Pastor’s Corner August 2014

The following was published in our monthly newsletter, the Redeemer Report.

A Study of 2 Corinthians – Cultivating Ambassadors for Christ

We have begun a new exposition of God’s Word on Sunday mornings, this time it is 2 Corinthians. In this letter, one of Paul’s chief concerns is to instruct young believers about becoming effective ambassadors for Christ.

An ambassador is an official representative of a country’s leader or leadership group.  In chapter 5, Paul says-“We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us…”

I met a national ambassador this past year. Dr. Tebelelo Seretse is the very striking ambassador to the United States from Botswana. She is sharp, articulate, engaging, intelligent, and just very impressive. When you meet her, there is no question why Botswana would select her to represent their country. She has been well prepared over her lifetime to be a strong, able, and effective ambassador. It makes sense, right?  You would want to have a person trained and proven over time, before you make him or her a representative of your country. Preparing, strengthening, and readying a person to be a solid, impacting representative.

Well, that’s not exactly God’s approach to preparing us to be effective ambassadors for Christ.

According to Paul, instead of picking us on the basis of our impressive training or choosing us on the basis of preparedness and strength – He breaks us down and weakens us. Yes, God’s model for ambassador training is to deplete us of any self-dependence. Paul says we are ambassadors, but throughout the letter explains how affliction and suffering serve to lay us low so we are humbled and usable by God.

The pattern for ambassador training and preparation becomes clear in 2 Corinthians: Affliction—> Weakness—> God’s gracious comfort—> Resurrection. It could be put this way: Affliction—> Comfort—>Glory.

Paul doesn’t say every believer will suffer the same level of affliction, indeed, he chronicles his incredible experience of many hardships to show it could always be worse. Paul is saying, however, that effective ambassadorship for Christ happens as our weakness is brought to the forefront, so that God can comfort us with His grace and manifest His power through and over our frailty. I think this is the essence of what Paul says related to God’s refusing to remove his “thorn”. There was a purpose in keeping Paul weak.  Paul recounts God’s explanation –

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Yes, we are ambassadors for Christ. 2 Corinthians was written so we would know how such a commission is carried out. God’s grace is indeed sufficient for whatever God calls us to.

In the Lamb,

Pastor Tony Felich