Passion for Christ

As the daughter of a Language Arts teacher, I grew up surrounded by English books.  And as my own love of language developed, I spent a lot of time studying my mom’s teaching materials.  Especially Warriner’s.  Versions of Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition text book dotted the shelves of our living room.  Around this time of year, with the school season just over, I would begin spending extra time in its lessons.  Especially its lessons on prepositions.  Considering that most people don’t have a favorite part of speech, I can only assume that prepositions were mine because, at the time, I liked diagramming sentences.  (Yeah, it used to be a thing.  Google it.)  Especially the ones with prepositional phrases. 

  Across.  After.  Before.  Between.  In.  Of.  Toward.  Up.  Within.

Prepositions.  Words that describe a relationship between other words in a sentence or phrase.  Prepositions.  Words that are used to demonstrate location, time, direction, possession or cause.

Perhaps now, thirty plus years later, I remain drawn to prepositions because I can appreciate the context that they offer a sentence.  Perhaps that’s why, in April of 2020, as I wrote The RED PRESSpective’s “Passion of Christ,” I started to pay particular attention to the preposition in its PRINCIPLE scripture.  I John 3:16 NKJV: “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.  And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 

For.

The word, the preposition, that leads me to today’s title, “Passion for Christ.” 

“For” has many different meanings and uses.  “Because of.”  “On behalf of.”  “With respect to.”  “In honor of.”  “For” is also used as an indication of purpose or goal. 

“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us…”  For.  “Because of.”  For.  “On behalf of.”

“…And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”  For.  “With respect to.”  For.  “In honor of.”

In an irony of sorts, for Jesus to lay down His life, He had to take up a cross. 

Here, now, I see His Cross not only as a symbol, but also as a diagram.  Like grammatical diagramming uses straight lines to allow us to SEE the relationship between words in a sentence, the cross, too, is a graphic representation of relationship.  Vertically with God and horizontally with one another.  The Cross. It SHOWS us how The Word connects, how He works together to bring meaning and context to our lives. 

But what does passion for Christ look like? 

If passion is defined as a willingness to suffer for what you love, then, I wondered, how do I do it?  How do I lay down my life – take up my own cross – in honor of other people? 

As I asked myself these questions, two words came immediately and settled in response: forgiveness and forbearance.  Forgive – to release, to pardon, to give completely and without reservation.  Forbear – to refrain from or to be tolerant of or patient with. 

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Colossians 3:13 NIV

As the daughter of Sunday School teachers, I grew up surrounded by Bibles.  Copies of it could be found in most of the rooms of our home.  The Bible, for me then, was reverenced but unread.  Now, as an adult, I have developed my own love of God’s Word.  And different seasons of my life have required that I spend extra time in specific lessons, learning to search its pages for life application. 

And what I have discovered in this season of my life is that, so often, it’s so easy for my own Gethsemane to Golgotha experience to diminish my passion for Jesus.  I get so, so tired.  And honestly, I feel so, so forsaken.  This diminished passion for Jesus leads me, consequently, to diminished compassion for people. 

Can you relate?

I’ve been guilty of ascribing passion solely to Jesus.  I mean, after all, He was perfect.  He was built for His assignment.  He could’ve used His power to come down from the Cross, but He didn’t.  His love, His passion for us, obediently, kept Him there.  Who else could, or would, do that? 

So when I’m crossed, I think, surely He understands my unforgiveness and impatience, right?  Yeah He does, but that doesn’t mean that He accepts it. 

We’re being built for an assignment too. And that means that we have a passion to endure as well.  A cross to bear.  And when we’re faced with it, what are we going to do?

As daughters of God, for us to reign with Christ eternally, we must suffer with Him daily (ref. 2 Timothy 2:12a).  And that means loving, sacrificially, especially when it’s hard. That’s forgiving when the offense is intentional.  That’s forbearing when the disrespect is perpetual.  It’s everyone.  Everywhere.  Every day.   

Because that’s what Jesus did.      

Lessons on forgiveness and forbearance have been so much more real to me over the last few weeks.  There has been one insulting incident after another.  One instance in particular, I knew that I was being tested.  Baited even.  Although tired of being kind, I begrudgingly clinched my teeth and forced a smile.  I winced as I felt my cheek turn…again.  But to keep from going off, to God I said, “This is killing me.”  To me, He replied, “Exactly.”

PRINCIPLE: “…And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”  – I John 3:16b NKJV