• Praise is the heart of worship.

  • Even a single candle can make a difference in the darkness.

  • Pray without ceasing. Give thanks always.

  • Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

  • The future is as bright as God’s promises.

Anchor

User-friendly devotionals with audio

  • 8 May

    Ambassadors for Christ

    Treasures

    Audio length: 11:58
    Download Audio (10.9MB)

    In 2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul teaches that “we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” In other words, we are representatives of Christ. As citizens of heaven, we represent the kingdom of God. We are on temporary assignment on earth to represent our country and our King. We represent the Prince of Peace, and we have the calling and privilege of imparting His message to the world, as the second half of the verse goes on to say: “We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.”

    So many people in our world are lost, lonely, downtrodden, weak, and weary. There are those who are trampled on and oppressed: the poor, the persecuted, the hungry, victims of war, crime, and exploitation. There are those who lack political or social capital and have little in the way of worldly goods or lack basic necessities.

    There are others who do have material goods and yet are prisoners of their own desires, and are weary and heavy laden with stress, fears, and phobias. There are those who wear a smile, yet ache inside; those who are engulfed in a sea of emptiness; those who suffer from pain, guilt, bitterness, and condemnation; those who feel remorse over the past or fear the future. There are so many people who live in despair in the world.

    Event after event leaves people questioning. “Why all the pain and strife in the world? Why the war and the death of innocents? Why troubles and sorrows?” People desperately need to know the truth and see the light. As Christ’s representatives on earth, we are called to share the gospel message so that people have the opportunity to “know the truth that will set them free” (John 8:32), and to shine His light and love to those around us.

    Jesus said: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. … In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14–16)

    Through His children, God is trying to show the world what He is like. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus said that the second of the two greatest commandments was to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39), and He told His disciples that “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).

    Jesus’ last message to His disciples after His resurrection and before His ascension to heaven expressed what is known as the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). The first Christians were obedient to this calling and changed the world and the course of history forever with God’s love and truth.

    The way they lived convinced others that their faith was real. Even their Roman persecutors marveled at the love the Christians had for each other and for all people, and how they served and gave selflessly to people in need. And within two hundred years, one out of five people in the Western world were professing Christians.

    Today, over two thousand years later, the heart of humankind is still the same. Many people search for love, truth, and answers to the big questions of life but seldom find them. We who have come to know God and His love have what others need desperately. In the Bible, we find the answers to life’s biggest questions, such as: Why am I here? What is the purpose for my life? Is there a God? Why is there suffering in the world? What is the meaning of life? As Christians, we have been commissioned to share these truths with others.

    Greater works

    Jesus told His first followers, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these will he do” (John 14:12). This prophetic message was fulfilled as those He was speaking to at the time carried the gospel much further than Jesus had been able to during His brief public ministry, and those they reached carried it even further.

    But some Christians today look at the miracles Jesus performed and think, “What are You talking about, Lord? We couldn’t possibly do greater things than You did during Your earthly ministry! You raised the dead, healed the sick, fed the multitudes. How could we do greater things than these?”

    For a start, we could feed a bigger multitude than Jesus ever fed. Jesus multiplied five loaves of bread and two small fish to feed 5,000 people for one day (John 6:5–13), but many dedicated Christians have fed more people than that over a lifetime. We can help to provide food for those who lack their daily sustenance, and Christ-followers have been active in feeding the needy of the world throughout history.

    Jesus raised the dead. As His followers, we can play a central role in raising people to new spiritual life to live forever with God. The people the Lord raised from the dead eventually died again physically, but when we lead people to believe in Jesus and receive His gift of salvation, they enter into the kingdom of God forever.

    In today’s world, Christians have the means to continue to do “greater things” for God. The means for sharing the Good News are far greater with the printed word, the internet, television, radio, and the postal system. We have the greatest opportunities and means at our disposal for spreading the gospel in history.

    We are a privileged generation, as we are the first to witness the gospel being preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations (Matthew 24:14). The gospel is being preached to people everywhere in the world, but there are still millions, if not billions, of individuals who have never heard a clear presentation of the gospel. Even if they have heard of Christianity and the name of Jesus, they don’t comprehend who Jesus really was—the Son of God—and what He taught and why it matters.

    The Bible says that “faith comes by hearing the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). As ambassadors and witnesses for Christ, we have an important role to play for people to hear the Word of God, for “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14). We each have the opportunity to share the Good News of salvation in Jesus with those whom our lives touch each day.

    The only way people can come to a saving faith in Jesus is by believing in God’s Word. As a witness, you become a living example of the Word of God whenever you impart God’s love and Word to others and the message of salvation. If you have God’s Spirit dwelling in you, you will manifest the love of Jesus as you are being transformed into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:17–18).

