A Ministry of Reconciliation

We believers have been given a great commission to spread the Gospel, the Good News to all the world. This we all seem to understand quite easily, even if we each apply it with differing zeal. What isn’t as readily apparent to us is that we’ve been called into a ministry of reconciliation. To my benefit the Lord has put strong servants around me of late, those who do understand this ministry and are filled with zeal in it. The idea that we are called to reconcile is new to me. I believed that reconciliation was from and about the Lord only. Thinking I was to be a lover of my brother (in Christ) and to have a heart for the lost I missed the point. Little did I know but we are given our own burdens so we can understand and sympathize with others who also have burdens. Remember this the next time you’re thinking of waving a sign in front of an establishment, or the next time you think about yelling out at someone. Are you helping them to reconcile with God? Or are you pushing them away?

2 Cor 3:6 [It is He] Who has qualified us as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive.

2 Cor 3:7-18 Explains in detail the Law –vs- the Spirit. To paraphrase, if the Law was in splendor and it brought death and was not to last, how much more splendorous is the Spirit which brings life and will last forever.

2 Cor 5:18-21 Explains we’ve been given a ministry of reconciliation so that by word and deed we might bring others into harmony with Him. It was God in Christ reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself. So we are to be as well.

Finally, we get to the point of who’s to give the Sinner grief

2 Cor 7:9 *this verse is pointed at an event, but I believe the principle carries over as you’ll see in the next verse. “For you felt a grief such as God meant you to feel…”

2 Cor 7:9-16 Explains Godly grief leads to repentance which is glorifying to God and is walking in true faith.

This is how we are reconciled to God and each other.