Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Cor. 5:17-19
What a beautiful picture we have here, a picture of reconciliation. Reconciliation is something that I think has been difficult for me to grasp in the past. When someone hurts me in some way, my first reaction is usually “I should not continue to be friends with them or be around them.” My thought process is usually “well this is just a Paul and Barnabas situation.”
What a dangerous way to think... 1 John 3:16 says “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Jesus came to earth, lived and was crucified. He bore the wrath of God that was deserved only by us. He did this in order that we believers could be reconciled to the Father. This is love, a great love.
We must love like Jesus loved. If we say that we love the Gospel then we must love what the Gospel is and that is reconciliation. If we do not long for reconciliation then maybe we are not really living out the Gospel as we claim we are doing.
Now, I understand that not every broken relationship will be mended... and in some cases that is not a bad thing. But most times, it seems that broken relationships are because of sin. We must humble ourselves, confess our sin, and desire to be reconciled to our brother or sister. After all, Jesus humbled himself and brought reconciliation to those who in no way deserved it. Let us do the same for our brothers and sisters. We must love this way... it is required of us.
We are one body so let us seek to build up the church and not tear it down.
Grace and Peace