    There are so many people who have never heard how they can be saved or never had a chance to understand what Jesus did on the cross, because they have never heard the message or seen a living example of the gospel. As American evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) once said, “The only Bible the world reads is the one bound in shoe leather.” Edward D. Kimball led Moody to the Lord in the back of the shoe shop where Moody worked. Moody would have never become a great preacher of the gospel if this otherwise unheard-of Sunday school teacher hadn’t reached out to him.

    Every time you share your faith with someone, you are giving them the opportunity to become a child of God and to enter into a relationship with God and receive the gift of eternal salvation. Jesus is the only way to salvation. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There are so many people who have never heard or had a chance to understand what Jesus did by His death on the cross.

    Every Christian is called to be the Bible bound in shoe leather—because many people may never read the Bible or other Christian literature until they see the living example first. We are called to be the love of Christ to the world and to let others see Jesus in us and through our lives. What greater work can we do than to show Jesus to others and tell them about Him through our witness and help them to find Jesus and enter into a relationship with the God “who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3–4).

    Let us never forget that the prime requisite for any Christ-follower should be the love that motivated the apostle Paul, the disciples of Jesus, and every great man or woman of God. As Paul expressed it: “The love of Christ compels us.” And the passage goes on to give us the reason for that motivation: “He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15).

    In the book of 1 John, we read that “God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him” (1 John 4:9). And Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, even so am I sending you” (John 20:21). Jesus came in love to reconcile the world to His Father, and He calls us to express His love in every facet of life and wherever we find ourselves and to whomever we encounter—to be a living example of God’s love to others. May we be faithful to our calling and privilege to be His ambassadors and represent the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).

    Published on Anchor May 2025. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.

  • May 7 The Endtime and Eternity: What Matters Most
  • May 6 The Adventurous Climb
  • May 1 Better Days Ahead—Part 1
  • Apr 30 The Man Who Changed the History of a Nation
  • Apr 24 Making Time for the Things That Matter
  • Apr 22 Heavenbound
  • Apr 21 The Two Builders
  • Apr 17 The Glory of Easter
  • Apr 16 The Son Must Rise: What Made Easter Inevitable
   

Directors’ Corner

Faith-building Bible studies and articles

  • 22 Apr

    1 Corinthians: Chapter 10 (verses 16–33)

    In the second half of 1 Corinthians 10, Paul begins by emphasizing to the Corinthians the incompatibility of participating in meals in pagan temples and participating in the Lord’s Supper.

    The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16).

    Paul’s first question addressed the cup of thanksgiving and the bread that they ate, using words similar to the accounts of the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:26–28; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Drinking from the cup is a participation in the blood of Christ and eating the bread is a participation in the body of Christ. The word “participation” is also used in the New Testament to refer to our fellowship and communion with Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:9) and with one another (1 John 1:7).

    Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (1 Corinthians 10:17).

    Paul noted that though believers are many, they are one in body, and that this is true because there is one loaf of bread, representing the body of Christ, in which all partake. In Paul’s writing, one body is a technical phrase that refers to the spiritual union, both of members with Christ and with one another in Christ. In Romans, Paul wrote so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another (Romans 12:5). Since believers are in spiritual union with Christ, all believers share spiritual union with one another in Him.

    Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? (1 Corinthians 10:18)

    When giving thanksgiving or peace offerings in the Old Testament, the altar was a table on which food was sacrificed to God, and the priests ate from the offerings (Leviticus 6:17–18). Paul emphasized that those who ate such sacrifices took part in the spiritual significance of the altar of the temple. In the same way, those who partake of the Lord’s Supper fellowship with God.

    What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons (1 Corinthians 10:19–20).

    Paul had already argued earlier in this epistle that pagan religions are false and that their sacrifices aren’t made to true gods, as “an idol has no real existence,” and “there is no God but one” (1 Corinthians 8:4).At the same time he had qualified that statement by saying that there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords” (1 Corinthians 8:5–6). In this verse Paul explained his meaning more fully. He implied that something supernatural is at work in pagan sacrifices, and these are ultimately offered to demons and not to God. Thus, when people sacrifice to idols, it cannot be assumed that they are engaging in a meaningless activity.

    Paul pointed out that pagans do not sacrifice to gods that Christians should fear, and in this sense, an idol is nothing and the food offered to idols is nothing. Yet, Paul affirmed that the sacrifices of pagans were made to demons, and he insisted that the Corinthian believers should not be participants with demons.

    You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons (1 Corinthians 10:21).

    Paul speaks again of the incompatibility of Christianity and idolatry. The “cup of the Lord” represents the communion that believers have with Christ through His sacrifice on the cross. It symbolized the blood of Christ, which was shed for the forgiveness of sins. This cup is a symbol of salvation. There were cases where Christians might eat what had been offered to idols without sin, such as when meat was sold in the marketplace. But this is not to be understood as extending to participation in pagan religious festivals involving idolatrous worship.

    Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? (1 Corinthians 10:22)

    Paul made this point clear when he proceeded to question if the Corinthians were seeking to provoke the Lord to jealousy, and if they considered themselves stronger than the Lord. God is portrayed in the Bible as a possessive husband (Jeremiah 31:32; Hosea 2:1–13). He requires loyalty of His people. The Corinthians were to stop the practice of idolatry as they risked incurring the wrath of God even as the Israelites did under Moses.

    “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor (1 Corinthians 10:23–24).

    Here Paul begins with a popular slogan among the Corinthians of the time that he has already mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:12: All things are lawful. There is some truth in this slogan, as Christians have much freedom in Christ. However, the saying must be balanced, which Paul did when he added that not all things are helpful or beneficial. Paul limits the use of freedom here to things that benefit or build up the Christian community, and one’s actions to that which seeks the good of his neighbor. Earlier on, Paul had highlighted the principle that believers should not seek their own good but the good of others and the furtherance of the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:19–23).

    Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof” (1 Corinthians 10:25–26).

    Paul taught that Christians may eat any meat they purchase in the market as long as the question of idolatry doesn’t come up. If the matter of sacrifice to idols came up, then believers should refrain from eating for the sake of others. In the meat markets of Greece, some meat was sold after being dedicated to an idol, while other meat had never been dedicated. This difference was not always made evident by the shopkeepers.

    The rabbis put restrictions on Jews who lived in pagan cities like Corinth, and they had to be sure that they bought meat only from shops that adhered to Jewish laws regarding food. But this was not Paul’s policy. His view was that believers could eat any meat without raising questions of whether it had been sacrificed to an idol. He quoted Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof,” to assert that God is the only true God of all things and that idols are insignificant. Believers could eat meat without being concerned with the meat’s history.

    If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—I do not mean your conscience, but his (1 Corinthians 10:27–29a).

    After speaking of the marketplace, Paul turned to situations in which believers were guests in the homes of unbelievers. Christians may eat whatever they are served without being concerned about questions of conscience. However, if someone were to say that the meat had been offered in sacrifice to an idol, believers were not to eat on the ground of conscience—for the sake of the person who had told them. To eat under such circumstances could appear to be accepting of idolatry. According to this advice of the apostle, Christians should take care not to use their liberty to the detriment of others, or to their own reproach. In eating and drinking, and in all we do, we should aim at the glory of God, at pleasing and honoring Him.

    For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? (1 Corinthians 10:29b–30)

    Paul asks why he should do something that would allow his freedom to be judged by someone else’s conscience. Christians have the freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols, but they shouldn’t use this freedom when it hurts the conscience of another. If an unbelieving host doesn’t mention the meat’s history, Christians are free to eat. Paul says Christians may give thanks for and eat meat which may have been sacrificed to idols. They can take part in the meal with thankfulness.

    So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, (1 Corinthians 10:31–32)

    Paul now summarizes his argument in this chapter. First, whether or not believers partake in food or drink, they must do it all for the glory of God. The main purpose of human beings is the glory of God; His honor should be the main concern of those who love Him. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6:5).1

    Second, whether believers partake or not, they should not cause others to stumble or sin, nor should they hinder someone’s receptivity to the gospel. This concern for others applies to Jews, Greeks, and the church. Paul likely mentioned these groups because each of these raised different considerations. Both Jews and Greeks were unbelievers in Christ’s teachings, but each group had different standards and expectations. Moreover, the principle of love for neighbors must also extend to the church for yet other reasons.

    just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:33–11:1).

    Paul brought this section to its close by reminding his readers that he didn’t expect something from them that he himself was unwilling to do. He reminded them that he sought to please everybody in every way. He sought to serve others, not because he was seeking his own good, but rather he sought the good of many, or more specifically, that they may be saved. Paul’s commitment to the salvation of the lost led him to minimize his personal preferences and freedoms for the good of others.

    As a result of the consistency with which Paul fulfilled this service, he felt qualified to encourage the Corinthians to follow his example, even as he followed the example of Christ. Christ gave up His freedom and honor, humbling himself to the point of death on a cross, in order to save others (Philippians 2:5–8). Paul encouraged the Corinthians to remember Christ’s sacrifice as the model of love and concern for others. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 4:32–5:1).

    Note
    Unless otherwise indicated, all scriptures are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    1 See also Matthew 22:37.

     

  • Apr 8 1 Corinthians: Chapter 10 (verses 1–15)
  • Mar 25 1 Corinthians: Chapter 9 (verses 18–27)
  • Mar 11 1 Corinthians: Chapter 9 (verses 1–17)
  • Feb 25 1 Corinthians: Chapter 8 (verses 1–13)
  • Feb 11 1 Corinthians: Chapter 7 (verses 17–40)
  • Jan 28 1 Corinthians: Chapter 7 (verses 1–16)
  • Jan 8 1 Corinthians: Chapter 6 (verses 1–20)
  • Dec 10 Practicing All the Virtues
  • Nov 26 Virtues for Christ-Followers: Self-control
   

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