Notes
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
2 Corinthians 5:17
Have you ever tried to play with a flat or deflated basketball? When the ball has enough air in it, it will bounce like it is supposed to. But if it doesn’t have enough air inside of it,, when you dribble it the ball will just stay on the ground.
Our lives are like basketballs. When we are filled with the right things - the things of God - we’ll bounce and fulfill our purpose. 2 Corinthians 5:17 is about our spiritual life in Christ. It doesn’t mean that the circumstances around us are any different, but that we are different in the circumstances because of whose we are. Our lives will bounce when we experience the following:
1) When we believe
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing.
2 Corinthians 5:1-7
Belief in the right things will give us confidence to live in spite of what we are experiencing. Many of us aren’t bouncing because we aren’t united with Christ in the new life He has given us. Our old lives are shaped by circumstances, but in our new lives, we are shaped by what God has said. Instead of being guided by pain, grief, or any other struggles we have, we can be guided by the Holy Spirit.
2) When we love
If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
2 Corinthians 5:13-15
Our lives will bounce so high when we strive to love how God loves us. We have to grasp onto the truth that God loves everyone - even those we dislike or who have wronged us. Love does courageous things that are driven by the supernatural and controlled for the benefit of those around it. We are called to be extensions of God’s love.
3) When we participate
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
If you play with a basketball long enough, eventually it will need to get filled up with air again. But just filling it up with air isn’t enough; it will still need to be played with in order to fulfill its intended purpose.
We can get filled in a lot of ways, like attending worship services, reading our Bibles, and attending life groups. But our intended purpose isn’t just to be filled up; we are meant to let it flow out of us to other people, too. We are God’s ambassadors - His representatives and promoters. We are the bridge between God and those who haven’t met Him yet. We are meant to do something with our lives, something that brings others closer to their Creator.
Group Questions
- What does it mean to be guided by the Holy Spirit?
- How can we show God’s love, even when it is difficult?
- What are some things that can fill up our lives, like air in a basketball?
- How can we tell if the things of God are flowing out of our lives?
Prayer
Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to comfort us, teach us, and help us learn to be confident in the future you have promised. Teach us to love like you first loved us and to be ambassadors who draw other people to you by the way we live.