Love Ambassadors

In the process of thinking about and writing this, God has challenged me in several ways. First, he has challenged my tendency to rely on authors that I respect and who I feel are able to say the things that I am thinking better than I can say them. While this may be true and there is nothing wrong with using those authors' words, I am not stepping out in the boldness Christ is calling me to. For me, it is a way of hiding behind the minds of others in fear of rebuke or chastisement of my own ideas. God has blessed me with a perceptive mind and, in my estimation, a keen intellect and I have been selfish with it. Selfish in the sense that my fear of being seen as wrong or unintelligent prevents me from showing Christ and his love in the manner He would have me do it. Secondly, he has challenged me with these questions: Do I live the way I am writing/speaking about? Do I do it from a sense of obligation or duty? Or, am I so pursuing Christ that my normal responses and interactions reflect the love I receive? Are my conversations filtered through His love? Is my tongue tempered by Grace?

All these questions I would ask of all of you. I ask you to consider them and, if you fall short, do not lose hope, God's grace and mercy is sufficient for you.

We are to be united in Christ because we are his ambassadors, and because we are his ambassadors we are to be united by his love and purpose.

I would suggest that the evidence of Christ in our life, at least before others, is seen in our ability to live out Jesus' characteristics, the chief of which is love. This love is not merely for the unbeliever, to show them Christ, but also for your brother and sister in Christ. For a Christian who cannot show love to his own sibling in faith cannot be an effective witness before an unbeliever. Duplicity may go unnoticed for a time but ultimately the stench of falsehood rises to the surface. I do not say this out of a spirit of condemnation but with the desire to gently remind us that if Christ lives in us and we profess it with our mouths, it should be reflected in how we live and interact with people.

"I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all; who is over all and through all and in all. But to each of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it."
- Ephesians 4:1-7

I read this at my brother's wedding because verses 1-3 speak of characteristics that should be evident in a marriage; though, they should be present in any relationship. Verses 4-6 talk about how we are all under one banner (Christ) and it speaks about Him who unites us. But verse 7 is crucial and should not be overlooked. It is a provision for when we inevitably fail to follow the previous 6 verses. Verse 7 is what takes the performance driven pressure off of us. Verse 7 allows for mistakes. And this is true for the body of Christ. We are human, we will fail, but too often we live with an unrealistic expectation of perfection. But this ideal is unattainable in our current condition. If we adhere to a rigid regimen of rules and regulations and step-models to living a perfect life we will constantly be disillusioned and perhaps embittered. Paul encourages the Ephesians with the qualities in verses 1-3, he reminds them of Him who unites them in verses 4-6. But he tells them he doesn't expect them to always hit the mark in verse 7 and that God's grace will be poured out on each of them as they need it. Implicit in this verse is that they (and we) will continue striving to be Christ like and when they (we) mess up, grace is given.

"When God was merciful to us, we learned to be merciful to our brethren. When we received forgiveness instead of judgement, we, too, were made ready to forgive our brethren. What God did to us, we then owed to others. The more we received, the more we were able to give; and the more meager our brotherly love, the less were we living by God's mercy and love. Thus God himself taught us to meet one another as God has met us in Christ." - Bonhoeffer

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."  - Romans 15:5-7


"Because Christ has long since acted decisively for my brother, before I could begin to act, I must leave him his freedom to be Christ's; I must meet him only as the person that he already is in Christ's eyes... Human love constructs its own image of the other person, of what he is and what he should become. It takes the life of the other person into its own hands. Spiritual love recognizes the true image of the other person which he has received from Jesus Christ; the image that Jesus Christ himself embodied and would stamp upon all men." - Bonhoeffer

And so, because Christ has done these things for us, if we say we are in Christ and owe our lives to him, we are to do likewise. In doing these things we foster an atmosphere of unity by a love, filtered through the lens of Christ, which is born out of an authentic desire for the good and well-being of the other.

If we live this way for ourselves and before the unbelieving world and if we desire this for each other, we are being the ambassadors God calls us to be.

"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 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. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21


Paul talks about being ambassadors for Christ and being a part of the ministry of reconciliation. Just as the Corinthian church was a diverse group, abiding in various strata of life, so are we. We are to be Christ's ambassadors in our jobs, families, social events, and whatever place we find ourselves. Whether it is by word or by merely living your life holy and devoted to Christ, people will take note and be curious. Some may never verbalize their curiosity, but whether they do so or not, you are to be a positive example of Christ at work in humanity. Our purpose is to love God, love others, and to bring the lost to the foot of the cross. This is the ministry of reconciliation, that we bring the broken and those devoid of hope to the place where God restores their hope and mends their broken lives. As the church, we are to be a healing and safe presence for a world full of insecurity and broken souls, both saved and not. Though division and strife have been and continue to be a threat, we are to stand in faith and in unity. Though we are sinful and prone to error, we are new creations and the light of Christ shines all the brighter through us who humbly and with great voracity pursue his love.

I leave you with Paul's prayer for the Ephesians:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love  that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." - Ephesians 3:16-21