Our Daily Bread, Writing Letters - September 10, 2017

Read: 2 Corinthians 3:1–6 | Bible in a Year: Proverbs 8–9; 2 Corinthians 3

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.
2 Corinthians 3:2

My mother and her sisters engage in what is increasingly becoming a lost art form—writing letters. Each week they pen personal words to each other with such consistency that one of their mail-carriers worries when he doesn’t have something to deliver! Their letters brim with the stuff of life, the joys and heartaches along with the daily happenings of friends and family.
I love to reflect on this weekly exercise of the women in my family. It helps me appreciate even more the apostle Paul’s words that those who follow Jesus are “a letter from Christ,” who were “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God” (2 Cor. 3:3). In response to false teachers who wanted to discredit his message (see 2 Cor. 11), Paul encouraged the church in Corinth to keep on following the true and living God as he had previously taught. In doing so, he memorably described the believers as Christ’s letter, with their transformed lives a more powerful witness to the Spirit working through Paul’s ministry than any written letter could be.
How wonderful that God’s Spirit in us writes a story of grace and redemption! For as meaningful as written words can be, it is our lives that are the best witness to the truth of the gospel, for they speak volumes through our compassion, service, gratitude, and joy. Through our words and actions, the Lord spreads His life-giving love. What message might you send today?

Lord God, write the story of my life so that I might reflect Your love and goodness to those I encounter today.
We are Christ’s letters.
By Amy Boucher Pye

INSIGHT
Our Lord Jesus said we are the salt and light of the world (Matt. 5:13–14) to illustrate the impact believers have in their community (v. 16). We are not saved by our good works (Eph. 2:8–9), but once saved what we do and how we live are a
witness to the power of Christ to change lives.
Sim Kay Tee