We sometimes talk as if evangelism is a burden, a chore, or a duty, or as something we need to sort of ‘tick off’ our ‘to-do list’. The Bible never speaks about evangelism in those terms. The Apostle Paul, for example, says:
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. (2 Cor 5:19-20)
Imagine what it must have been like to be an ambassador for an Emperor, going into another country, representing a great power, carrying with you the terms of peace. That would have been an honour, and a highly prestigious position. Well, that’s the position that scripture says we’re in when we go forward carrying the gospel on behalf of God.
God makes his appeal through us, entrusting his message into our hands. It’s extraordinary. It’s not the method you or I would have chosen – entrusting the gospel to people like you and me! Yet God has called people like us, and so we carry the message of the King.
Because God is making his appeal through us, he gives us this badge of office, making us his ambassadors. What an honour, what a privilege that we don’t deserve. Rather than being a burden, evangelism is the unspeakably great privilege that we get to be partners with God in his great mission.
Prayer: Thank you Lord that you want me to be a partner in your mission. Forgive me if I have ever let evangelism seem like a chore. Instead, I embrace the calling to be your ambassador in this world as the privilege of a lifetime.
