Do You Conduct Yourself In a Manner Worthy Of the Gospel?

Date: June 1, 1997-P.M.
Speaker: John Phillis
Main Scripture Reference: 2 Corinthians 3:1-5

Tonight, we’re going to talk about “letters.” No, this isn’t a preschool lesson on how to form your letters. This is the kind of letter that we write. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not a very good letter writer. As a matter of fact, I don’t like to write letters. I prefer to pick up the phone and dial long-distance and communicate that way. But I know there are some people who enjoy writing letters. But that’s something that just doesn’t interest me very much.

Brother Ancle Wishard read for us the first few verses of Paul’s letter—Paul’s epistle—to the Corinthians—actually his second epistle to the Corinthians. He is preparing to come and visit them again for the second time. On over in that same letter—over into chapter 3—I’d like to take just a few moments and read the first few verses of 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, and that will be our text for our lesson tonight. And I’m reading from the Kings James Version of the Bible:

[2 Corinthians 3:1-5 - King James Version of the Bible:]
¹ 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 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
³ Forasmuch as ye 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.
⁴ And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

Did you notice how Paul started this particular section? He started out with a question: “Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?” That’s verse 1.

I think, probably, behind this question was the thought of a custom which was quite common in the ancient world. It was the custom of sending letters of commendation with a person. If a person was going into a strange community, some acquaintance of his who had an acquaintance at the location where he was to go would write for him a letter of commendation, and, thus, testify to his character. These letters were what we might call “Letters of Introduction” or “References.”

Paul did just this for Phoebe to introduce her to the church at Rome when he wrote, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea,” Romans 16, verse 1.

Paul endured many trials and many sufferings during his ministries. Perhaps one of the most difficult trial or suffering for him was the opposition of false brethren. These were ones who professed to be Christians, but who were simply Jewish “legalists” who never fully comprehended the purpose of and the liberty of the Gospel of Christ. They were unceasingly “dogging” Paul’s footsteps.

Paul would hardly have left a place where he had ministered, and these Judaizing teachers, these Jewish “legalists” would come in behind him, and they would discredit his message by discrediting him as the messenger.

One of their common tactics was to call into question Paul’s apostleship. Particularly among the Gentile converts, these Jews would say such things as, “Why, you know, Paul is not really a true apostle. The ‘certified’ apostles of Jesus Christ were those whom He had called, and whom He had personally trained, and who were with Him for His three-year ministry here on the earth. Why, Paul didn’t even know Jesus while He was here on the earth! And he [Paul] has no letter from the ‘apostolic college’ in Jerusalem. Paul is simply a ‘free lancer’. You need to be careful how you receive him. As an example, when Paul came to visit you, did he have a letter of commendation?” they might ask. “Did he have a letter from the church in Jerusalem, or from another church from whence he came?”

(I’ll digress just for a moment to say that I believe that it is right and proper, even for us today as we may have the occasion to move our residence—as we leave one congregation, and we move to a new location and seek out another home congregation, we ought to take with us a letter of reference—a letter of commendation, if you will, from the congregation we are leaving. This is something that we [John and his family] have always done as we have traveled around the world. I think there is Scriptural authority for this practice. We’ve already mentioned Paul’s commendation for Phoebe to the church in Rome. In addition, Apollos, a total stranger, who was away from his home, was going from Ephesus to Achaia. The brethren in Ephesus gave Apollos a letter commending him to the confidence of the brethren there in Achaia. And we find that recorded for us in Acts 18, verse 27.)

But back to our discussion about Paul. Certainly, no letter of commendation should have been demanded from him. After all, he had been in the city of Corinth for 18 months, and his life had been an “open book” before all men. They had seen for themselves the manner of his life and had seen every genuineness of his profession. Now that he was away from them, and was anticipating another visit with them, some of these Judaizers, who were strong opponents of Paul, were saying, “Before allowing Paul to do any preaching again in your midst, you certainly ought to take the precaution to demand from him a letter of commendation.”