davidbowerkingwood

The Older I Get the More Exciting My Ambassadorship Becomes!

The Apostle Paul makes an important point in 2 Corinthians 5:20 regarding a responsibility we, as Christians, have been given when he writes:

“So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

As Christians we are asked to wear several different hats and our ambassadorship is one of those hats. We might do well to think through this responsibility and see in how many different ways this should influence our behavior!

What is an Ambassador?

First we might want to define the generally accepted role of an ambassador, what is that persons responsibility toward the government represented?

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines an ambassador as follows?

 1:  an official envoy; especially :  a diplomatic agent of the highest rank accredited to a foreign government or sovereign as the resident representative of his or her own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment”

How does that definition fit a Christian? Well we have been made a diplomatic agent of the highest rank by adoption into God’s family; we function as children of the royal family and are representing our family to those to whom we’ve been sent. There is an unusual feature to our ambassadorship, we have a dual citizenship; we are citizens by physical birth of the country in which we were born and citizens of heaven because of our second, spiritual, birth.

We have been given a special but temporary assignment as representatives of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. While we may be living in the country of our physical birth we are also citizens of heaven, and have been given the job of representing our heavenly country’s interests to the country of our physical birth. How does the role of ambassador fit in with your self-image; do you have any difficulty accepting that idea? Like so many other spiritual realities it is a matter of faith; we know this is true, we are ambassadors because the Bible tells us it is true!

Deteriorating Conditions

We who live in the United States may observe a difference of opinion developing between the policies and principles of the country we represent as ambassadors and the policies and principles of the United States. Our Divine Leader is no longer welcomed in centers of governmental power and is now being told that any references to Him must be removed. I believe it would be fair to say there is a serious deterioration of relations in progress.

As ambassadors we have been warned that war is inevitable, our leaders have informed us as conditions continue to deteriorate our withdrawal as ambassadors is coming. It is easy to see how things are changing, the United States of today is vastly different from the United States I knew as a boy and a young man. It seems as if most of the institutions that have been a part of my life are changing at a fundamental level; even the church is different as it seems to be increasingly merging with the world.

In our role as ambassadors we should not take any of this personally, we are here representing the interests of our home country and not our own personal interests. There must be an objectivity as we watch developments matched with a faithful discharge of our duties. We must not forget our station in all of this and always be mindful our responsibility is to serve as ambassadors for our home government which in this case just happens to be God in heaven.

As ambassadors we have been informed the leadership of the United States is chosen by God; whoever is elected will be a servant to be used to accomplish the goals determined by God in eternity past. Serving as ambassador for an omnipotent creator God definitely has advantages!

Being spiritual ambassadors has both advantages and disadvantages; one of the disadvantages is we’ve never visited our home country; we have no idea where it is or what it looks like and must accept all that we can possibly know by faith. By faith we can know it exists and we have been appointed ambassadors; by faith we can know there is something wonderful waiting for us on our arrival when we are called home.

In the meantime we have a responsibility to faithfully discharge the duties we have been given as ambassadors; we have been given a commission to evangelize and teach and it is our duty to carry out those responsibilities as the Lord enables us.

I invite questions and comments and would like to hear from you. I rejoice in God’s word and the opportunity to discuss it.