BIG IDEA:
THE COMMENDATION FOR EFFECTIVE MINISTRY IS CHANGED LIVES
INTRODUCTION:
Anthony Thiselton: Self-promotion was the curse of notions of leadership in Corinth. . .
Corinth had achieved a remarkable prosperity in commerce and business. This led to a culture of competitiveness, pragmatism, consumerism, and pluralism. . . “Success” in its crudest form was the key to acceptance at Corinth. In today’s language, they wanted only “celebrities.” Paul’s insistence on authentic apostles was the very opposite to what they sought, and it took courage and integrity for Paul to point to a way that reflected Christ and his true ministers (3:1–18).
Charles Swindoll: Success. Just the sound of the word in our modern world works like a powerful stimulant. It brings to mind images of money, power, and prestige. Goals achieved, dreams fulfilled, obstacles overcome, enemies vanquished: Everybody loves a dose of success. And we know the recipe for success, don’t we? Successful people are well educated, fashionably dressed, impeccably groomed, and socially savvy. They look the part. They sail through challenges on a vessel of self-confidence propelled by unswerving determination —no distraction can get in their way. These things draw crowds and cameras, and before you know it, their names and pictures are pasted all over the media. In turn, the fame factor then drives both them and their business or organization’s marketing machine, generating more attention, more opportunities, more revenue —more success.
As difficult as it may be to accept, those are not the things that spell success in God’s eyes. A person’s outward appearance or social panache? God’s not swayed an inch by them. Scripture says, “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). Self-confidence that plows forward with goals and plans despite every obstacle? Only if the Lord wills. James wrote, “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that’” (Jas. 4:15). Shameless self-promotion that sells a slick “public image” to a ready consumer culture? The Lord’s not impressed. Paul wrote, “For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends” (2 Cor. 10:18). The world may be infatuated with glamour, guts, and glory, but God has a completely different standard of success.
Sadly, these worldly elements of success have worked their way into our churches and ministries. Nowadays a successful ministry is measured by how many thousands attend or tune in to your services, by the level of fame and influence of your preacher, or by the state-of-the-art amenities on your physical campus.
Frank Matera: Letters of recommendation played an important role in the early church, since they were the means by which one community introduced and recommended evangelists, missionaries, and preachers to another (see Acts 18:27), thereby assuring the legitimacy and integrity of such people. Accordingly Paul recommends Phoebe, a deaconess of Cenchreae, to the church at Rome (Rom 16:1). Likewise, although he does not explicitly use the language of recommendation, he uses 1 Corinthians to pave the way for Timothy (1 Cor 4:17; 16:10) and 2 Corinthians to prepare for the visit of Titus and the two unnamed brothers (2 Cor 8:18–23). Whether Paul ever sought such letters of recommendation for himself is another matter, since, unlike the intruding apostles whom he criticizes (10:15), he evangelized where the gospel had not yet been preached. In any case, it is evident that Paul did not come to Corinth with letters of recommendation or seek them from the community when he departed. His question here, however, suggests that he is now under some pressure from the Corinthians to produce such letters, perhaps because intruding apostles have arrived with letters of recommendation and flattered the Corinthians by asking them for such letters.
R. Kent Hughes: Given the situation, Paul’s point is that he himself needed no such letters of recommendation, and that such letters would be ridiculous in the light of his lengthy association with the Corinthians. Paul, in effect, declares the absurdity of the idea that he needed human commendations so that he could then present his true credentials — credentials of the heart authored by Christ and the Holy Spirit. In presenting his credentials, Paul gives us the indispensable credentials of all true gospel ministry.
Scott Hafemann: Paul’s argument now takes a decisive turn. Up to now, he has argued for the legitimacy of his ministry based on his suffering as the divinely ordained means for mediating the comfort of God to believers (1:3–11) and the knowledge of God to the world (2:14–17). Beginning in 3:1–3, Paul vies for the validity of his apostleship based on the presence and power of the Spirit as the specific content of his mediation. If the means of Paul’s apostolic ministry is his suffering, the Spirit is its content as the one who converts and comforts the Christian and convicts the world (1:21–22; 2:15–16a). By embodying the gospel, Paul mediates the Spirit.
