Thursday 29 April 2021

Thought for the Day 29/04/21 - Combatting killer relationships

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A Forbes article from May 3rd. 2018 summarised the effects a bad relationship can have on a person decribing how, beyond the mental health implications, the effects of being in a bad relationship can impact your health, particularly physically.

The physical (let alone mental) health risks amount to:

  • higher risk of developing heart problems (such as a fatal heart attack) than those in healthy relationships.

  • high blood sugar levels (particularly in women), 

  • high blood pressure

  • high rates of obesity, and

  • Adrenal issues caused by living in flight-or-fight mode all the time, leading to fatigue, a weakened immune system and even organ damage.

This much is clear: bad relationships take a pretty high toll on a person!

This all makes conciliators look like pretty important people, and indicates the wisdom of what James 3:18 says about peacemakers who sow in peace raising a harvest of righteousness!

Making peace, though, requires reconciliation

The Apostle Paul, writing to the troubled church in Corinth around 55 AD, certainly seemed pretty made up about his ministry as a conciliator ... and he goes to some trouble to defend this role when turbulent people in that church wanted to allege worse things about him.


"All this is from God, 

who reconciled us to himself through Christ 

and gave us the ministry of reconciliation"

                                      2 Corinthians 5:18



All of what?

The 'all this' in our verse refers to those elements of the 'Gospel package' that Paul has been highlighting in the surrounding passage. 

It is ALL (in all its much needed and glorious sufficiency) committed to the people of God to communicate, to persuade others of in order to bring people to the faith that arises when God steps into the process to make people into new people  ... reconciled first to Him and then to others as they're made part of His  new creation in Christ.

But what is this 'reconciliation' of which we speak?

What is this 'reconciliation'?

The Greek word used in the original text is καταλλαγή (katallage) and it's a word taken from financial accounting which means adjustment of a difference, reconciliation and therefore restoration to favour. 

In the New Testament it gets used to describe what's involved in the restoration of the favour of God to sinners that repent and put their trust in the sin-adjusting death of Christ.


What is Paul's part in this?

Paul's part in this reconciliation thing is to (2 Corinthians 5:19) communicate to people the way God has reconcilied humanity to Himself through the Gospel and to seek to persuade people (2 Corinthains 5:11) to embrace God through the Gospel of Christ.

He sums it up:

"Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making his plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!” says Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:20

Paul knows full well that something in human nature leads people to fall out - some of course are better at it than others, but the principle is pretty universal - and the problem in effecting reconciliation is not at its roots a matter of getting social justice, equity or reparations but is much more an issue of changing the roots of the heart.

It's all about communicating the Gospel which Paul sums up very succinctly: 

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, 

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 

                                     2 Corinthians 5:21


Paul doesn't try to deal with the issue of reconciliation aside of God making people a new creation in Christ to make reconciliation possible.

For Paul, THAT is the key to the job.

So if that is Paul's part in the ministry of reconciliation, what do you think should be ours?


What is ours?

None of us is a grade-'A' Apostle.

None of us has the experience or understanding of God and His Word that led Paul to these conclusions here, either.

But Paul says that he finds himself compelled by this reconciling Gospel for a reason that also is true of every Christian believer.

Paul says he feels compelled by this reconciling Gospel because He knows what it is to stand in awe-filled 'fear' of God ... and if we understand the greatness of God compared to our puny-ness, then we will be in the same boat as him with all this reconciling by the communication of the reconciling Gospel stuff too.

The Point

God has committed to Paul and to all His people what he calls here: 'the ministry of reconcilliation', and the means to pursue that ministry is persuading people of the Gospel, which is what will give rise to their being made a reconciled (and reconciling) new creation in Christ.


The Takeaway

If we are believers we reckon on humans being sinners and just one of the draw-backs of being a sinner living amongst other sinners is that people will see things differently and are going to fall out from time to time.

Reconciliation is going to be needed in this world because human nature is simply the way it is.

But we need reconciliation because of what has gone wrong in our hearts, and that is only thoroughly changed by the message of the Gospel giving a new heart and making a new creation to the one who turns to trust in it.

So the priority for socially motivated reconcilers in Christ is to persuade people of the Gospel of God, and of the need to turn from sin and trust Christ as our Saviour.

As 2 Corinthians 5:18 (our verse) makes plain, human beings on their own can patch things up, but ultimately reconciliation of the heart is part of God's new creation and stems from hearing and really believing the Good News from God.


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