Followers of Jesus have one of two options, as we consider our role and posture in engaging the world around us: which will you choose?
I was recently reflecting on 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 while preparing to teach at a local church this month. The verses talk about your new identity (if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” v.17), and our calling (God “gave us the ministry of reconciliation”; He “entrust[ed] to us the message of reconciliation,” v.19).
And picking up on the title God gives in v.20, the big idea of the day was, “If you call yourself a Christian, God calls you his ambassador.”
As I let that term roll around in my head and heart, I remembered several truths about literal ambassadors’ roles…and then realized a new truth too. All of these impact our understanding of our spiritual role as well.
A common summary of an ambassador’s role is “someone sent by one nation or people, to represent that nation or people among a different nation or people.” In other words, ambassadors live in a land not their own, but do so carrying out the identity and pursuing the values of their homeland.
An ambassador is under someone else’s authority: to “be sent” implies a “sender.” So one one side of the coin, in addition to representing their home nation or people in general, they exist specifically as someone’s representative in that foreign land.
The other side of that coin is that ambassadors are given their assignments. They may have some say, but they don’t get to inherently choose where they go, or to look their sending authority in the eye and say, “nah, I’m good. Their role go where they’re told, and to represent their homeland there.
These were the the truths I recalled, about the role of an ambassador. But then I realized, there’s another role that people play, in which all three of those are also true: a spy.
I love spy and detective stories, and mystery/whodunnit movies. I often have a fictional audiobook going for down time, and 95% of the time it’s a spy novel. The mystery, intrigue, suspense, twists, and turns? Oh yah. And add a little humor and it’s the perfect genre!
Many spies are also sent from one nation or people to another; all are sent and given their assignments. In these ways, spies and ambassadors are the same. But there's one huge difference between the two roles: their posture.
Spies live secret lives in the foreign land. They hide their true identity and glean information to sent home. Ambassadors, on the other hand, live public lives in the foreign land. They represent their nation or people proudly; they pursue their home nation’s interests boldly; they live out their identities overtly.
And that’s what God calls his people to be in these verses: “Therefore [because of God’s reconciling work in us; because of our new identity], we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” (2 Cor. 5:20).
In Philippians 3, Paul reminds us that we are “citizens of heaven” (Php. 3:20). And in John 17, Jesus prays to the Father not to pull his people out of this world — the foreign land we exist in — but simply to protect us from its evil and brokenness. In fact, Jesus prays with authority, “as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (Jhn. 17:18).
So… do we live as spies or as ambassadors, in this spiritually foreign land? Do we keep our truest identity a secret and hide our #1 priorities? Or do we boldly represent Jesus our king, and pursue the values and interests of his kingdom?
Do we display and declare the good news of the gospel — winsomely and diplomatically perhaps, but overtly — and invite people to come back to our true homeland with us?
We aren’t spies; we are ambassadors for Christ, sent to represent him in a spiritually-foreign land. That’s our reality; that’s our identity; that’s our assignment. Because if you call yourself a Christian, God calls you his ambassador.