Ministry of Reconciliation

Think of a message thread on your phone that stopped in the middle of a conversation eighteen months ago. Neither person has written since.

Silence like that becomes comfortable surprisingly fast, and it also becomes a wall. After a while the wall no longer feels like a decision anybody made. It just feels like the way things are.

Paul describes the opposite movement, and he says it is God's. God did not wait for the one in the wrong to make the first move: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." "Imputing" is an accounting word. It means putting something down on a person's account, so Paul is saying that God did not keep a running total of our wrongs. The first move came from God's side, and so did the cost, because "he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." And God's side was the side that had done nothing wrong.

Then comes the part that reaches into your week. God "hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation," and He "hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." A ministry is more than a warm feeling about people. It is a job with your name on it, and the message you carry is the same one that first reached you. In the next verse Paul calls us "ambassadors for Christ." An ambassador does not get to choose the wording. He delivers the message he was sent with.

So the message you carry is the one God sent to you: the books were not kept. That is why sending the first awkward message is not giving in. You are making the same move God made toward you, and He did not have to make it either.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 357 is The Third Time (John 21:17).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna