The Ministry of Reconcilation

2 Corinthians 5:17 - 21
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

I looked up these verses at first with the mindset of being/not being reconciled with other people...but in my reading, what I really find this verse coming down to is this: our being reconciled to God. THE CALL IS TO US TO BE RECONCILED TO GOD!

So what happens if we aren't reconciled to others? Does this tell us that at the root of this dissension is our not being reconciled to God in the first place? Perhaps not always, but this is something we should think about. We are quick to hate tension and hurt with those we love, we want to place the blame, we want to jab someone, making them feel bad for what they've done, (but not too bad, or then we'll start to feel bad). It's a sick, crazy game. And what if, at the root of it, we aren't fully reconcilied to God? What do we need to do to become reconciled to God?

Charles Fredrick Akhed in his book "The Ministry of Reconciliation" says, "And the minstry of reconciliation does not end, it begins, when by conversion and avowal of faith in Christ the individual soul takes its first step back to God."

The message of reconciliation has been committed to us; it is in our hands. Sometimes, we can't deal with the people; we need to realize that they are beyond our control... and sometimes, it is just best to hand this all over to God, to take this first step back to God.

Mary Ann Fatula says, "Though it may meet with silence or rejection, forgiveness is always directed ultimately at the miracle of reconciliation. This means the desire, at least, to overcome bitterness and estrangement, and to unite again in a different way, on a deeper level of peace and acceptance. To be reconciled, therefore, means seeking to be related in love, yet not by simply repeating the past. It means to enter into an entirely new realm of understanding, of ourselves and of those forgiven, to see ourselves and them in a new way. By its very nature, reconciliation means committing ourselves to the hard and sometimes tortuous task of speaking and doing the truth in love. "

From this we can look at some of the thing that reconciliation involves: forgiveness, overcoming bitterness and estrangement, seeking peace and acceptance, and being related in love. These are just words without Him by our side. We cannot do these things and live them out without his help. We cannot undertake this task of reconcilation without His grace and Spirit leading us.

In our desire to be reconciled to others, we need to start by being reconciled to God. And in our attempt to be more fully reconciled to Him, we can pray and ask and seek that he would honor our attempt at reconciliation with others.