Letters on Life

Scripture

2 Corinthians 3:1-6 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 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.

Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 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.

Observation

As we think about the idea that we continue to walk the road started by Christ Paul now shifts the metaphor to that of the written word. The metaphor is that we are letters written, not on paper but on our hearts, these letters written by the spirit of God. The Word of God, Jesus Christ, the content of the writing; our lives, yours, mine and others are the chapters. Each chapter from history make up the story, Moses, Abraham, Jonah, Mary, Peter, Paul, John, Luther, Wesley, Smith, Graham, Cann, Cutchie, Geoff, Andrew, your name and those around you are added to the story and each chapter continues the story. The story is not the same without your chapter or that of Moses or another great from the history of the church, because the importance is not in whom but rather in who wrote the letter.

Application

Take the time to meditate on this passage, allow the truth that your letter is written by the Holy Spirit onto your heart, that your message is the equal part in the whole story as any from history.

Prayer

Lord of all may I have an open heart that allows your letter to be written as you would have it written, may you use me as you will to write your story.