Mar 9 - Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do, in word or deed,

do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17

 

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

 

Do you remember that question? I would usually answer, “Play pro football … or basketball … or baseball … or …”

 

After exhausting the list of professional sports, people were shocked by my next answer: “I want to be an ambassador.”

 

“What? Really? Why?!”

 

All I knew about being an ambassador is what a middle school teacher had told us (and I surely zeroed in on the biggest perks). “They give ambassadors a special license plate, and the police let them do practically anything they want. Why? Because the police don’t want to risk an international incident.”

 

I started thinking: “Wow, that would be awesome.”

 

·         Park in front of a fire hydrant. “Leave him alone. He’s an ambassador.”

·         Drive a hundred miles an hour. “It’s okay. He’s an ambassador.”

·         Don’t want to do your homework. “It’s his choice. He’s an ambassador.”

 

I loved the idea of all the freedoms. What I didn’t even consider were the responsibilities! An ambassador is called to represent their home country … and represent it well.

 

Christians are ambassadors. That’s the Apostle Paul explanation of our office and call in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20. When we are filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, we become a “new creation.” And it is at that moment that we are assigned a new role. We become “ambassadors for Christ.”

 

Yes, there are amazing freedoms in this! When our lives are stamped with an ambassador’s license plate, we are forgiven, redeemed, accepted, and loved. We no longer have to worry about our salvation. And best of all we have the power of a mighty kingdom behind us! “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31 CJB). In Christ, we are ambassadors, and we are free.

 

Yes, those are the awesome benefits of being a child of Christ. But we also have responsibilities. “God is making his appeal through us” says the Apostle Paul in the same verse that he calls us ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20).

 

We represent Christ. Indeed, sometimes the only “picture” people will ever see of Jesus is you.

 

This is true in marriage too. You are Christ’s ambassador to your spouse.

 

·     We must love them as Christ loves them. (Unconditionally.)

·     We must forgive them as Christ forgives them. (Constantly and generously.)

·     We must be patient with them (because Christ is surely patient with us).

·     We must lay down our very lives for them (because this is the way of Christ).

 

The world and our selfish flesh train us to constantly ask, “What’s in it for me?” That’s not Christ-like. To be an ambassador for Christ, the question is, “What’s in it for others?” And in marriage that becomes, “What’s in it for my spouse, my marriage, my family.”

 

And guess what? That’s how we “do everything in the name of Christ.”

 

Question of the Day: In what ways are you God’s ambassador to the most important people in your life? Loving them? Forgiving them? Being patient with them? Laying down your life and priorities for them?

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who’s discovered

the freedom of marriage because

I’ve worked (and still work) to earn

an ambassador’s license plate