God . . . reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18
Tucked into a remote gorge in western Slovenia, a secret medical facility (Franja Partisan Hospital) housed an extensive staff that tended to thousands of wounded soldiers during World War II—all the while staying hidden from the Nazis. Though avoiding detection from numerous Nazi attempts to locate the facility is in itself a remarkable feat, even more remarkable is that the hospital (founded and run by the Slovenia resistance movement) cared for soldiers from both the Allied and Axis armies. The hospital welcomed everyone.
Scripture calls us to help the whole world to be spiritually healed. This means we need to have compassion for all—regardless of their views. Everyone, no matter their ideology, deserves Christ’s love and kindness. Paul insists that Jesus’ all-embracing love “compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:14). All of us suffer the sickness of sin. All of us are in desperate need of the healing of Jesus’ forgiveness. And He’s moved toward all of us in order to heal us.
Then, in a surprising move, God entrusted us with “the message of reconciliation” (v. 19). God invites us to tend to wounded and broken people (like us). We participate in healing work where the sick are made healthy through union with Him. And this reconciliation, this healing, is for all who will receive it.
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:11-19 (NIV)
The Ministry of Reconciliation
11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord,d we try to persuade others.
What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.e
12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again,f
but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us,g
so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart.
13 If we are “out of our mind,”h as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.i
15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselvesj
but for him who died for themk and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldlyl point of view.
Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,m the new creationn has come:a The old has gone, the new is here!o
18 All this is from God,p who reconciled us to himself through Christq and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.r
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
INSIGHT
- Who are the people you think God won’t (or shouldn’t) heal?
- Where might He call you to be a reconciler and a healer?
Paul makes this sobering statement in 2 Corinthians 5:10: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” Yet he uses this truth not as a scare tactic but as a tool to spur us on to useful service for God. This is why he says, “Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others” (v. 11). Paul added, “Christ’s love compels us” (v. 14). Because Jesus “died for all, . . . those who live should no longer live for themselves” (v. 15). Jesus’ love motivates our service for Him.
PRAYER
God, I need healing. And so it shouldn’t surprise me that everyone else needs healing too. Help me be part of Your healing of others. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!!
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:11-19 (NIV) | Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 10-12; John 11:30-57
