2 Corinthians 3:1-3 (ESV)
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
To understand this passage we have to return to the context of Paul writing to the church at Corinth, a church he established by preaching the glory of God through the risen savior, Jesus Christ. The fact that he has to continue to write about his apostleship is enough for us to know they are not getting his message. They continue to question his authenticity. In the above passage he turns the table on them. He is, in essence saying, if you deny that I am a real apostle, you are denying that my message was true. If my message was not true your salvation is not true, since you are my authenticity; our letter of recommendation. This is a very powerful argument. The beauty of the passage is also found in the fact that you have Paul’s work, their faith, Christ’s death, the Spirit’s work, through the power of God all listed in one short paragraph. The entire salvation action is found in this passage. God used the Son to perform the work needed for their salvation and brought about the obedience of faith using Paul’s work as it was produced by the Spirit. That is how salvation has happened to them. Therefore they must accept Paul’s authority becuase it is based upon God’s design. Our entire salvation is the same way. Someone shared the gospel with us and through the power of the Spirit, through the person, we came to Christ.
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