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              In Chapter three verse seventeen of his letter to the believers at Colossae Paul writes: “And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”

He makes a similar point in II Corinthians 5:20:  “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’”

            What strikes me as I compare those two texts is the all encompassing language of Colossians 3:17 compared with II Corinthians chapter five verse twenty.  The word ambassadors certainly makes the point that we represent our Lord, but the context of the Corinthian passage makes the case that we are ambassadors with a very distinct role, that is the spreading of the Gospel in the hope that many will come back to God. And that role certainly is a serious one, lives are at stake!

            By comparison think about the opening phrase from the Colossian verse:  “And whatever you do or say”.  Think for a moment about the number of things you do and the number of things you say in any given day.

            But the real challenge begins when we test what we have said and done against the challenge of doing all of them as a representative of our Lord. I suspect that all of us have lots of room for improvement in this area. Perhaps making it a habit to take some time at the end of the day to reflect on how well the day went with respect to this instruction is a good starting point. But given the number of things we say and do in a day a similar pause at mid day might be in order!

                                    Pastor Dave