HOW DOES YOUR LETTER READ?

2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Most or us receive two different kinds of mail. Some of the mail we receive is very important - business correspondence, personal mail from friends and family, etc. We don't seem to write as many personal letters as we used to, but when we get personal notes from friends or family members, we normally treat them with respect because we value the relationship with the person who sent it. It may be poorly written, full of misspelled words and grammatically incorrect, but none of that detracts from the value we place upon it.

Then we get junk mail - glowing promises of winning contests that will make us rich, vacation offers, political messages, fund raising requests and merchandise offers. The letter may be well written and attractively printed, but it will probably find its way to the trash basket in short order. Why? Either we place a low or no value on the contents, or we lack respect for the author.

In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul said that our walk with Christ is like a letter. Sometimes, people ask me to write them letters of recommendation for various reasons. Paul approached this whole business of recommendation in a slightly different fashion. He didn't need letters of recommendation from his friends at Corinth.

Instead, he said in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3,

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 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.

THE CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL

Christians use up an enormous amount of brainpower, energy and money trying to figure out how to successfully persuade others that our message concerning Christ, salvation, and the nature of the church is a true and accurate message. We devise strategies to convince men and women that the claims of Christ are important.

Among the methods we have employed to achieve this result are the following

• Argumentation and debate.
• Advertising techniques.
• Packaging the gospel in an entertainment format.
• Adaptation of sales and marketing strategies.
• Architecture.
• Smooth talking professional spokespersons.

To some extent we need to make use of every one of these techniques, but in our text Paul put a lot of stock in the value of Godly example. For Paul the key issue was not method, but integrity.

THE IMPACT OF A GODLY LIFE

Throughout the context, it is quite obvious that Paul is defending his personal integrity. Observe the apostle's defense of his motives in 2:17

Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.

Paul felt compelled to defend his ministry and his apostleship. He launched his defense by offering the Corinthian church as "exhibit A" in his presentation of evidence. The vitality of the church spoke eloquently in his defense.

Paul seems to have entertained some fear of coming across as an egotistical, self-centered braggart. That accounts for his question in the opening verse of the chapter.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? - 2 Corinthians 3:1

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