Devotionals

Devotional - week of October 4, 2015

AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

This verse is in the context of Paul’s revelation that all who are in Christ are new creations, that old things have passed away and all things have become new.

In becoming new creations, we became ambassadors—which is one of the new “things” of our lives. As ambassadors, we are representatives. We represent God on this earth.

The words “as though” can be translated “since.” The idea of the verse then is “We are ambassadors for Christ since God does plead through us.”

Paul goes so far as to give us the words an ambassador uses in presenting Jesus to the unsaved.

… we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

The word “you” in the passage can be misleading. The word itself is not in the Greek text. It is implied in the verb “implore.”

It would seem that Paul is pleading with the Corinthians to be reconciled to God. He is not. He means that when he presents the Gospel of Jesus to unsaved people he says, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf be reconciled to God.”

Live out the new creation life and represent God as an ambassador to the unsaved.