These days, we don't begin our letters with identifying the writer. We begin with the recipient. I like the Paul way of doing it. I especially like what he does here because he says his name, and then the three things that people need to know about him. First, that he is a bondservant of Jesus. We already talked about that.
Second, he mentions that he is “called to be an apostle”. This is a word that has become almost exclusively biblical. The Complete Jewish Bible uses the word “emissary” and the word actually means “messenger”. Back in the day, countries used to send emissaries to foreign lands bearing gifts to represent the king of the sending land and open up trade or alliances. So essentially, if we're apostles, that means that we are ambassadors to the world (sometimes the Bible refers to Christians as “strangers” and “foreigners”). God's given us gifts that help us serve each other and be a witness of good tidings to those that don't know God. Because remember, God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9).
I've heard it said that there are no more “apostles” today- that the men in the New Testament are it. I'm not sure I believe this- aren't we all messengers, emissaries, missionaries to a world separated from God? If so, then we're apostles. What message are we bringing?
From a world's perspective, it's not a good one. The message that the world sees from the church as a whole (if translated into ambassador-type language) would be something like this:
“Hey, I'm from this awesome place. It makes me really happy to be there and I'd like to invite you. Oh, except all those things that you enjoy doing? Yeah, you're gonna have to stop before you come, because people won't really talk to you if you do those things. And you might want to wear a tie. Jeans are a bit casual, don't you think?
“Yeah, and actually, once you join my particular group, you're going to have to stick with us, because we really don't like or get along with the other groups. Actually, sometimes we don't even acknowledge that the other groups (we call them denominations) are even from the same place. We don't talk to them, we make fun of them, and generally hate each other.
“But we're very friendly and welcoming! We'd love to have you, so long as you abandon your current lifestyle, friends, and habit, and fully subscribe to ours.”
So, obviously, I addressed this from an ultra-conservative viewpoint (I could just as easily have come from a more liberal stance, but the conservative lends itself so much better). And I freely admit that not everyone is like that. But honestly, that's how the church is viewed- more as some kind of freak religious nut-case sect. Even Ghandhi said that if Christians were as loving as the Bible told them to be, he'd become a Christian.
Remember from my last note how we go out into the world tacitly broadcasting our fulfillment? Well, now we have to live it. Once everyone knows that we're foreigners-- strangers from another land-- they're going to be watching every move we make to see if this is a place and a King they want to hook up with. So if we're called to be apostles, we darn sure better live it.
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