The Letter

The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

THE APOSTLE PAUL explains how God has written a letter on our hearts in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3. Because of what God has done in our lives, others can read his work in our lives through the Holy Spirit. We are a letter.

The phrase written on our hearts means a past act that has ongoing results. When we decide to surrender our lives to Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells us, sealing us to God (Ephesians 4:30, NIV). And the Holy Spirit writes a letter on each of our hearts in permanent, nonerasable ink.

However, even though the letter may have been written in the past (and for many of us who have known Christ for twenty to thirty years, it is a distant past!), this verse explains that our letter is still contemporary, usable, and “with it” because the verbs known and read are in present tense, which means continual action.^a

You have been chosen to carry the message of hope. From the moment you received Christ, you became one of his “greeting cards,” bringing good news.

God “cares enough to send the very best.” Where is he “mailing you” today?