The transition in Paul’s train of thought is marked by the two rhetorical questions of 3:1, both of which anticipate a negative response (he introduces them in 3:1a with the negative particle me). In view of his suffering and weakness, Paul’s opponents had evidently dismissed his exalted claims as an apostle to be nothing more than unsubstantiated “hot air.” His rhetorical questions and their implied answer anticipate this charge once again. Paul is not engaging in mere self-commendation when he claims that his suffering is the divinely orchestrated vehicle of God’s self-revelation, as if he had no evidence to back up what he said. After all, his leaving Troas and his practice of self-support are clear evidence of his genuine nature as an apostle.
Nor, for the same reasons, does he have to rely on letters of recommendation from others to validate his claims, as his opponents do for theirs. In the ancient world, like today, the need for letters of recommendation indicated that someone lacked his own evidence to back up the claims being made. Letters of recommendation are a substitute source of credibility. But Paul’s work as an apostle speaks for itself, especially his founding of the church in Corinth (10:12–18; cf. 1 Cor. 4:14–17; 15:10). Thus, the Corinthians themselves are Paul’s “letter of recommendation” (2 Cor. 3:2; cf. 1 Cor. 9:1–2). It is this “letter” (i.e., the Corinthians themselves as Christians) that Paul carries around “written on our hearts,” so that it can be “known and read by everybody.”
Paul Barnett: Paul’s difficulty was that he lacked external accreditation. He was not one of the original disciples of Jesus. The Corinthians had only Paul’s word that he was in good standing with the leaders of the Jerusalem church (Gal. 2:9). His only course was to reiterate that the risen Lord had called him to be an apostle and to point to his sacrificial lifestyle as legitimizing that call. Yet this easily made it appear that he was ‘commending himself’. His dilemma was that he must either say nothing in his defence and allow the work in Corinth to be destroyed by default, or run the risk of the accusation that he was blowing his own trumpet. According to Goudge, ‘Self-defence is almost impossible without self-commendation. St. Paul’s opponents made the former necessary, and then blamed him for the latter.’
Although he does not answer his own question directly, the implication is that he was not, in fact, commending himself. If he will commend himself it is to their ‘consciences’ and then ‘in the sight of God’ (4:2). He knew that it is the Lord who commends people, not people themselves (10:18), and that the commendation is directed towards the consciences of others. Although he does not commend himself, he feels deeply that the Corinthians should have commended him (12:11), since he was in no way inferior to his opponents, not even in their much-vaunted field of ‘signs, wonders and miracles’ (12:12). Nevertheless he does remind them of the facts. It is through him that God manifests the fragrance of the knowledge of God, and it is by his ministry that the Christians in Corinth manifest that they are a letter from Christ to the watching world.
John MacArthur: As he replied to their scurrilous attacks, the apostle found himself in a delicate position. He was aware that no matter what he said in his defense, the false apostles would twist it around and accuse him of pride, egotism, and self-commendation. Nothing would have been further from the truth; Paul was not interested in mounting a self-serving defense designed to protect his prestige and reputation. Yet the apostle knew that it was crucial that he defend himself, because he was the apostolic channel through which God’s truth flowed to the Corinthians. If they succeeded in discrediting him, the false apostles would block the pipeline through which divine truth flowed to the church.
As he defended his spiritual adequacy, Paul revealed five marks of a competent minister of Jesus Christ—all of which he exemplified.
- A competent and effective minister has an established reputation for godliness,
- has been used in transforming lives,
- has confidence in his calling,
- has humble dependence on God’s power,
- and has a new covenant message.
I. (:1) UNNECESSARY TYPES OF COMMENDATION
A. (:1a) Personal Boasting
“Are we beginning to commend ourselves again?”
