Who is your letter?

“You yourselves are our letter…” 2 Corinthians 3:2

We all seek validation.  We want others to recognize our work.  Some people will accumulate titles or degrees in pursuit of acknowledgment.   There is nothing wrong with education because surely it prepares us for the world we must face, but anyone with a little common sense will tell you that academic achievement with no practical application is a gross waste of time and talent.  Some titles are important but it is because of the working person who holds them.  A judge that does not judge fairly with blind justice has hollowed out his title and made it useless.  A doctor that does not seek to make sick a person well with his knowledge is just an over-educated dead-weight on society.  A Christian that must boast or seek the commendation of others in order to prove himself is most likely a very unproductive Christian.  What Paul is dealing with are false teachers who came into Corinth with letters of recommendation from the Jerusalem apostles (probably forged).  Now these fiends would teach whatever doctrine would milk the most respect or money out of the maligned Corinthian church.  They would also claim that Paul was not qualified to teach them because he came without a letter.  These false teachers had to attack both the truth and the source of the truth in order to be heard.  In a side note if that seems to be the case with any preacher, look for his living letters whether they are compassionate Christians or deceitful negative hypocrites.  Paul told the Corinthians that they were his letter of commendation, they were living letters.  Anyone could read his letters by observing those whom he led to Christ.  These are his testimony, a beacon of long standing Christian light in an abyss of paganism.  As Christians we can and should have these living letters, spiritual offspring, which testify to our commitment to Christ.  For the true judge it will be decisions made in the light of truth without respect to persons.  For the good doctor it will be a history of help and health given to generations in need.  For the Christian it will be proof of God’s hand in our endeavors.  For the Christian parents it will be God fearing children trained in the way they should go.  For the Christian minister it will be a legacy of integrity toward the Word and its people.  And finally for all Christians it will be a characteristic way of bringing people closer to Christ which will be written “not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.”