Ambassadors for Christ

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Becoming “an ambassador for Christ” is not something we are striving to attain. If you are a Christian, you are a missionary. This does not just mean being sent overseas or going on outreaches. This mission we are on consists of possessing a heart that loves Him in such a way that we want to see others come to know that love as well.

Let me take a different slant on it and tell you it’s not just about being sent; it’s not just about reaching out to your neighbors. It’s about what type of missionary you are.

^“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” (Matthew 23:15).

Jesus is saying here, “You go from one place to another trying to get one convert, one proselyte, and when you do get that one, they’re a worse person than you are.” Clearly that is not healthy evangelism!

So the mission I’m talking to you about today is not just what we say or what charity we are involved in or where we go. Our focus must be on who we are. You are a missionary to your mom and dad. You are a missionary to your children. You are a missionary to your spouse. You are a missionary to your neighbor.

The type of life that you live, the type of heart that you have, the type of gospel that you live out — whether it’s powerful, penetrating your own soul to change you to the degree that you are transformed — will be the very degree to which you can change and transform the world around you.