Ambassadors For Christ
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20
What is an ambassador? An ambassador is a person, a friend of authority. He is a servant of his government in a foreign land. He is not free to set his own policies or develop his own message. In the same way we are called to live under the authority of Jesus Christ and the authority of the Scriptures. We are servants. We must live under the authority of the Word of God. We are called not to do our will, but Christ’s.
What does it mean to live under the authority of the Word of God? First, it means that we live under the authority of God in our personal lives. “Be ye holy as I am holy” (Leviticus 20:7), say the Scriptures. We are to be holy people of God; we are to live what we preach in our personal lives: a disciplined devotional life. The world today is looking for holy men and women who live under the authority of the Word of God. They’re not going to listen to what we say unless we back it up with the way we live in our personal relationships.
Second, we are under the authority of the Word of God in our social relationships as well. As Christians we’re not isolated persons; we are part of society with all of its difficulties and problems and hopes. The Bible has much to say about social justice and social actions. This is a difficult area. The Christian knows this. Human society is affected by sin, and we know that any effort we make to improve society will always be incomplete and imperfect. We are not going to build a Utopia on Earth. Why? Because of human nature. Sin keeps us from building a paradise on Earth.
But we are to work for social justice—that is our command in Scripture—we’re to do all we can so both we and others can live a peaceable and free life, and a life of human dignity. Only Christ can change hearts, but that does not mean that we neglect social and political relationships. Christ is concerned about the whole man, including the society in which he lives. Many of the great social reforms of the nineteenth century in Great Britain and America were inspired by evangelical Christians. But the time came when many forgot that the Gospel was both vertical and horizontal. This is rapidly changing now. Evangelicals are once again proclaiming a balanced Gospel of personal salvation on the one hand and social responsibility on the other.
Third, we are under authority in our service. It is God who has called us to serve. We are not free to choose the place or the manner in which we will serve Him. I am always amazed at the variety of gifts that God has given to the church. Every person has been given a gift from God. You may be a farmer, or a laborer, or a doctor, or a professor, but you have been given a gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul says, “Stir up the gift that is within you” (2 Timothy 1:6). What is your gift? Each of us is to put his gift into action for God.
Our Father and our God, use me as an ambassador for Your Kingdom to the lost and dying world. I submit myself to Your authority and will. Show me how to use the gift You have given me to spread Your Kingdom, for I want to be Your humble servant. I pray in the name of the One who is my example, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010.