St. Ann Church - Where We Are Ambassadors for Christ
Many of you may have realized that we recently changed our motto to “We are ambassadors for Christ.” Our current motto is taken from the encouragement of St. Paul to the Corinthians (II Cor. 5:20). Here, Paul calls himself and all ministers of the Gospel (the Good News) ambassadors for Christ.
Both the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) and the New Testament reference ambassadors. In the Hebrew scriptures, several words may be interpreted as ambassador and help to inform our understanding of the great treasury of Paul’s figurative use. The word tsir means “one who goes on an errand” and is rendered as ambassador (Joshua 9:4; Proverbs 13:17; Isaiah 18:2; Jeremiah 9:14; Obadiah 1:1). This is also the rendering of melits, meaning “an interpreter,” in 2 Chronicles 32:31; and of Malak, a “messenger,” in 2 Chronicles 35:21; Isaiah 30:4; 33:7; Ezek. 17:15.
In the New Testament, the term is used in a figurative sense. As the imprisoned representative of Christ at Rome, Paul calls himself “an ambassador in chains” (Ephesians 6:20). In 2 Corinthians 5:20 includes, with himself, all ministers of the Gospel as “ambassadors for Christ,” commissioned by Him as their sovereign Lord, with the ministry of reconciling the world to God. The Bible contains no finer characterization of the exalted and spiritual nature of the vocation of the believer than as the representative of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Savior of the world.
We would like to encourage all the faithful to think of yourselves as ambassadors for Christ and look to your daily lives to find ways you can represent Jesus Christ to a world that needs to be reconciled to God.
