Proverbs 13:17, NIV
“A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a trustworthy envoy brings healing”
An envoy carries messages from the one who sends him. He is trusted by his employer to be a faithful carrier of the message, taking it to the person for whom it was intended. An envoy who fails to deliver the message, or who distorts the message, so that it is no longer the truth, will soon be in trouble, will lose their job and, in older days, would probably have lost their life as well! An envoy was trusted to be faithful to the one who sent him.
At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus commissioned all His disciples to be His personal envoys, and carry the message of the Gospel into all the world. Their role was not only to take the message, but to make more disciples, teaching all the new believers to do exactly the same things that He had taught those first disciples to do – which in Luke 9 verses 1 and 2 was clearly defined as to preach about the kingdom of God, heal the sick and set people free from the powers of darkness.
A trustworthy envoy will not fail to do what he has been asked to do and as the writer of this proverb makes so very clear, the message of a trustworthy envoy will bring healing. And that’s exactly what the Great Commission, which Jesus gave to the whole of the Church for the whole of time, does for those who receive the envoys’ message and apply it in their lives.
Salvation is healing – when we are saved, we are born again, which means we are raised from the dead (a very significant healing!) and as we apply the truths of salvation into our lives then God continues to bring His healing and wholeness into every area of our lives. God has entrusted His people to be His envoys – what a privilege to be sent by the living God, with the most incredible message that any envoy has ever been given – a message which has the capacity to transform the lives of those who receive and believe it. Are you willing to be a faithful envoy on behalf of the One who has sent you to be a messenger of His truth and His love to the people Jesus died to save?
>strong>Prayer: Help me, Lord, to be a faithful envoy and never to miss an opportunity to take the message of the Gospel to those who are in need of Your healing and Your salvation. In Jesus’s name, Amen.