The image of the Church as a letter is admittedly one of the minor analogies in the Bible. Two reasons suggest that it is a minor metaphor. One reason is because it occurs in only one place, 2 Corinthians 3:2–3. The other reason is that it is applied to a single local congregation, the church in Corinth, making it a highly contextual image.
In its specific context the image was intended to respond to critics who questioned the genuineness of Paul’s apostleship and, by implication, the genuineness of the gospel he preached.
A meaningful metaphor
Although it is a picture of a church drawn to fit a specific situation this is by no means a meaningless metaphor. So this week we explore this singular way of thinking about a church.
Concerning the Corinthian church, the passage explains, “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor. 3:2–3). This analogy lends itself to multiple ideas about the church.
For all to read
According to the analogy, a church is a letter from Christ for all to read. The emerging truth from this image is that a church must embody the gospel it proclaims.
Members must embody the message of Christ not only when gathered in their place of worship but especially when dispersed in their community between Sundays. This embodiment includes living out the moral and social standards of the gospel in a way that is in proportion with the church’s preaching and teaching.
Seeing is believing
As we sometimes like to say, seeing is believing. The world around us needs to be able to sight-read Christians as living letters sent by Christ into the world for all to know and read. As living letters, church members are to take care not to distort or misrepresent the gospel.
Being a believable representation of Christ’s message is more than a human achievement. Hence in the analogy of being a letter, the Holy Spirit is the ink with which the letter is being written and our hearts are the tablets on which the Spirit is seeking to inscribe Christ’s message.
Clear implication
The implication is quite clear. The process requires us to acknowledge the Holy Spirit as the formative influence and enablement for churches becoming all that Christ means for them to be in our world. For the process to work, each member of the church needs to be available to the Spirit for Him to do His work of inscribing the gospel on our hearts.
It is like one notable believer put it, “I received mercy for this reason, so that in me … Christ Jesus might demonstrate His extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:16). That notable Christian, of course, was the apostle Paul.
Our daily demeanor
Might not we all think of our church as a letter from Christ addressed to our community?
If so, what is Christ saying to those who are familiar with our church? Is His message clear and plain, or is it somewhat garbled or inconsistent? What does our daily demeanor in the world say to those who form their image of the gospel on the basis of what they see in us?
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