Ver. 20.-"Ambassadors of (Jhrist.• I. Tm: DUTIES OF AMBASSADORS OF CIIBIST. 1. Negative. (1) Not to originate their message. (2) Not to think ;lightly of their mission. (3) Not to seek their own glory. (4) Not to aim at their own comfort and plea.sure as a chief object. (5) Not to depart from their instructions. Not to add to them nor take away. 2. Positive. (1) To go where they a.re sent. (2) 'l'o communi- cate the mind of their Lord. (3) To defend his honour. (4) To be influenced by the welfare of bis kino-dom. (5) To make their Master's business pre-eminent. (6) To strive in every way to qualify themselves for their work. (7) 'l'o endeavour to do their work 186 THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [ea. v. 1-21.
in the best possible way. (8) To endure 1088 and BUft'ering rather than the intereate of their Master's kingdom should be prejudiced. II. THE MESSAGE OF THE AMBASSADORS OF CHRIST. 1. That <kd loves men. 2. r_r;hat he ha~ given Christ for °:1en. A_ vas~ proof of love I The first step was on God's 1ade. Whilst we were er:em1es Chnst died for us. 3. That Christ willingly gave himscl'. for men. The death of Christ was perfectly voluntary. 4. 'l.'hat by the death of Chnst God has provided the means for the perfect reconciliation of the world to himself. In the death of Christ God does reconcile; i.e. he removes every obstacle to reconciliation. Justification _is fully prff!ared for ~he sinner. (?hrist was made ein for us (ver. 21). He bore our sms. Our sms were imputed to him. God's justice was satisfied. Christ is made our Substitute, and this so perfeotly that what we are is imputed to him, and what he is is imputed to us. He takes our sins• we take his rig~teousness: _No hindrance to co~plete restoration thus remains, except hindrance which may he m the human heart itself. 6. That God earnestly invites men to be reconciled to him. Amazing condescension I 'l'he clima.x of Divine lov• I ".As though God were entreating" (ver. 20). III. How THE MESSAGE IS TO BE OONVEYED. 1. With courtesy. 2. With intense earnestness. It is momentous. What issues depend upon its acceptance or rejection I 3. With zealous pleading. IV. How AIDIASSADORS OF CRRIST ARE TO BE BEG.ABDBD. 1. As speaking on behalf of Christ. 2. As declaring the mind of God.-H.
Ver. 1.-The tent and the house. I. TIil!: CONTB.A.ST EXPLAINED. The foundation of this passage is to be found in eh. iv. 18, where a contrast is clrawn between "the things seen," viz. the toils and afflictions endured in t.he service of Christ, and " the things not yet seen," viz. the joys of resting in Christ from present labours and of receiving from him approval and reward. Pursuing this train of thought, St. Paul writes, "We are here in a tent upon the earth, surrounded, affected, and limited by the things which are seen. But this tent will be struck, to be set up no more. The things which are seen are temporal. The present conditions of our life of toil and suffering will cease, and we shall enter a house of everlasting habitation." 'l'he apostle mixes together the figures of a dwelling in which we reside and that of a garment with which we are clothed. It was not an unnatural combination of metaphors; for the haircloth tents with which Pe.ul was familiar, and which his own hands had made, suggested almost equally the idea of a dwelling and that of a vesture. The tent is to be taken down, the clothing to be removed. The present condition of labour and trial · will come to an end. What then ? Things not yet seen ; a building from God ; a new condition of life and order of things which will be permanent. Hancls of men have not provided it and cannot destroy it. It is a house where nothing fades, nothing falls to ruin, nothing decays or dies-ii. house eternal in the heavens. IL THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE OF THE FUTURE. It was St. Paul's habit to regard the state after death and the state after resurrection as from one angle of visiou, and to describe them together. Probably he had no idea of the long interval which was to extend through all the Christian centuries. In his first Jetter to the Coriuthians he had said, " We shall not all sleep," as thongh some of that generation might not sec death. But now the feebleness of his body was as "a sentence of death" in himself. He expected and even wished to clie; and yet his thoughts never paused on death or even on the rest of the departed, but rushed past death to the coming of Christ and the glory to be revealed. There is a real and obvious distinction between the post- decease and the post-resurrection state; but let us not overdo distinctions between conditions of blessedness which to an apostle's eye were so intimately blended. If some of the thincrs which belong to the ultimate state are supposed by any to belong to the proximate, n~ irreat harm is done. The future is not mapped out with the pre- cision of a chart. It is not for definite knowledge, but for hope. St. Paul, as we have said, neve1 paused on death, took no pleasure in the thought of being " unclothed." At the resurrection be would be clothed w',th a hotly of incorruption and immortality. Nay; before that great day of triumph over death, he knew that he would be well clothed or guarJed. He would be in Go 1 l' building, "clothed upon" with the house which is from heaven. ou. v. 1-21.] THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE C.:ORINTHI ANS. 137