“Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? 2. You are our epistles written in our hearts, known and read of all men. 3. Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”
I was looking through my sermon files and came across this sermon that I have preached several times across the years. I thought I would share it with you via this media. Because of the problems that Paul had with the Corinthian Church, he asked them if he needed a letter of commendation as some had to do to have access to them. Then he reminded them that they were his letters of commendation. He referred to them as epistles (or letters) of Christ. In other words the Corinthians were letters from Christ to the pagan world around them. The same thing could be said of us. Which leads me to the question: What kind of letter are you? Are you a business letter? These come across my desk all of the time. They are not bad letters, they are just impersonal. When I see “Dear Sir” I know that the person writing the letter doesn’t know me. This is not bad with letters, but it is with us. We can be “business as usual” Christians. You know, the kind that you see in church some Sundays. It might not be true but these “business” people seem to have no heart. It appears that they do not care about people, and that they are cold and uncaring. Don’t be a business letter. Are you a form, or “junk” letter? I have received these types of letters that were written on computers with my name dubbed in. The letter had no interest in me. Their main interest was what I could do for them, or what I might be willing to purchase from them. If we aren’t careful, we can appear to be “junk” letters. We would appear to be interested only in what we can get out of people, instead of serving them. Are you a hate letter? This means that we appear to people that we hate them. I know that it is difficult to “hate the sin and love the sinner” and convince people that we love them, but we should surely try. If we aren’t careful we will come across to people as Pharisees. Are you a friendly letter? The Bible urges us to be friendly people. I know, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that this is not always easy. Proverbs 17:17 reminds us: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” I interpret this to mean if we are to love people with brotherly, or sisterly, love, we will be friends even in adversity. Are you a love letter? Do you remember when people actually wrote letters and sent them through “snail mail” that they would write SWAK on the envelope? That meant “sealed with a kiss.” I don’t mean to be maudlin here, but our lives should be “sealed with a kiss.” We are told throughout the Bible to love other people, and we should certainly love even those who are not easy to love. Are you careful about punctuation? I have little space left for this point, so I will make it short, but, I hope, meaningful. Punctuation makes a difference. Dr. Chester Swor gave an example of the importance of commas: “Woman, without her, man is incomplete.” Now leave the comma out: “Woman without her man is incomplete.” The commas changed the entire meaning. One example: We need “pause marks” in our lives. We need to pause to pray, pause to read the Bible, pause to witness and minister to others. Anyway, what kind of letter are you? Think about it. Bro. Joe
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