Mind Control part 3
The love of Christ controls us. Really it does. It controls us in either one of two ways: Either we don't know and believe the love of Christ, and we do everything we do in order to try and get what we think we don't have... or we DO know and believe the love of Christ and we do everything we do because what we have is so good we can't keep it to ourselves and we have to share it. But either way, love is the motivation. In the Old Covenant the carnal, unregenerated mind saw fear as the motivation. "Behave so you don't get punished." But that wasn't the purpose of the Law. The Law of Moses was not meant as hoops to jump through. The Law of Moses was meant to teach us how to love, and to show us that on our own we are incapable of love. The Law of Moses was the schoolmaster meant to bring us to Christ. (And in this case, when I say, "us," I mean the people of Israel.) See, we seem to think the opposite of love is hate. But it isn't. The opposite of love is fear. The Old Man was afraid of punishment. That's why he hid from the presence of God. He thought God was mad at his disobedience. But God doesn't get mad. Instead, He gives forgiveness. He doesn't want us to hide from Him, or run from Him. He wants us to run TO Him. That's why He opened His arms wide on the cross. That's why perfect love casts out fear. That's why we don't have to be afraid of our heavenly Father. Because He loves us. He always has and He always will. The problem was that we didn't KNOW that He loved us. We couldn't BELIEVE it. And that's why He gave us His Spirit. His heart. His mind. So that instead of seeing ourselves separate from Him, we could bring every thought into captivity and obedience to Christ. We could stop trying to figure Him out, and let Him reveal Himself to us (and in us, and through us, and as us). We could stop trying to think LIKE Him--I appreciate the "WWJD" movement for what it was, but if I have to TRY to figure out what Jesus would do and then TRY to do that thing I'm doing altogether too much trying and not nearly enough resting--and let Him think IN us. Stop trying to follow in His foot steps and simply let Him walk in our feet. Talk with our mouths. Heal with our hands. Guys... in Him we live and move and have our being. And in us HE lives and moves and has His being! We are One even as Jesus said, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). So the "control" aspect is not a master/servant relationship. Don't we get it that Jesus said He didn't come to be served, but to serve? Don't we get it that God is not our "boss" but our Father? He doesn't control us by putting out hoops and demanding that we jump through them. Even the New Commandment (for the New Man) is to love one another AS He loves us! He "controls" us by empowering us. By giving us everything we need in order to partake of His Divine Nature. In order to "live" His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by letting Him live it in us! God's love controls us because it fills us to overflowing. Because we have His mind, and when we let the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us... then we know His thoughts. Thoughts of peace and not of evil. Thoughts of love and not of fear. Not, "love... or else." But, "The love that I have is so good... I have to share it!" That's His thought. That's OUR thought. From His heart in our chests!