It’s a pretty good letter. I find some of Paul’s letters a bit hard to understand (knew I should have gone to that seminar at Soul Survivor about explaining his theology… ah well, never mind) but the second letter to the Corinthians is awesome! A few of my all-time favourite passages are in that, including the immortal verse 13 of chapter 5, which will be my epitaph- ‘If I was crazy I did it for God’.
I’ve got a new devotional book (well, it’s not new- it was given to my parents as an engagement present & my mum gave it to me a couple of weeks ago) written by Charles Hatton Spurgeon, it’s called ‘Morning and Evening’, and it’s absolutely brilliant. Really challenging & inspiring stuff- he was a pretty cool dude. The morning one for today (which is September 11th by the way) was taken from 2 Corinthians 6:17- be seperate from the world. It’s where the whole ‘in the world but not of the world’ idea comes from- the principle that we are Christ’s ambassadors, living in this world but not being part of it. As ambassadors live and work in foreign countries without ever forgetting that they are nationals of another country, Christians are called to live and work in this world without forgetting that their real home is very different to this one.
But it’s not just remembering that we aren’t here forever- there’s another side to it. Ambassadors aren’t part of the country they live in because they are tied to their roots at home- they keep the same customs and behaviour, communicate daily with their own country and pass on messages from one to the other. They do their work not because they want the country they are in to succeed, but because they want their own nation to succeed, and for that reason they work to different agendas and have different priorities.
In the Bible, Christians are told that we are citizens of heaven but live on the earth as ambassadors from our real home. That means that we have to pass on the message that He gives us to everyone we know and that we have to act in the way that shows we are citizens of heaven. Most importantly, everything that we do has to be done for the Kingdom of God to grow on earth and for God’s name to be praised and glorified- this means that, like ambassadors, we will have different priorities and agendas to other people, which will set us apart from the people we know.
So living in the world but not acting as citizens of the world is hard work. We’ve all slipped up before, and we almost certainly will again. We’re learning on the job, and there are bound to be mistakes. But because Jesus loves us and died for us, every time we muck up God picks us up, dusts us off, sets us back on our feet and points us in the right direction. He guides us all the way, and any time we need to we can get back in touch with our real home and ask what the best way is to be an ambassador in the places we live. And remember- practice makes perfect! Keep trying and although the world won’t get easier to live in, it will start to feel more natural for you to work to God’s laws, priorities and to share His message of love and grace with the world.
So keep going- ambassadors get rewards at home, and God’s promised more reward than we could ever comprehend for those people who stay true to Him.
‘Work for God- it doesn’t pay much now, but the retirement plan is out of this world!’
