Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Corinthians 5:20

"We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech [you] on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God." — 2 Corinthians 5:20 (ASV)

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ. We are the ambassadors whom Christ has sent forth to negotiate with men regarding their reconciliation to God. Tyndale renders this, "Now then are we messengers in place of Christ." The word used here (presbeuomen, from presbys, an aged man, an elder, and then an ambassador) means to act as an ambassador, or sometimes merely to deliver a message for another, without being empowered to do anything more than to explain or enforce it.—Bloomfield.

See Thucydides 7.9. An ambassador is a minister of the highest rank, employed by one prince or state at the court of another to manage the concerns of his own prince or state, and representing the dignity and power of his sovereign.—Webster. He is sent to do what the sovereign would himself do if he were present.

They are sent to make known the will of the sovereign and to negotiate matters of commerce, of war, or of peace, and in general everything affecting the interests of the sovereign among the people to whom they are sent. At all times and in all countries, an ambassador is a sacred character, and his person is regarded as inviolable. He is bound implicitly to obey the instructions of his sovereign and, as far as possible, to do only what the sovereign would do if he himself were present.

Ministers are ambassadors for Christ, as they are sent to do what He would do if He were personally present. They are to make known, explain, and enforce the terms on which God is willing to be reconciled to men. They are not to negotiate on any new terms, nor to change those which God has proposed, nor to follow their own plans or devices; but they are simply to urge, explain, state, and enforce the terms on which God is willing to be reconciled.

Of course, they are to seek the honor of the Sovereign who has sent them forth and to seek to do only His will. They do not go to promote their own welfare, not to seek honor, dignity, or emolument; but they go to transact the business which the Son of God would engage in if He were again personally on the earth. It follows that their office is one of great dignity and great responsibility, and that respect should be shown to them as the ambassadors of the King of kings.

As though God did beseech you by us. Our message is to be regarded as the message of God. It is God who speaks. What we say to you is said in His name and on His authority and should be received with the respect that is due to a message directly from God. The gospel message is God speaking to men through the ministry and entreating them to be reconciled. This invests the message which the ministers of religion bear with infinite dignity and solemnity, and it makes it a fearful and awful thing to reject it.

We pray you in Christ's stead. hyper Christou. In the place of Christ; or doing what He did when on earth, and what He would do if He were where we are.

Be ye reconciled to God. This is the sum and burden of the message which the ministers of the gospel bear to their fellow men. (See notes on 2 Corinthians 5:19).

It implies that man has something to do in this work. He is to be reconciled to God; he is to give up his opposition; he is to submit to the terms of mercy. All the change in the case is to be in him, for God cannot change. God has removed all the obstacles to reconciliation which existed on His part.

He has done all that He will do, all that needed to be done, in order to render reconciliation as easy as possible. And now it remains for man to lay aside his hostility, abandon his sins, embrace the terms of mercy, and in fact become reconciled to God. And the great object of the ministers of reconciliation is to urge this duty on their fellow men.

They are to do it in the name of Christ. They are to do it as if Christ were Himself present and were Himself urging the message. They are to use the arguments which He would use, evince the zeal which He would show, and present the motives which He would present, to induce a dying world to in fact become reconciled to God.