The Best Kind of Cover Letter?

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 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.

 I remember when I first starting interviewing for a job out of a college.  Two of the most important things when you went to look for a job was having a good resume, and a good cover letter.  Graduating college seniors took seminars on how to make themselves look really good on their resume and how to write a professional looking cover letter.  There was of course G.P.A., but also internships, volunteer experience and even hobbies and interests.  Bottom line was this was the first impression you made, and you needed to stand out.

 In Paul's day when ministers and prophets traveled to new towns it was good for them to have a letter of recommendation from other churches to validate their ministry.  Since there was no "Yelp" at this point, one needed word of mouth to verify one's trustworthiness.  Part of this was that false prophets began to proliferate.  

 Paul recommends a different kind of letter to the Corinthians today. He calls it a letter which is not written in ink but Holy Spirit.  It was a message not written on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts?  What does he mean by this?

 Paul is saying the measurement of any ministry is changed lives.  The key to changed lives is preaching the Word and then allowing the Holy Spirit to bring about spiritual transformation.  Paul realized it was not about him, but God working through him.  Though he had reason to boast about the spiritual fruit borne in the Corinthian church, he realized it would not be a good thing to focus on himself.  He needed to teach the church that it was about the Holy Spirit, not human personality or charismatic leaders.  The true validity of any ministry is changed lives.  We can be used by God in this effort as we are faithful to the gospel, but we can never take credit for the results. 

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