Letter of recommendation

Letter of recommendation

Bible:2 Corinthians 2:17-3:6

Reading

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by
everyone (V.2).

Sometimes students leaving school ask their teachers to write letters of recommendation for them—for jobs, study-abroad programmes, college applications or other opportunities. In each letter, the teachers have a chance to praise each student’s character and abilities. When Christians travelled in the ancient world, they often carried with them similar letters of recommendation from their churches. A letter like that made sure that the traveller would be welcomed at any church they came to. The apostle Paul didn’t need a letter of recommendation when he spoke to the church in Corinth—they knew him. In his second letter to that church, Paul
wrote that he preached the gospel out of genuine care, not for personal gain (2 CORINTHIANS 2:17). But then he wondered if his readers would think that in defending his motives in preaching, he was trying to write a letter of recommendation for himself. He didn’t need such a letter, he said, because the people in the church in Corinth were themselves like letters of recommendation. The obvious work of Jesus in their lives was like a letter “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God” (3:3). Their lives clearly showed the true gospel Paul had preached to them—their lives were letters of recommendation that could be “known and read by everyone” (3:2). As we follow Jesus, this becomes true of us too—our lives tell the story of how good it is to belong to God and be changed by His Spirit

OUR LIVES ARE LETTERS FROM JESUS TO THE
WORLD.

Youth Edition – Our Daily Bread Ministries