ESOCS Devotional 3 October 2025: The Ministry of Reconciliation

ESOCS Devotional 3 October 2025 – The Ministry of Reconciliation

MEMORY VERSE:“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.” 2 Corinthians 5:20 NIV

TEXT: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:11-21

Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.

¹²For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. ¹³For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. ¹⁴For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

¹⁶Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. ¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

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The basis of all this is the love of Christ that presses us on together — with Christ and with one another. One has died for all so that all might live for Him who died and was raised for them (2 Cor. 5:14-15). We are now free to live for the One who died and was raised for us, embodying in our lives God’s very justice and mercy (2 Cor. 5:21). In Christ, there is new creation; “everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5:16-17).

All this comes from God, who has reconciled us to Himself and has now given a ministry or a service (diakonia) of reconciliation. And this diakonia is grounded in the fact in Christ, God was reconciling the entire world to Himself — not judging them and calculating their trespasses against them — and entrusting us also with a message or a word of reconciliation for everyone (2 Cor. 5:18-19).

So, we are now ambassadors for Christ. God speaks God’s word of consolation through us and this word calls us all to be reconciled with God, so that we might be reconciled with one another (as Paul sought to be with the Corinthians). For our sake, the one who knew no sin was made to be sin; the righteous one, Jesus, took on all the ways we are hooked in abusive patterns with ourselves or one another, whether as victims or perpetrators. And he did this so that we might become the very righteousness of God, the very spaces where God’s reign of mercy and consoling justice might overflow as grace — free gift — for all.

Given our resurrection hope in Christ and because we know judgment awaits everyone, Paul seeks to persuade people for the sake of their reconciliation to God and each other. We persuade others because the love of Christ—what Christ has done for our sakes—compels us, and this love was revealed through Christ’s death and resurrection for us.

What is important to Paul is not his fame or glory, but the ministry of the new covenant, which persuades people to be reconciled to God on the ground of what God has done and is doing in Christ. Paul is not concerned about appearances, boasting, or self-commendation. Rather, he is focused on pursuing the ministry of reconciliation with integrity and truth.

Paul attempts to explain his ministry to the Corinthians. He wants us to comprehend the meaning of the ministry of reconciliation and understand his own ministry.

CHALLENGES