A MESSAGE FOR THE CHURCH IN AMERICA

2 CORINTHIANS 5:16-21

2 Corinthians 5:16–21 ESV

16 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. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 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. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”¹ On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln spoke those words to his Republican colleagues in the Springfield, Illinois statehouse. He had just been chosen to run against Stephen Douglas for the United States Senate.

When Lincoln’s law partner, William Herndon, questioned the use of such a strong statement, the future president said, “The proposition is indisputably true…and I will deliver it as written. I want to use some universally known figure, expressed in simple language as universally known, that it may strike home to the minds of men in order to rouse them to the peril of the times.”

Lincoln’s famous statement is a paraphrase of Jesus’s words recorded in Mark 3:25—“If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand” (NIV). Lincoln was right because Jesus is always right. Unity is the foundation of everything we value: peace and love, respect and purpose. And like Lincoln’s colleagues, we need to be reminded of what’s crucial to awaken us “to the peril of the times.”

1-THE NEW WAY OF THINKING

2 Corinthians 5:16–17 ESV

16 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. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2- A MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION

2 Corinthians 5:18–19 ESV

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 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.

3-THE CHARGE TO THE CHURCH

2 Corinthians 5:20–21 ESV

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.