Paul says in 2 Cor. 5.18-19 that God gave us both the ministry of reconciliation and the message of reconciliation with the motivation for our own ministry of reconciliation being the pattern of how God reconciled us to himself through Christ. Reconciliation here is the word καταλλάσσω which means to reestablish proper friendly interpersonal relations after these have been disrupted or broken (the componential features of this series of meanings involve (1) disruption of friendly relations because of (2) presumed or real provocation, (3) overt behavior designed to remove hostility, and (4) restoration of original friendly relations) — ‘to reconcile, to make things right with one another (Louw and Nida).
Is our ministry of reconciliation here one of reconciling other people to God, or reconciling other people to ourselves? Judging from the very next verse it would seem that Paul is speaking of the reconciliation between God and man because he calls it the message of reconciliation. So we are to both do (live out) reconciliation and preach reconciliation of God to man through Christ.
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