For Our Sake and for God's Sake

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “sake” is defined as an end or purpose for the good advantage or enhancement of some entity or as an ideal; a personal or social welfare, safety or benefit. The use of the word “sake” goes back as far as the Thirteenth Century.

We can think that something is good for our own sake or even for God’s sake.  The expression,  “for God’s sake,” has been used in many ways as a call-out for something to either happen or to not happen or stop.  That usage is considered by some to be almost cursing or taking the Lord’s name in vain, but it is usually an attempt to discourage or encourage something so as to be pleasing to God. That is, to be sure that the will of God is fulfilled and He is not angered. St. Paul says in his 2^nd Letter to the Corinthians 5:13  “ For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.”

Living our lives then, is best done when we can blend the two acts of living for our own sake while living our lives for God’s sake.  That way we are sure to get the best possible outcome that is good for us while pleasing God.  In 1st Peter 2:13-14 we read “Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.”

As Christians we recognize that God did something for His sake in order to accomplish something for our sake. You guessed it didn’t you?  God sent us Jesus as His Word for his own sake to better connect with His children and then sacrificed His Son for our sake that our sin would be forgiven and we would have a more direct line to Him through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds us in his 2^nd  Letter to the  Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The more we dwell on the word “sake,” the more we see how it has filled lives throughout history. People have done things for the sake of their family, their friends, their country, their churches, their communities, their jobs, for strangers, for the needy and hungry.  The list goes on.  In our lives we must match all the things we do for our own sake and for the sake of others with that which is for God’s sake.

Probably the most important thing to do for our own sake, for the sake of others and for God’s sake is to forgive.  In His forgiveness of us through the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ, God gives us the example of how we should act for His sake and for the world we live in. In the Gospel of John 13:34 Jesus tells us, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This love message from God through Jesus has forgiveness wrapped all around it for it is impossible to love without forgiving. We can’t pick and choose who to love or who to forgive. For our own sake and for the sake of God, we must love one another.