So: this transition word connects what has just been said about reconciliation to the plea to be reconciled, which follows. It has been rendered “therefore” by New International Version, Revised English Bible, and many others. New American Bible attempts to convey the same idea by beginning this verse “This makes us ambassadors….”

The pronouns we and us do not include the readers.

Ambassadors for Christ: ambassadors were persons who represented someone else and who carried a message from the person whom they represented. Moffatt uses the term “envoy.” Good News Translation translates ambassadors as “speaking for.” Contemporary English Version maintains the aspect of being sent: “We were sent to speak for Christ.” Some languages have a special term that is well known and commonly used for the spokesperson of a chief. Such a term may be appropriate here. Others may use a verbal expression like that of Contemporary English Version. If a borrowed term for modern ambassadors is widely used and clearly understood in the receptor language, such a term may be helpful here.

The verb making his appeal has no object in the Greek. The specific implied object here is the Corinthians; so Revised English Bible “as if God were appealing to you.”

The word beseech is archaic or “church” English, and most recent translations use a word such as “beg,” “appeal,” “plead” (Good News Translation), or “entreat” (New Revised Standard Version). Though the Greek has no object after the verb beseech, the context seems to justify adding you (Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version).

On behalf of Christ: the idea of doing something on behalf of someone else may have to be expressed in a radically different way in some languages. In some cases there exist benefactive verb forms that will easily represent this idea. In other cases it may be necessary to say something like “in the name of Christ.”

On the translation of be reconciled, see comments on 5.18. But note that here the form of the verb is passive imperative. This may have to be rendered actively as “let God reconcile you to himself” or “allow God to reestablish friendship between you and himself.”

Contemporary English Version provides a possible model for the last half of this verse: “We speak for Christ and sincerely ask you to make peace with God.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .