Undeniable reality

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 everyone. 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 3:1-3

Here we find the fifth mark of authentic Christianity: undeniable reality. Paul is aware that he is beginning to sound highly complimentary to himself. He knows there are some in Corinth who will take these words in that way. Indeed, it is obvious from his words that some had even suggested in previous correspondence that the next time he came to Corinth he bring letters of recommendation from some of the Twelve in Jerusalem! They were thinking of Paul as though he were entirely like themselves: so continually praising himself that no one would believe him until he had confirmation from more objective sources.

But Paul says to them, in effect, You want letters of recommendation to prove I have authority as a messenger of God? Why, you yourselves are all the recommendation I need! Look what has happened to you. Are you any different? Have there been any changes in you since you came to Christ through my word? Your own hearts will bear witness to yourselves and before the world that the message you heard from us and which has changed your lives is from God. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul made reference to the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers, etc., he had found in Corinth. And that is what some of you were, he added (verses 9-11). But now they had been washed, sanctified, and justified by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. These changes were proof of reality.

The Corinthians had written to Paul about the joy they now had and the hope and meaning which had been brought into their lives. They described to him the deliverance from shame and guilt they had experienced, the freedom from fear and hostility, from darkness and death, which was theirs. So he says to them, in effect, This is your confirmation. You yourselves are walking letters from God, known and read by all men, written by the Spirit of God in your hearts. Here is the final mark of genuine Christianity: undeniable reality, a change that cannot be explained on any other terms than God at work. Paul did not need letters of recommendation when this kind of change was evident in the lives of his hearers.

Once I heard of a Christian who had been an alcoholic for years and then was converted. Someone asked him, Now that you are a Christian, do you believe the miracles of the New Testament? He answered, Yes, I do. The other man said, Do you believe that story about Jesus changing water into wine? He said, I sure do. The other said, How can you believe such nonsense? The Christian replied, I'll tell you how; because in our house Jesus changed whiskey into furniture! That is the mark of authenticity. Such a marked change cannot occur except under the impulse of a powerful relationship that substitutes the love of Christ for the love of drink.

Thank you, Father, for the change you have brought about in my life and in the lives of others I see around me. Amen.