Prov. 27:2 “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth”
How did Christ demonstrate His authority and His power to change lives?
B. (:1b) Lifeless Words on a Piece of Paper (cf. academic degrees)
“Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?”
The Apostles were not polished graduates from some academic institution.
Not saying that sending churches should not provide letters of commendation.
Harris: Paul is not here disparaging the use of letters of introduction. Their use had already become established within the Christian world (see Acts 18:27) and Paul himself had sought epistolary credentials from the high priest at Jerusalem before setting out for the synagogues of Damascus (Acts 9:2; 22:5). Also he himself gave what amounted to commendatory letters (Rom 16:1, 2; 1 Cor 16:3, 10, 11; 2 Cor 8:16-24).
Frank Matera: Although Paul seems to alternate between protesting that he does not commend himself and commending himself, the general pattern of his thought is clear enough. He knows that he has been commended to the Corinthians by God, as he will soon explain. To that extent, he need not commend himself to them as if he enjoyed some special competency of his own. But he does commend himself to everyone’s conscience in God’s sight, and he commends himself as God’s servant on the basis of his apostolic afflictions (6:4), because of his apostolic integrity, to which his own conscience bears witness (1:12).
II. (:2-3) THE ONLY VALID COMMENDATION FOR EFFECTIVE MINISTRY = CHANGED LIVES
A. Impressive Disciples – Changed Lives Evident to All
“You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men”
Mark Seifrid: The legitimation of the apostle rests in the Corinthians themselves: “You are our letter.” As the legitimation of apostolic ministry, they are not in a position to legitimate that ministry by their own judgments. Paul’s apostolic credentials lie in them and their faith, which has its boast in God’s work in and through Christ. As he indicates at an earlier stage in the conflict, the Corinthians themselves are “the seal” of his apostleship, the confirmation of its validity (1 Cor 9:2). In a profound and tragic irony, the Corinthians are seeking the signs of an apostle in the weak and suffering Paul (12:12). They have not yet realized that they themselves are the proof of God’s power that is also at work in him (1 Cor 2:5). . .
The letter of the Corinthians, written within his heart, is “known and read” by everyone. Paul’s claim that his love for the Corinthians is a matter of open and public knowledge is an assertion of his integrity and, in fact, pregnantly echoes his earlier claim concerning his letters: just as those letters contain nothing other than what the Corinthians “read and know” (1:13), so all the world knows that he has them “written in his heart.” Paul’s love for the Corinthians is a matter of record: he boasts of his cost-free ministry among them. His distress in Troas and joy in Macedonia over them were likewise known to others. He also has boasted about them (“Achaia”) to the Macedonians in their commitment to the collection for Jerusalem (9:1-2). His claim here that this love letter is “known and read by all” is hyperbolic. Or perhaps it is not: the apostles have been made a spectacle to “humanity and to angels.” They bear the drama of Christ in their bodies and lives (1 Cor 4:9). Paul carries the treasure of the Gospel in an earthen vessel so that the life of Jesus may be manifest in his flesh (4:7-12). He has been made manifest to God and thus, he hopes, to the conscience of the Corinthians (5:11). In his suffering and deliverance, and in the sincerity that is his through the Gospel, his apostolic life has become a prolepsis of the final judgment, when all human beings shall be made manifest before Christ’s seat of judgment (5:10). That all persons know and read the love letter written in Paul’s heart is his claim to the final and decisive significance of his apostolic life and mission. The eschaton, which has broken into the world in Christ, is present in Christ’s apostle and servant.
Richard Pratt: In response to his own question, Paul asserted that he actually had letters of recommendation: the Corinthian Christians themselves. Their new lives in Christ proved the effectiveness and divine approval of Paul’s ministry. He described them as letters written on our hearts. This phrase has been the subject of controversy. Some ancient texts read “your hearts.” This alternate reading makes more sense with the context. If it is correct, then Paul was saying that the changes that had taken place in the hearts of the Corinthians were his letters of recommendation. These changes were on their hearts, but they were not hidden. Everybody was able to see these changes of the heart displayed in their lives.
