Called to Reconciliation
Meditations on 2 Corinthians 5:11–21 about our calling to be ministers of reconciliation
There are precious few passages that capture the heart of the Christian mission more clearly than 2 Corinthians 5. In these verses, Paul pulls back the curtain on what motivates faithful discipleship and what God intends to accomplish through His people in the world.
At its core, this passage is about reconciliation: God reconciling people to Himself through Jesus, and then sending those same people into the world as agents of His reconciling work.
In an age marked by division, suspicion, hostility, and fragmentation, Paul’s words are more relevant than ever.
What Motivates Us?
When conversations turn toward evangelism, witness, or sharing our faith, we often begin with methods and strategies. Paul begins somewhere else entirely.
He begins with God.
The Christian life is not primarily driven by obligation, guilt, or even effectiveness. It is driven by a deep awareness of who God is and what He has done.
The Fear of the Lord
Paul writes, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others” (2 Corinthians 5:11).
The biblical concept of fear is not the same thing as simple anxiety or dread. Instead, it is a deep awareness of God’s holiness and His majesty; the fact that He is wholly other from us. It is the recognition that God is infinitely beyond us and yet still intimately involved with us. Scripture consistently presents this fear as the beginning of wisdom. Jeremiah asks, “Should you not fear me?” Job confesses his trembling before God’s sovereignty. The Psalmist reminds us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
In a culture that often reduces God to a personal accessory or therapeutic assistant, recovering a healthy fear of God may be one of the greatest needs of the modern church. When we see God rightly, we cannot remain unchanged.
The Courage to Be Misunderstood
Paul also reminds us that faithfulness can often lead to misunderstanding. The world misunderstood Jesus. Some said He had lost His mind. Others accused Him of drunkenness, demonic possession, or even serving Satan. John the Baptist was called demon-possessed. Paul himself was labeled insane.
Faithfulness has never guaranteed approval.
One of the temptations facing Christians today is the desire to be universally affirmed. Yet discipleship has always required the courage to stand apart when necessary. The goal is not to be offensive, but neither is it to be applauded. Our responsibility is faithfulness.
The Love of Christ Compels Us
If fear establishes our reverence, love establishes our motivation. Paul writes, “The love of Christ compels us.” Notice that he does not say our love for Christ compels us. He says Christ’s love for us compels us.
The Christian life begins and ends with grace.
Paul was overwhelmed by the reality that the Son of God had loved him, pursued him, forgiven him, and transformed him. That reality became the driving force behind his mission. When we truly grasp the depth of Christ’s love, silence becomes difficult. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, not suffering, persecution, danger, death, or any power in creation.
People who have experienced unexplainable, undeserved love become the people who love others deeply. Often, we can struggle to love others because we fail to grasp how deeply we have been loved.
The Ministry We Have Received
Paul shifts focus now from our motivation to our mission. In the next few verses, he answers the question, what exactly has God called us to do?
A Changed Life
The first evidence of our reconciliation is transformation. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Paul understood this personally. The man who once persecuted Christians became the apostle who started churches throughout the Roman Empire. The gospel does not simply improve people. It recreates them.
Oswald Chambers once observed that one of the great tests of genuine salvation is whether God has changed the things that truly matter to us.1 New life produces new desires, new affections, and new priorities. This transformation is not self-improvement. It is evidence of God’s work.
The longer I follow Christ, the more convinced I become that discipleship is not primarily about managing behavior. It is about surrendering to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
Reconciliation Is God’s Heart
Paul tells us that God has given believers “the ministry of reconciliation.” That phrase is remarkable. God could have chosen countless ways to accomplish His purposes, yet He has entrusted His people with the work of helping others find peace with Him. This has always been God’s heart.
In Genesis 3:8-9, after Adam and Eve sinned, God came walking through the garden. We find him walking and crying out, “Where are you?” as they hid. In Ezekiel 34:16, God says, “I will seek the lost.” In Ephesians 2:13-16, Paul tells us that Christ has broken down the walls of hostility and created peace through his cross. The whole story of Scripture is the story of a God relentlessly pursuing reconciliation. If reconciliation matters to God, it has to matter to us.
Paul goes even further. He says believers are “ambassadors for Christ.” An ambassador serves two functions. First, an ambassador carries a message. Second, an ambassador represents a kingdom; both matter.
We are entrusted with the gospel, but we are also called to embody gospel implications. Our lives should demonstrate the reconciliation we proclaim. Quaker pastor Jon Kershner writes that ambassadors not only represent reconciliation but also advocate for it, live according to its values, and reserve their ultimate allegiance for the kingdom they represent.2
That is important. Christians face pressure to define themselves primarily through a political lens or through various ideological camps. Our highest allegiance, though, remains the Kingdom of God. We are ambassadors before we are anything else.
The Goal Is More Than Forgiveness
One of the most striking truths in this passage appears in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Too often, we can reduce salvation to little more than the forgiveness of our sins. It’s true that forgiveness is a critical element of trusting in Jesus, but it is not the whole of the gospel. The cross is not merely about rescuing us from judgment. It is about transforming us into people who look more and more like Jesus (become the righteousness of God), and who reflect God’s kingdom.
Dallas Willard described spiritual formation as the process by which those who love and trust Jesus gradually take on His character.3 They begin to live as Jesus would live if He were in their circumstances. That is the destination. Not merely saved people, not merely forgiven people, but transformed people.
Rick Warren once wrote that God’s ultimate goal for our lives is not comfort but the development of our character.4 Paul would agree. God’s intention is not simply that we escape condemnation but that we become people whose lives display His righteousness.
A Final Thought
The ministry of reconciliation begins with a heart reconciled to God. We cannot offer reconciliation if we have not been reconciled. But once we have encountered God’s grace, we become people compelled by Christ’s love, transformed by His presence, and commissioned to participate in His mission.
The world does not need our outrage. It does not need more division. It needs ambassadors who are committed to the work of reconciliation. And that is exactly what God has called His people to be.