Food for Thought
In Paul’s second letter chapter five verse eleven (NIV) Paul writes: “Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others.”
Paul certainly dedicated himself and his ministry to sharing the good news of the gospel. A few verses on he declares that we are ambassadors for Christ. Certainly an awesome and serious responsibility assigned to each of us as followers of Jesus.
The primary method of communicating the gospel is verbal. Believers are encouraged to tell others about what Jesus has done. Explain what was accomplished at the cross and how that affected their own personal life. I think it fair to say that in our political world ambassadors are carefully selected, ‘handpicked’ might be the right word. This because the acceptance of the message might well be influenced by the character and actions of the ambassadors.
The gospel message we are to share is the most important message in the world. It is the very reason that Jesus came. Its presentation and acceptance have eternal life and death implications. Little wonder then that Paul defines the role as a ‘fearful responsibility’ and in the rest of the sentence he acknowledges that this ‘fearful responsibility’ demands ‘hard work’.
The first part of the work is the sharing, the verbalizing of the gospel message. But the second part, perhaps even harder than the first, is to allow the Holy Spirit to work whatever is essential in the way of life changes so that our verbal presentation is neither partially or totally discounted by the character and attributes of the ambassador.
The more I think about this challenge, the more I appreciate Paul’s choice of words ‘fearful responsibility’ to describe this awesome job as Christ’s ambassadors. May we be carefully listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit and seeking his help to enact the changes necessary to become a better ambassador.
Pastor Dave