You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:3)

St. Paul had visited Corinth, a city in Greece, and preached and ministered for a year and a half. He had established a church there earlier. The people who had been pagans responded joyfully to Paul’s message of the risen Christ. When Paul left, he and the church members stayed in touch with letters, two of which are in our Bible as Corinthians 1 and 2. The new- born church had many questions and concerns, which Paul addressed. In his second letter he wrote: “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. . . Not that we lord it over your faith , but we work with you for your joy, because by faith you stand firm.” (2 Corinthians 2:21, 24) Paul’s ability to see the Corinthians as fellow Christians and his overflowing love for them came from witnessing their conversion at his preaching. His delight in receiving news from them is the delight of God Himself when a silent soul begins to speak to Him.

Some of the struggles of the Corinthians can be seen in our world as well. The conflicts among religious groups, and the upheaval of political parties, are competing with the simple truth of the Gospel. Paul witnessed the triumph of that truth in many of the people of the church in Corinth. He had seen the joy of souls who found themselves forgiven and renewed and accepted as a child of God. Their renewal was his, as well, as they became letters from Christ to him. This process, of becoming a letter from Christ, continues to this day in the lives of Christians everywhere. In spite of the changes in the world in two thousand years, the Spirit of God conveys the joy, the peace that passes understanding, and even the presence of a Holy God to us as it did to Paul and to the Corinthians. “ For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved. . . . an aroma that brings life.” (2Corinthians 2:15)

Some people actually put perfume on their stationery. Christians know that their faith is the sweetest fragrance to our God. Paul experienced such a fragrance and rejoiced in sharing it with us in his letters for two thousand years and counting. He has helped make each of us a letter from Christ.

Love in Him,

Prue