What Kind of Living Letter Are You Writing?

2 Corinthians 3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Paul continues to explain the nature of his ministry among them as distinguished from someone who needed a letter of recommendation.  The purpose of these was, "Such letters were common and necessary in the early church. A false prophet or apostle could travel from city to city and easily say, “Paul sent me, so you should support me.” To help guard against problems like this, letters of recommendation were often sent with Christians as they traveled." (Guzik)

Paul distinguishes the ministry he and the others had among the Corinthians by by giving these descriptors: 

1. "You yourselves were our letter" - Paul did not need to commend himself because the fruit of their ministry was the changed lives of the Corinthians.  No one needed to write a letter about it, because the evidence was shown in the transformation of their hearts and lives. 

2. "Known and read by everyone" The changes Christ made in their lives was not just seen by the people in the church but everyone.  One of the powerful ways God attracts people to church is through the power of one changed life. Recently a woman came to our church because she wanted to see what it was that made such a big change in her mom's life.  This is the best kind of evangelism because it is organic.

3. "Written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God." We can't take credit for the changes that happen in our lives, or the lives of those we minister to.  It is the power of the Holy Spirit working our lives that is transforming us to be more Christ-like.  A little later in the chapter Paul says it this way, 

"We are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." verse 18

Notice "we are being transformed".  It takes time.  But as a believer living in the power of God's Spirit, we are being changed in ever-increasing glory.  This means God is shaping us day by day into the glory of Christ.  It is God's work in us.  We can't change ourselves but God can change us from in the inside out as our desires become more conformed to his. 

What might this teaching mean for us?  A question we might ask ourselves is what kind of letter is being written on our heart these days.  Is it a letter which speaks of God's purpose being realized in our lives and into the lives of others.  We all make mistakes.  We all fall short of God's glory.  We all take steps back in our lives of faith.  But wants to do His good work in us in the power of the Spirit. God is always writing a new letter on our hearts if we allow him to.