After speaking a very strong word to admonish the saints in Corinth in his first letter to them, the apostle Paul comforted them in his second letter, to assure them his heart was still for them. He told them,

You are our letter, inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men, since you are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets of flesh, that is, of your hearts.
— 2 Corinthians 3:2-3

How he speaks of the Spirit’s writing on the believers here is quite crucial. If it had been us, we almost surely would have said this letter was written on their hearts, “not with a pen, but with the Spirit of the living God.” Paul, however, does not say this. Rather, the apostle tells us this letter was actually written, “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.”

He is saying, in other words, that the Spirit works within us not as an external force, like a pen, but as something imparted into our being, like the ink.

Suppose the Spirit were to write upon us, like a pen, “Peace” and “Love” and “Joy.” Then we would have these virtues in our being as something we possessed in ourselves. Even though we would have them as the result of the Spirit’s work, we would have them apart from the Spirit Himself.

And in fact, with almost all Christians, this is how they want the Spirit to work in them, and how they expect that He will do His work.

But, when we realize the Spirit actually works in us, not like a pen, but like the ink, the result is entirely different. Now when He imparts these virtues into our being, it means He is not just giving us these virtues as things in themselves; rather, by imparting them into us, He is making Himself one with us; that is, He Himself is becoming these virtues within us. So, if people see us express these virtues, it is not that they see us as good people who have been improved by the work of the Spirit, but that they see Christ Himself being magnified from within us (Phil. 1:20-21). So, we are not displaying ourselves as good people who now have this virtue or that virtue; rather, as Paul shares in the following chapter of 2nd Corinthians, we are displaying Christ as the treasure from within our earthen vessel (2 Cor. 4:7),

…that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God, and not of us.
— 2 Corinthians 4:7

And that is what it means to be “manifested as a letter of Christ” that is “known and read by all men.”

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—  20 July 2024 —