Carry Out Every Mission in Love

We lived in darkness without even knowing that we were sinners. Then in the light of Christ we saw our sin, and after we had been washed of it by the Word and by grace, we came to be called believers.

Yet even though we had received so much grace and become believers, we took for granted the cross that was always beside us. At times we even thought it only natural that Jesus should die for our sins.

But as the Lord kept pouring out his grace and we were clothed in it again and again, we began to feel a pain rising from deep in our hearts.

For we had come to see that the cross we took for granted was a death brought about by our sin, and that the grace we had received and enjoyed as if it were ours by right was the pain of God, who gave his beloved Son to the world.

The apostle Paul understood that love and grace deeply. Following in the footsteps of Jesus and carrying the same pain, he shared the word of life with people who lived in darkness.

Look at Jesus and the apostle Paul, and you see that loving souls comes with sacrifice. When we say we love souls but make no sacrifice, our love is selfish and seeks only our own salvation.

The apostle Paul realized that only Christ, who gave his own life, can save souls, and that only when we see God’s aching love on the cross can we feel the same pain Jesus felt. Knowing this, he took up his own cross and ran the narrow road.

The book of 1 Corinthians is the trail the apostle Paul left as he ran that road.

As I expounded 1 Corinthians, which Paul wrote, and then went through the work of turning the sermons into a book, I realized that I lack the ability to show the deep work of God in full, and I felt truly sorry.

So I think I tried all the harder to listen to what the apostle Paul was saying. Paul preached the gospel with death always at his side, and his faithfulness and his love for Christ were a faith that no one could ever imitate.

God always gave Paul coworkers at his side and arranged all his circumstances so that he could preach the gospel. Seeing that perfect love of God, I came to know that if we first let go of the world and do not doubt God, God goes to work first.

In more than ten years of ministry, I have come to see the same thing again and again: when we deny ourselves and make sacrifices for the gospel, the joy and happiness we gain through that devotion are far greater.

You who hold the love of Christ in your hearts can run as the apostle Paul did.

For the more you carry the cross of Jesus, the lighter it becomes.

When you have run with all your strength and then look back, you will see that the Lord has made level both the thorny paths and the valleys. You will see that it was not we who preached the gospel, but the Lord who preached it and gathered in the harvest.

If you give thanks in all things, you will see with your own eyes the grace and love the apostle Paul received, and you will hear the sound of God laughing aloud. For the gospel preached at the risk of one’s life is itself the reward.

February 2014
Cho Chun-sook, Senior Pastor of Watercourse Church