2 Corinthians 5:20
New International Version
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

New Living Translation
So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

English Standard Version
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Berean Standard Bible
Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

Berean Literal Bible
Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God is beseeching through us. We implore on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

King James Bible
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

New King James Version
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

New American Standard Bible
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

NASB 1995
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

NASB 1977
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Legacy Standard Bible
So then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as God is pleading through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Amplified Bible
So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us; we [as Christ’s representatives] plead with you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.

Christian Standard Bible
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

American Standard Version
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.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
We are Ambassadors therefore in the place of The Messiah, and as if he who is God requested of you by us in the place of The Messiah, we beseech you therefore: “Be reconciled to God.”

Contemporary English Version
We were sent to speak for Christ, and God is begging you to listen to our message. We speak for Christ and sincerely ask you to make peace with God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For Christ therefore we are ambassadors, God as it were exhorting by us. For Christ, we beseech you, be reconciled to God.

English Revised Version
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.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Therefore, we are Christ's representatives, and through us God is calling you. We beg you on behalf of Christ to become reunited with God.

Good News Translation
Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ's behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends!

International Standard Version
Therefore, we are the Messiah's representatives, as though God were pleading through us. We plead on the Messiah's behalf: "Be reconciled to God!"

Literal Standard Version
in behalf of Christ, then, we are ambassadors, as if God were calling through us, we implore, in behalf of Christ, “Be reconciled to God”;

Majority Standard Bible
Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

New American Bible
So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

NET Bible
Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ's behalf, "Be reconciled to God!"

New Revised Standard Version
So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

New Heart English Bible
We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Webster's Bible Translation
Now then we are embassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

Weymouth New Testament
On Christ's behalf therefore we come as ambassadors, God, as it were, making entreaty through our lips: we, on Christ's behalf, beseech men to be reconciled to God.

World English Bible
We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Young's Literal Translation
in behalf of Christ, then, we are ambassadors, as if God were calling through us, we beseech, in behalf of Christ, 'Be ye reconciled to God;'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Ambassadors for Christ
19that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God. 21God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.…

Cross References
Isaiah 27:5
Or let them lay claim to My protection; let them make peace with Me--yes, let them make peace with Me."

Malachi 2:7
For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

Romans 5:10
For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!

2 Corinthians 6:1
As God's fellow workers, then, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.

2 Corinthians 12:10
That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Ephesians 6:20
for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it fearlessly, as I should.

Colossians 1:20
and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.


Treasury of Scripture

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God.

ambassadors.

2 Corinthians 3:6
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Job 33:23
If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness:

Proverbs 13:17
A wicked messenger falleth into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health.

as.

2 Corinthians 5:11
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

2 Corinthians 6:1
We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

2 Kings 17:13
Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.

in.

Job 33:6
Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead: I also am formed out of the clay.

Luke 10:16
He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

1 Corinthians 4:4,5
For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord…

be.

Job 22:21
Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.

Proverbs 1:22
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

Isaiah 27:5
Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

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Ambassadors Appeal Beg Behalf Beseech Christ Christ's Embassadors Entreat Entreating Entreaty Lips Making Reconciled Representatives Request Stead
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Ambassadors Appeal Beg Behalf Beseech Christ Christ's Embassadors Entreat Entreating Entreaty Lips Making Reconciled Representatives Request Stead
2 Corinthians 5
1. That in his assured hope of immortal glory,
9. and in expectation of it, he labors to keep a good conscience;
12. not that he may boast of himself,
14. but as one that, having received life from Christ,
17. endeavors to live as a new creature to Christ only,
18. and by his ministry of reconciliation, to reconcile others also in Christ to God.














