Looking Like Jesus

2 Corinthians 5:20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Brand Jesus, by and large, has a pretty good reputation out there in the marketplace. Really. So why is it then, that people aren’t coming to faith in Him, en masse?

Just imagine for a moment, that you’re going to meet the Swedish ambassador. So, what would you expect him or her to look like? Well, probably, tall, blond, fair, with a name like Sven or Elsa, and with one of those delightful Swedish accents, right?

So, if then, the Swedish ambassador arrived at your front doorstep and instead, looked like an Indian, and spoke with an Indian accent … it’d be a bit of a worry, wouldn’t it? You’d immediately be wondering about his or her authenticity.

Surely this can’t be the Swedish ambassador?

Paul the Apostle talks about Christians being “ambassadors for Christ”.

2 Corinthians 5:20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

So let me ask you then, if you and I are to be ambassadors for Christ, who should we look like? Who should we sound like?

It seems to me that, if we’re going to be Christ’s ambassadors, then we’d better look like Him, talk like Him and behave like Him, right?

It turns out that when you ask people who don’t believe in Jesus about Him, most – not all but most – are pretty impressed with Him, and yet far less taken by Christians and the church. Let me put it even more directly than that: whilst the general response to Jesus is positive, often the response to Christians and to the church, is negative in the extreme. I wonder why that is.

We are ambassadors for Christ, and God is making his appeal through us.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

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Looking Like Jesus

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