Word Nerd Wednesday – Ambassador for Christ

Happy Wednesday, my friends, and welcome to another geeking-out-over-Scripture session! Today I’m breaking down the passage in 2 Corinthians 5 that defines us as “ambassadors for Christ.” Where else is the word used in Scripture? What do the key words of this passage mean from the original languages? Let’s find out!

I’m doing this study today to follow up on/dig deeper into the topic on Monday of this week. You can read that post here:

So here’s the passage we’ll be studying today in the ESV translation:

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 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.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 ESV

If you’d like to study and learn on your own from this passage, I highly recommend that you use the linked verse above!

The Verse Mapping Process

For today’s verse-mapping process, I first laid down one of the large-ish boxes from the Rainbow Study Spots sticker set. It’s got a nice pastel purple color to it that allows for easy writing. I also made a pretty border with some real and faux-washi tape pieces.

Next, I circled some of what I felt were the key words of the two verses I wrote down: “entrusting”, “reconciling,” and “ambassadors”. Here’s what I found:

• The word that we translate as “entrusting” is tithemi, which means “to put, place; to fix, establish, ordain; to appoint one toe, destine one to be; to appoint for one’s use or to one’s service.
• The word translated as “reconciling” is katallasso, which means “t change, exchange (like money); to reconcile, return to favor with; to receive one into favor”.
• The word translated as “ambassadors” is presbeuo, which means “to be older, prior in birth or by age; to be an ambassador, act as an ambassador” and it’s only used in one other place in Scripture (Ephesians 6:20).

Let’s think about the definition of the word Ambassador for a moment. As I understand it, an ambassador is someone who comes to one country (or Kingdom) on behalf of another. They typically live away from their home country, representing it in another land and seeking to ensure peace and cooperation between the two. An ambassador is usually highly respected and can also be the object of hatred and attack. I remember watching episodes of crime and FBI-type shows where the ambassador of a particular country has to be protected from terrorist attacks. So what does it mean to be an Ambassador for Christ??

Based on what I learned from these verses, here’s what I’m thinking:

• An Ambassador for Christ is living away from their home country (Heaven) and seeks to ensure reconciliation between their King and those on earth who are still hostile and resistant to Him.
• They have been entrusted, or appointed to the service of, the ministry of reconciliation
• They implore their fellow humans who don’t yet know the King to be reconciled to God on behalf of Christ
• They are well-versed in the finer details and most important points of their message (what we would call the Gospel)
• They represent Christ here on Earth, and so are constantly asking for direction and guidance from Him on how best to do so

Those are some good things to think about! Here’s how the study pages I did for this passage turned out:

As you can see, I simply wrote out the definitions of the words in the one “highlight” verse from this passage, then wrote out the whole passage on the right side of the spread. I used different colors to indicate where I felt the train of thought shifted in the passage.

Free things and an invitation

Here are some of the FREE printable sticker sets that I used in this verse-mapping process! You can get them for yourself by clicking on either the images or the buttons below.

Thank you so much for sticking around and reading this post! Here’s my invitation for you:

If you don’t know Jesus yet as your Lord and Savior, I pray that this post has struck a chord in your heart and has made you want to learn more. I invite you to check out THIS post, which breaks down how and why you can and should begin a relationship with Him today! If you DO already know the Lord, I invite you to go over there anyway, check out this break-down in so many words (so many, it’s a three-part post) and join me in praying and sharing.

What did you learn today? Have any thoughts to share? I’d love to know!

Happy journaling!