peace . love . joy

2 Corinthians 5: 11-21

(11) Therefore, knowing the dear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. (12) We are not commending outselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. (13) For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. (14) For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; (15) and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

(16) From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. (17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (18) All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (19) that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (20) Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (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.

with mingwei's blessings, i shall now share his thoughts with you, sizzlers:

An embassy is headed by an ambassador, and is the diplomatic representation of one country in another country's land. Under international law, the embassy grounds are exempt from local law and are treated as territory of the embassy's home country. Embassies are used as places of refuge by refugees, and during an bilateral dispute, the ambassador can be summoned by the host to register the latter's displeasure.

A Christian is Christ's ambassador and representative of God's kingdom, located in but not of the world, and called to reconcile the lost to God's country (2 Cor 5:19-20). Since we have this calling, we are to treat our lives and bodies like property of God's country, living in a way that reflects that God's law and not the world's law operates in us. And the world vents its displeasure at how Christians behave, as its people sometimes realise something is wrong with themselves in comparison with Christians, and feel uncomfortable interacting with the latter.

Even though all Christians are entrusted with protecting spiritual refugees from the world, not all do their job well - some have one foot across the embassy gates into the world and don't want to give up entirely on both the world and God, some can't be bothered at all to operate God's law in their grounds, and some don't know what to do as new ambassadors. But for those who are appointed ambassadors of Christ and truly want to do Kingdom work will eventually find much blessing in following their call of duty, both in (meg: tangible and) intangible ways in this life and in all ways in the next.