Daily Manna · Day 357 · December 23
Ministry of Reconciliation
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
A message thread that stops mid-conversation, eighteen months ago, and neither person has typed since.
The silence in a thing like that becomes comfortable surprisingly fast. It also becomes a wall, and after a while the wall stops feeling like a decision anybody made and starts feeling like weather.
Paul describes the opposite motion, and he describes it as God's. He did not wait for the offending party to move. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and imputing is an accounting word: the running total was not kept. The initiative and the absorbing of the cost were on the same side, which is the side that was not in the wrong.
The part that turns this into your week comes next. He hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, and committed unto us the word of reconciliation. A ministry is not a feeling about people. It is an assignment with your name attached, and the content of the message you carry is the same message that reached you first. Paul goes on in the next verse to call this being an ambassador, which is a person who does not get to choose the wording.
So the promise underneath the assignment is the one that reached you first, and the books were not kept; imputing is an accounting word and Paul chose it on purpose. That is what an ambassador is carrying, which is why the awkward first line is not a concession. It is the same motion, made by somebody who 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).