Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all,that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:11-17, ESV)
Have you ever heard the old saying that only left handed people are in their right mind? The right side of the brain supposedly controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, so left handed people are controlled then by the right side of their brain. But is that what Paul is talking about here?
We know that left handed and right handed people are different, they do things differently and think about things differently. But so do many right handed people. We all seem to be controlled by something, so what is that?
Our intuition, or is it something else? Some people are more passionate and artsy, and creative it seems than others, but they are not all left handed. We are driven by our inner desires to achieve something, be that notoriety, or success. We are driven to be the best we can be, and these desires lead us to follow our intuition, but maybe our intuition is not what we should be following.
Paul tells the Corinthians if we are beside ourselves, then we are doing what we need to be doing. If we are outside of ourselves, and allowing someone else to have control over our life, then we will be doing what we need to be doing. If we are controlled by someone else, not our boss, or our friends, or our parents even, but controlled by God. Not a puppet on a sting, but a coworker with God in the kingdom. You see it is like this cartoon from Radio Free Babylon:
You see Jesus is always there. We are not left alone, and we can only be in our correct place when we are controlled by Him and beside ourselves. If anything else controls us we are not following after Christ, and doing our own will. So be besides yourself and allow Him to have control.
aSacredRebel 