I was sitting in a pew at our church a few Sundays ago, when
the pastor read from 2 Corinthians 5 – one of the earliest Bible passages to
have impressed me after I was born again over four decades ago. The specific
verses read thus:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself
through Christ and gave us the
ministry
of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not
counting men’s sins against
them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors,
as though God were making his appeal
through us.
We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God
We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God
(2 Corinthians 5:17 – 20).
Why did this impact me so much? And why does this continue
to impact me? Notice the importance of the pronoun we. Who is the “we”? Is it Saint Paul and his group of evangelists?
Is it the recipients of the letter?
Consider this: Paul is dead, as are his companions and the original
recipients of the letter. Some people would have us think of most of the Bible
as “ancient history,” which gives us some quaint facts about the past, but not
much to base our lives on in the 21st century. But this viewpoint is
wrong.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is
useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the servant of God
may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” wrote Paul in 2 Timothy
3:16 – 17. While Paul possibly did not think of his letters as “scripture,” on
more than one occasion, he claimed to have been expressing the mind of Christ.
In other words, he knew that he spoke the truth,
inspired by the Spirit of Jesus Christ (the Holy Spirit). Later Church Fathers
(like Polycarp) recognized the importance of affirming the Gospels, epistles,
and revelation written by the original apostles, and of discarding those written
by false or misguided teachers. And so the canon of the New Testament has come
down to us in all its inspiration, information, and glory.
And now back to my original point. It might
not be possible to ascertain exactly who
Paul had in mind when he mentioned “we.” The point is: whether it was you, me, or the nearest church pastor,
the essential truth of the Gospel is this: God desires all people to be saved. He calls us through Christ and His
followers. We are agents of God even as we journey out to the mailbox, the
store, or the neighbor.
We are not to attack those who are
non-Christians and force them into
the kingdom. There are other religions that do this – notably Islam. The
instructions in the Koran are quite clear: make people submit to Allah (either
by converting them to Islam or by forcing them to admit that they are inferior
to Muslims), or kill them. Let us call that the assassin approach. Not very friendly, is it? And in case you doubt
this assessment, ask yourself: What is the exact purpose of terrorist attacks? Why are they marked by bloody
violence and murder? Are they not designed to force you into doing something?
You decide.
We move on. Then there are those religions
that advise you to annihilate problems – in other words, isolate yourself from
the world around you. Ignore pain and suffering. It “doesn’t exist,” and the
farther you remove yourself from people and their problems, the happier you’ll
be. Now, that works fine if you are in a Buddhist monastery (or does it?), but
it does not work in a family setting or in a work environment. Imagine a mother
who ignores her baby’s pain. Imagine a father who does not empathize with his
son’s struggles. Imagine ignoring a customer who doesn’t fit a certain caste
(happens all the time in India). Not a very pleasant world picture, is it?
Now let us return to the picture Paul gives
us in the passage I cited above. What is the best description of an ambassador?
Someone who represents the person who sent him or her. An ambassador must
understand who is being represented.
He or she must think like the one who sent them. Use their words. Imitate their
actions. What does an ambassador want to achieve? Harmony. Peace. Perhaps a
unity of sorts.
Can you imagine yourself as God’s
ambassador? It’s a 24/7 sort of “job,” and it seems rather unpopular in this
day and age. But remember this: an ambassador is intimately connected to the
power of the country he or she represents. Furthermore, there is a direct
connection to the ideals, glory, and purpose of the country.
Granted that God is King forever, I’d say that is eternal job security!