(20) Now then we are ambassadors for Christ--The preposition "for" implies the same representative character as in 2Corinthians 5:14-15. The preachers of the Word were acting on behalf of Christ; they were acting also in His stead. The thought or word meets us again in Ephesians 6:20. "I am an ambassador in bonds." The earlier versions (Tyndale, Geneva, Cranmer) give "messengers," the Rhemish "legates." "Ambassadors," which may be noted as singularly felicitous, first appears in the version of 1611. The word, derived from the mediaeval Latin ambasciator, and first becoming popular in the Romance languages, is found in Shakespeare, and appears to have come into prominence through the intercourse with France and Spain in the reign of Elizabeth.

We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.--It will be seen, in this conclusion of the language of St. Paul as to the atonement, how entirely, on the one hand, he recognises the representative and vicarious character of the redeeming work of Christ; how entirely, on the other, he stands aloof from the speculative theories on that work which have sometimes been built upon his teaching. He does not present, as the system-builders of theology have too often done, the picture of the wrath of the Father averted by the compassion of the Son, or satisfied by the infliction upon Him of a penalty which is a quantitative equivalent for that due to the sins of mankind. The whole work, from his point of view, originates in the love of the Father, sending His Son to manifest that love in its highest and noblest form. He does not need to be reconciled to man. He sends His Son, and His Son sends His ministers to entreat them to be reconciled to Him, to accept the pardon which is freely offered. In the background there lies the thought that the death of Christ was in some way, as the highest act of Divine love, connected with the work of reconciliation; but the mode in which it was effective, is, as Butler says (Analogy, 2:5), "mysterious, and left, in part at least, unrevealed," and it is not wise to "endeavour to explain the efficacy of what Christ has done and suffered for us beyond what the Scripture has authorised."

Verse 20. - Now then. It is, then, on Christ's behalf that we are ambassadors. This excludes all secondary aims. St. Paul uses the same expression in Ephesians 6:20, adding with fine contrast that he is "an ambassador in fetters." As though God did beseech you by us; rather, as if God were exhorting you by our means. In Christ's stead; rather, we, on Christ's behalf, beseech you. Be ye reconciled to God. This is the sense of the embassy. The aorist implies an immediate acceptance of the offer of reconciliation.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Therefore
οὖν (oun)
Conjunction
Strong's 3767: Therefore, then. Apparently a primary word; certainly, or accordingly.

we are ambassadors
πρεσβεύομεν (presbeuomen)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Plural
Strong's 4243: To be aged, act as an ambassador. From the base of presbuteros; to be a senior, i.e. act as a representative.

for
Ὑπὲρ (Hyper)
Preposition
Strong's 5228: Gen: in behalf of; acc: above.

Christ,
Χριστοῦ (Christou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 5547: Anointed One; the Messiah, the Christ. From chrio; Anointed One, i.e. The Messiah, an epithet of Jesus.

as though
ὡς (hōs)
Adverb
Strong's 5613: Probably adverb of comparative from hos; which how, i.e. In that manner.

God
Θεοῦ (Theou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

were making His appeal
παρακαλοῦντος (parakalountos)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 3870: From para and kaleo; to call near, i.e. Invite, invoke.

through
δι’ (di’)
Preposition
Strong's 1223: A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through.

us.
ἡμῶν (hēmōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 1st Person Plural
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

We implore you
δεόμεθα (deometha)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 1st Person Plural
Strong's 1189: To want for myself; I want, need; I beg, request, beseech, pray. Middle voice of deo; to beg, i.e. Petition.

on behalf
ὑπὲρ (hyper)
Preposition
Strong's 5228: Gen: in behalf of; acc: above.

of Christ:
Χριστοῦ (Christou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 5547: Anointed One; the Messiah, the Christ. From chrio; Anointed One, i.e. The Messiah, an epithet of Jesus.

Be reconciled
καταλλάγητε (katallagēte)
Verb - Aorist Imperative Passive - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 2644: To change, exchange, reconcile. From kata and allasso; to change mutually, i.e. to compound a difference.

to God.
Θεῷ (Theō)
Noun - Dative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.


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NT Letters: 2 Corinthians 5:20 We are therefore ambassadors on behalf (2 Cor. 2C iiC 2Cor ii cor iicor)
2 Corinthians 5:19
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