Since I realize that I have Christ as the immortal life within me, I have to endeavor with an ambition to please Him all the time (2 Cor. 5:9). If you are going to be an ambassador of Christ, there must be one day in this whole universe in which you make a decision, calling the heavens and the earth to be the witnesses, that you are now absolutely for Christ, that you only have one ambition-to please Christ. God has wrought Himself as the immortal life into us so that we should not live by ourselves but by this life. Now we have to be ambitious to please Him.
I do not want to say that you have to merely consecrate yourselves. Consecration is somewhat popular in today’s Christianity. Many people in revival meetings may answer the call to come to the front and consecrate themselves. They may consecrate themselves and yet still be ambitious for themselves and not for Christ. Therefore, although they have consecrated themselves to Christ, they cannot represent Christ. We need to ask ourselves what our ambition is today. If we are going to represent Christ on this earth as His ambassadors, we should pray, “Lord, I call the heavens and the earth to witness that my ambition is one-just to please You.”
In 5:14 Paul says that “the love of Christ constrains us.” Because the love of Christ constrained him, Paul was a person that lived to the Lord (v. 15). Another item which equips us to be the ambassadors of Christ is the constraining love of Christ. You must be a person carried away by the love of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 Paul tells us that the dying love of Christ is like the rushing of great waters toward us, impelling us to live to Him beyond our own control. To be constrained is similar to being carried away by a tide of water. The love of Christ is as strong as a tide of water which overcomes you and carries you away. We need to be flooded by the love of Christ. We need to be constrained by His love so that we have no choice. We should be able to say, “I have no other way to go. I have to love the Lord because His love has constrained me. What can I do?” When the flood waters come, you do not have a choice as to whether you will receive them or not. The flood waters give you no choice. We all have to be constrained by the love of Christ in such a way.
I must confess that I have prayed day by day for years that the Lord would show me His love that I could be constrained by the love of Christ. I prayed in this way-“Lord, constrain me with Your love. O Lord, flood me with Your love.” All of us need to pray in this way. The young saints among us need to realize that although they love the Lord today, they are still at the crossroads of their Christian experience. There are many directions for them to choose, to take. You may have many choices, but once you are flooded by the love of Christ, you lose all the choices.
The fourth aspect of a person who is an ambassador is that he does not know people according to the flesh but according to Christ in the spirit. We should never consider anything or try to know a person by the outward appearance according to the flesh but always according to Christ in the spirit. Suppose that you hear a brother speak who is very eloquent, inspiring, and who has a great amount of knowledge. You may admire his eloquence and think that he gives marvelous messages. If you say this, this may mean that you recognize people or acknowledge things by the outward appearance according to the flesh and not by Christ according to the spirit. While you are listening to the speaking, you have to realize how much of God has been wrought into the speaker. You should not know him according to his eloquence, his knowledge, his gift, or according to what he teaches but according to the spirit. You have to realize whether or not there is something of Christ, of God, wrought into this person. Another brother may share without any eloquence, yet you realize that with him there is a weighty measure of Christ. This is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:16, “So that we, from now on, know no one according to flesh; even if we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer.” To recognize things and realize persons not according to the outward appearance in the flesh but according to the measure of Christ in the spirit is the fourth qualification of an ambassador of Christ.
The church needs a group of people who can practically represent Christ on this earth. If you are going to be such an ambassador, you should not live anymore by what you are or by what you can do. You have to live by the immortal life which is Christ Himself, and you have to be so ambitious to please Him. You also have to be flooded and carried away by the constraining love of Christ and learn how to recognize things, how to discern things, not by outward appearance but by the inward measure of Christ in the spirit. Then you will be the ambassador of Christ representing His authority and interest on this earth.
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