Frank Matera: Some commentators argue that the alternate reading (“your hearts”) makes better sense of the context, since the Corinthian community would be a letter that all can see, whereas a letter on Paul’s heart would be hidden. There is, however, a logic to the more difficult and better attested reading, “our hearts.”
- First, since a letter of recommendation must be carried by the bearer, Paul carries his letter of recommendation in his heart.
- Second, since Paul is the minister of a new covenant written on human hearts by the Spirit of the Living God, his letter of recommendation is written by the Spirit on his heart.
- Third, his letter can be known and read by all because his apostolic integrity (the theme of this letter) makes him apparent to all.
To summarize, Paul’s work as the apostolic founder of the Corinthian congregation is his letter to and from the community, written by the Spirit on his heart, because he is the minister of a new covenant.
Paul Barnett: Nevertheless, what is now ‘manifest’ for all to read was first written in their hearts with the Spirit of the living God. The new lifestyle which was so visible and striking was the outworking of something which began within the inner recesses of their hearts, through the power of the Spirit of God. True Christianity is not a veneer of morality glued on to the exterior of our lives, but a profound change of heart, mind and will which is then expressed in outward behaviour. The word of God changes individuals, in the context of Christian fellowship, from the inside out.
B. Imitators of Christ – Nurtured by Good Role Models
- Producing Christlikeness
“being manifested that you are a letter of Christ”
Ralph Martin: Where is the true source of authority? What are genuine credentials for ministry? The Corinthians themselves gave evidence that they are “a letter of Christ” (ἐπιστολὴ Χριστοῦ, where the genitive is subjective: they are a letter whose author is Christ).
John MacArthur: Paul’s letter of commendation was not private correspondence, hidden in hearts and therefore readable by only a few; it was known and read by all men. All who witnessed the transformed lives of the Corinthians had read it; it was continually being manifested or made conspicuous. C. K. Barrett writes, “The existence of the Corinthian Christians in Christ is a communication from Christ to the world, a manifestation of His purpose for humanity; this communication, incidentally, has the effect of commending Paul as a trustworthy bearer of the word of Christ”.
The Corinthians were a living letter of Christ, because it is He alone who saves and sanctifies, through the preaching of His Word by faithful men like Paul. This introduces an essential and wondrous truth—that when a preacher proclaims divine revelation accurately, it is Christ speaking through him.
R. Kent Hughes: Paul took care to make sure that the Corinthians understood that he was not the author of the letter: “And you show that you are a letter from Christ” (v. 3a). A letter of recommendation must always come from a third party, and the ultimate third-party recommender is Christ, the Messiah himself. By claiming Messiah as the author, Paul was able to claim higher authority for his credentials than his enemies could claim for theirs. Thus Paul’s role was secondary, that of delivery — “a letter from Christ delivered by us.” Since the literal meaning of “delivered” is “ministered,” this suggests that Christ is the author and Paul is the scribe who ministers or serves by the preaching of the gospel. Calvin says of this:
[Paul] says that it was ministered by himself, likening himself, as it were to the ink and the pen. In other words, he makes Christ the Author and himself the instrument in order that his detractors may understand that they have Christ Himself to deal with if they go on speaking maliciously against His apostle.
The effect of all this is stunningly remarkable. Paul has the Corinthians embedded as living letters in the deep interior of his heart, but they were written by Messiah himself.
- Using us as Spiritual Caretakers
“cared for by us”
David Garland: Today, most people in churches recognize that it is not the academic degrees earned but the degree of concern for the lives of others and the willingness to sacrifice for them that truly commend a minister.
