...to fear the Lord...

2Cor. 5:11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.

14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Do I know what it is to fear the Lord?
...in my feable, immature attempt, I have some inkling
...but not what I will have, can have,
but still, in what I know, I know to fear the Lord
and it is GOOD - He is Good

and so, as a result,
I try to persuade men.

the rest of this passage says nothing of their responsibility to respond to His offer which I, as their “ambassador” deliver,
but the rest of this passage speaks of MY RESPONSE AND RESPONSIBLITY.

I am compelled by Christs love
I am convinced of what I believe
I am motivated by a different purpose

I have a responsibility of reconciliation

and so can I say “I implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God”

strong words,
my Christian culture would like that tempered, my heart is like theirs too often, so I can blame others for my slow and un-empassioned efforts to relay God’s message entrusted to me. How often we can look for reasons not to, believing the method is ineffective,
believing that somehow the message is weaker than the method.

do I really believe that God’s message will not return void - ineffective, unproductive

it leads me to think about 2 Pet 1:8

Have I forgotten what it is then to fear the Lord?
do I really?

Have I passed this on to others?
Do I implore anyone!?!

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