Letters Of Recommendation
It's in this context (see earlier lesson Aroma) that Paul goes into speaking about letters that establish authority (2 Corinthians 3:1). It appears his Jewish (see 11:22) opponents, in one way or another, have raised the question about Paul's authority. Paul had experienced tensions with Jerusalem and Antioch (even with his friend Barnabas) and had no home church to approve of his missionary work so where does he get his commission and authority? He will insist that his letters of recommendation are written on his own heart (following the better-attested reading in 3:2) and on the heart of those who were led to Christ by him. These weren't "external" letters.
Paul's opponents appeared to brag on their Jewish connection (11:21-22) and consequently would be pleased to be identified with Moses. Moses might be well established as God's leader right now but it wasn't always that way. His divine commission was called in question every time he turned around. (This was true of many of the prophets and leaders God called.)
If Moses was doubted it's no big surprise that Paul would be. Moses now fully accepted as God's sent one was doubted even when he had his letters of recommendation straight from God's hand. Moses' letters were written on stone and were external to the people. When Moses appeared with those letters the people had something else written on their hearts--rebellion instead of acceptance. The result was death. The reason death was the result was precisely because the letters (the covenant word) brought by Moses remained external to the people who exchanged their Glory for a grass-eating bull (Psalm 106:20). It was also the case that their apostasy involved the rejecting of God's messenger (Exodus 32:1,23). There are plain implications here for those who reject Paul as God's sent man.
The trouble with letters of recommendation is that they're only worth as much as the people who wrote them, the people who carry them and those who can appreciate them when they're shown to them. If the carrier doesn't have in him what the letter has on the paper, the letter is his judge, and speaks death to him. Letters didn't make the minister worthy--he showed the letters to be true. But it works that way too for those who receive them! If they don't have the heart to appreciate the letters they receive, it's death to them as well. If they think them true and reject the messenger they lose. If they think them untrue when they're true they lose again.
Moses came down the mountain with his own "letters of recommendation" but those letters (which Paul's opponents may have laid special claim to) on tables of stone were not on the hearts of the people to whom he brought them. And the result? When Moses' external letters met evil hearts the result was death (see Exodus 32). When Paul came in the Spirit of the Lord the result was life because the Spirit of Christ wrote in no other place than on human hearts. The Corinthians should have been glad that all that was true. Paul's letter of recommendation is the gospel he brought and the Corinthians had rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and received that gospel Paul carried on his heart. This spoke well of the Corinthians and it should have spoken well for Paul.
It's always true that "the letter" works death. When Paul proclaims and lives out the gospel, in that very process, life and death are ministered (2:16). The good news is not simply an invitation for people to "let Jesus into your heart". It is a proclamation that Jesus is Lord--that's the gospel.
The "letter" is the will of God when it's external to the heart of the person carrying or receiving it. It's something you can talk about as being "out there". It's something you can "possess" without it possessing you. It may the true, of course, but if truth isn't internalised it stands in judgment rather than in approval; it brings (points out) death rather than life. If Paul's "letter," which was written on his own heart, had remained external to the Corinthians it would have meant death to them. Since by the Spirit of God it had been internalised it stood as Paul's letter of recommendation and proof of their own incorporation into Christ with consequent life. All talk about external signs of authority is ill conceived.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.