C. Supernaturally Changed – by the Holy Spirit
“written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God”
Mark Seifrid: Paul here speaks of the saving work of God as simultaneously fixed and yet dynamic, complete and yet in progress. The medium of God’s writing is not mere ink but “the Spirit of the living God,” the God who, according to name and title, is powerful and active in the hearts and lives of the Corinthians. Paul thus contrasts the inert and dead medium of “ink” with the agency of the Spirit: “written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God.” Nevertheless, in that the Corinthians are a written letter, God’s work in them is complete and fixed, as is all writing. They are, moreover, “a letter of Christ,” who has been communicated to them by the Gospel that Paul must defend against all misunderstanding. The fixity of the epistle does not exclude, but includes, the incessant work of “the Spirit of the living God,” in ever new, living, and fresh ways. As Paul will make clear in the following context, the Spirit establishes an active, saving communication between the fallen human being and God, a communication that does not end, not even with death itself (vv. 17-18). This communication is both determinate and yet unendingly new.
David Garland: Paul gives three characteristics of the letter in this verse.
- First, they are a letter authored by the Spirit of the living God and not by humans. For Paul, this image means that others may have letters authored by humans, but in the Corinthians he has a divinely authored letter. If Christ is the one who authors this letter and writes it on the hearts of believers through the Spirit, then Christ “is the new covenant counterpart of the Yahweh of Exodus 31 who wrote the law on the two stone tablets with his finger.” The risen Christ continues to be present and active in the Christian community.
- Second, this letter is the result of the Spirit’s work through Paul’s ministry. The phrase translated “delivered by us” reads literally “being ministered by us” (diakonētheisa huph’ humōn). Paul is the letter’s writer courier. The letter written by the Spirit endorses its bearer as an authorized minister of Christ and the gospel.
- Third, Paul draws a contrast between what is written “with ink” (which fades) and what is written by the Spirit (which does not fade), what is chiseled on stone tablets and what is inscribed on human hearts.
D. Internally Transformed — a Matter of the Heart (not external reform)
“not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.”
John MacArthur: The tablets of stone were those on which God supernaturally inscribed the Ten Commandments (Ex. 31:18; 32:15–16). But the miracle of Sinai cannot match the miracle of salvation. At Corinth, God had written not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. In both cases God inscribed the same law; His standards of morality do not change. Some wrongly assume that because believers are under the new covenant they no longer have to keep God’s law. But that is not true. Being under the new covenant does not excuse believers from keeping the Law; it frees them and by the Spirit enables them to keep it. The Law written on the tablets of stone at Sinai was external; it confronted people with their inability to obey perfectly the holy, righteous, and good requirements of God and thus condemned them. But in the new covenant, God writes His law on the hearts of those He redeems. The power of the indwelling Holy Spirit enables them to keep that law, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputed to them by grace, covers all their violations of it. . .
The false apostles at Corinth were clinging to the external Law written on tablets of stone, advocating salvation by works, rituals, and ceremonies. This, as always, is a damning message because no one can be perfect enough to keep the whole Law.
Frank Matera: To summarize, in this second subunit (3:1–3), Paul presents the Corinthian community as his apostolic letter of recommendation. The community is a letter from Christ administered by Paul and written by the Spirit of the Living God. With this reference to the Spirit, Paul anticipates what he will say in the next subunit (3:4–6) about his new covenant ministry.
* * * * * * * * * *
PREACHING CHRIST:
1) Jesus Christ came to change the heart of man … to transform him from the inside out … not to reform the externals. Initial conversion plays itself out in ongoing sanctification by the Spirit so that increasing Christlikeness is evident to all.
2) We don’t have to worry about how others evaluate our ministry; the only one whose opinion counts is our Lord and Master. It is the Holy Spirit who commends men to positions of ministry leadership in the church.
3) Jesus Christ makes His disciples a “letter of Christ” by transforming them by His grace and writing His law on their hearts and enabling them to fulfill His righteousness.
He took a bunch of fishermen and outcasts from society who had no formal training or academic degrees and transformed them into the pillars of His church.
4) Our shepherding work in caring for the flock is patterned after the Chief Shepherd who gave His life for the flock.