THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION (2 CORINTHIANS 4:1–5:21)
Can you imagine being Rip Van Winkle, having slept away a hundred years in some distant forest, aroused one Sunday to stumble into a modern church? Imagine the shock you would experience if you were transported from the nineteeth to the twenty-first century! Somewhere along the line, pews were replaced with folding chairs, sanctuaries and pulpits gave way to storefronts and stages, and the words to worship songs began to be projected on screens at the front of the church. I think some of our contemporary trends would take some getting used to.
Now imagine if the apostle Paul were to be transported from his first-century Greco-Roman world into our twenty-first-century modern culture. He would stumble around in amazement, rubbing his eyes in disbelief at the startling changes in architecture, art, transportation, communication, population, and medicine. If he could find his way around a modern town, I wonder if Paul would even be able to identify a Christian church for what it was. And if he did make his way into a typical evangelical church on a Sunday morning, would he join in the worship or scratch his head in disbelief?
The contemporary condition of the church would shock that founding apostle. As one of its original “fathers,” the apostle Paul nursed the church in its infancy, helping it grow into its toddler years before passing it on to the next generation of believers, whom he and the other apostles had handpicked for the task. Theirs was a ministry by which sinful people could be reconciled to a holy God in Jesus the Messiah —a ministry characterized by new creation in Christ (5:17). How do you think he would feel about today’s ministers of the gospel —the direct heirs of the Christian faith, passed down from generation to generation? Would he be proud? Embarrassed? Confused? Approving? Angry?
Something tells me that many aspects of our ecclesiastical cultural capitulation would fall short of Paul’s ideal ministry of reconciliation. We lack moral purity; Paul emphasized it. We are losing fidelity to in-depth biblical teaching; Paul exhorted it. We overemphasize emotional persuasion; Paul relied on the Spirit’s work. Many churches have no idea who they are or what they are supposed to be doing; Paul had a strong sense of Christian conviction and a clear model of ministry as an ambassador of Christ, pleading with the world on behalf of Christ, “Be reconciled to God” (5:20). When we lose sight of that paramount calling, we drift further and further from the ideal into models and methods of ministry that look nothing like those of the New Testament.
We in the twenty-first century want to embrace an authentic Christianity and encourage authentic ministry. To do this, we need to know exactly what we are called and equipped to do. I’ve titled 2 Corinthians 4:1–5:21 “The Ministry of Reconciliation.” Like earthen vessels fashioned from clay but used to hold priceless treasures (4:7-12), we frail and fallible human ministers are filled with the Spirit of God for the glorious ministry of reconciliation between God and humanity (4:13-18). Because of our heavenly mandate to reach unbelievers for Christ and train them as disciples, we look forward to an eternal —not temporal —reward. We should care little what our surrounding culture makes of us. Instead, we must labor hard in our mortal bodies as we anticipate, with hope and longing, our immortal dwellings (5:1-10). Therefore, God’s authentic minister strives to persuade others to reconciliation with God, regardless of the personal cost (5:11-21).
This ministry of reconciliation may not line up well with the contemporary ministry models prevalent in our churches, but if we would be true to Paul’s vision of a fruitful ministry, we must strive for just such a ministry of reconciliation.
KEY TERMS IN 2 CORINTHIANS 4:1–5:21
doxa (δόξα) [1391] “glory,” “honor”
In the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament (called the Septuagint), God’s doxa is usually a physical manifestation of His holy, righteous, transcendent essence (Exod. 16:7). The prophet Isaiah described a vision of God’s glory filling the whole world (Isa. 6:3) —that is, His awesome attributes reflected in the greatness of His creation. For Paul, God’s glory is the ultimate goal and end of all things (Eph. 3:21). In 2 Corinthians 4:1-7, Paul contrasts the greatness and glory of God with the fragile human vessels commissioned to communicate that glory to the world through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
katallagē (καταλλαγή) [2643] “reconciliation”
The word “reconciliation” was an accounting or financial term which literally meant “an exchange” or “trade.” Paul uses the term (and its verb form katallassō [2644]) in Romans 5:10-11; 11:15 and 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 to refer to a change in relationship because of the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Our sin and death have been reckoned to His account, while His life and righteousness have been transferred to ours. Therefore, the relationship between God and believers has been restored.