Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says,
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
As we begin 2021, we find ourselves in one of the most anticipated years in recent memory. After the challenges of 2020, people around the world are eager for something new and different. While the world often focuses on circumstantial change, the Lord has given us everything we need to seek the kind of new that brings real and lasting change. In 2 Corinthians 5 and 6, Paul teaches us that in Christ we have a different message (the gospel of Jesus Christ) that makes us different people (new creations) on a different mission (being ambassadors for Christ).
Here are three short prayers that invite the Lord to make us new this year.
“May the love of Christ control us.”
“May we become who we are.”
“May we be ambassadors for Christ.”
“New” in the world always has a time stamp, but “new” in Christ never expires. As the world grows old around us, may we cling to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the evergreen news of His saving love. That’s the kind of new we should want this year, the kind that would make us trees planted by streams of water, that yield their fruit in season and whose leaves do not wither (Psalm 1:3).