2 Corinthians 3:1-18
Thursday, 15 September 2022
“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.” -2 Corinthians 3:3
The Bible refers a child of God in several ways – a sheep, a son, a vine branch, a tree planted, etc., each having its significance and implication. In our reading today, Paul refers to the people in Corinth as “a letter of Christ.” In verse 2 he says, “…you are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men.” When we are a letter, then we are read by all – it signifies that our lives are an open book to read, for all who see us.
What do others read in us? What is the write-up of this letter? Who writes it? Where is it written? Verse 3 answers these questions: We are a letter of Christ written by the Holy Spirit, written on our hearts. That makes this letter unique. God had given His children, His commandments written on tablets of stone, centuries before at Sinai! In a sense that was God’s letter to them and they became God’s letter in turn, which was read by all those nations they passed through as they were travelling from Egypt to Canaan!! Some of them were astonished at the work of God – how He delivered a nation that was in slavery for more than 400 years under the iron fist of a very powerful nation at that time! There was nobody who could deliver them, and therefore their release from Egypt itself was a miracle to all people who saw them! As they journeyed through the wilderness, the miraculous provisions they received, their food and water and shelter - for such a huge number of people – was a matter of wonder for those nations that saw them!!
You are a matter of wonder to others, dear child of God! Your deliverance itself from the powerful fist of the devil and your wonderful journey in life when all your needs are met by the Lord, is another testimony of His providence! The steady progress that you make in your life is another miracle, which was impossible a few years before under the yoke of slavery of the devil!! You are a letter written by the Holy Spirit and being read by all people!!
Paul’s life itself is a testimony of a total “rewriting” that transformed him into a firebrand for Christ. He describes his credentials in Phil.3:5- “circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee;”—one on whose heart was written all of the Law in the Old Testament. Yet he says when God was pleased to reveal Christ to him, a rewriting was done on his heart by the Holy Spirit as he spent time alone with Him in Arabia (Galatians 1:16,17). From then on Paul became a powerful letter for Christ as the Spirit of God started ministering through him!
But in order for you to be a letter of Christ, you should allow the Holy Spirit to do a writing on your heart. Jeremiah 17:1 says sin was written on the heart. The Holy Spirit re-writes that old writing and makes the heart a new letter!! But only when you let go off your sin and surrender your life to Christ, can He do the rewriting! Your life will then be transformed from one degree of glory to the other as you grow into the image of Christ and people will see your life as a letter of Christ! Are you willing?
PRAYER: LORD Jesus as I submit my life to you, may the Holy Spirit work in me that I may be a letter that others may read You through me. Amen.