoted to those things which make me feel good about myself. I was struck by the parallel meaning in 2 Corinthians 12:14: "What I want is not your possessions but you" or from The Message: "I have no interest in what you have -- only in you." Lord, help me to have such pure motives -- to want You, not what You can provide, and to love people for Your sake and theirs, not for how they make me feel.