Why It Matters//
When we fully grasp how wide, how long, how high, how deep is Christ’s love for us (Ephesians 3:18), we are COMPELLED to share that love with others. We are not called to simply consume the gospel, but to share it, actively engaging and investing in others for the purpose of drawing them closer to Christ. We are called to see others through the lens of Christ, not the world, to recognize their need for salvation and respond to it by sharing the Good News and inviting them into relationship with Jesus.
What It’s Talking About//
The Apostle Paul wrote this second series of letters to the church in Corinth to further instruct them in the faith, calling them to stand firm and be obedient in their walks with Christ. In this letter, he calls the church members to be “ambassadors of Christ,” to spread God’s message of salvation to those who do not yet know Him. Because of the power of the gospel, the church is to see and behave differently than the world, to take every opportunity to call people back to God, urgently preaching the message of salvation.
2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2 NIV
11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.
12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart.
13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 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.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
20 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.
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.
2 For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.