Good morning. Do you remember the days when you would look forward to the mail, anticipating a special card or letter from that “special person” in your life? They were known as love letters. Personally, I think it is rather tragic that this precious type of personal communication is now replaced by things like text messages. The text may share some of the same words, but there is no way that they are the same as that card or letter. (Parents may have to explain to their children what it is I am talking about. Yes, there was a time when we sent letters through the mail!)
From time to time, I refer to the quagmire of sin that was the culture of ancient Corinth. Imagine what it was like for people coming from a culture where several kinds of sin, especially deviant sexual sin, was not only tolerated but celebrated!
At the beginning of our preaching ministry we lived in Staples, MN. It was a small city of about 2,500 that had homes which reflected stable middle class, and wealthy (by local standards) abodes that spoke of upper echelon status. There were also several homes that reflected the poverty of their inhabitants. I remember one such home that looked worse than any of its run-down neighbors. It hadn’t seen paint in decades. The roof was missing shingles, and the brick chimney was missing bricks. The lawn was cluttered with garbage and trash. Windows were cracked and the front porch had broken away on one end. It was a terrible sight, so bad that no one would want to live there. Then one day it all began to change. The garbage was gathered and hauled away. The porch, roof, and chimney were repaired. The entire home received a fine paint job. That building went from an eyesore to a place of welcome. It was easy to assume that the inside had seen the same level of change. It had become a home that was ready for a family, ready to be loved.
That is the kind of renovation that was needed within the hearts and minds of the people of Corinth. When the Holy Spirit arrived and took up residence in the hearts of the Corinthian Christians; incredible and powerful changes were needed. In 2 Corinthians 3:1-3 we read this: Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 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.
Isn’t this a wonderful word picture given to us by the apostle Paul? He asks if there should be any need for them (Paul and his helpers) to be formally recommended to the people of Corinth. “No,” he says. He tells them that they are his letter of recommendation. That what is made known through the work that is already accomplished in them should be easily read and understood by everyone around. It is like they were once wrecks of homes that were worthless, but now have been transformed into beautiful homes full of life.
It is like they are love letters from God to the people around them. Imagine that. God sees the wreck on the corner, the place that is unfit and despised, but instead of being revolted by it, He sees it as a place to be repaired and to love. God sees a place for the Holy Spirit to get to work, and when they are done it will be beautiful, like a love letter by God for the world to read.
I don’t believe that we have to be total wrecks to be worthy of God’s loving attention and careful repair. In fact, I know that we don’t. God loves us wherever and however we are. Whatever may be our state of repair or disrepair, God loves us. God loves us so much that He is unwilling to leave us as He finds us, broken and impaired. God loves us so much that He is committed to diving right in and to immediately get to work to fix what is broken, to repair what is damaged, to make beautiful again all that sin has made ugly.
As God does His work within us, and I don’t believe any of us are ever a completely finished product, we are revealed to the world as living, breathing, love letters from God. Love letters written by the Holy Spirit and gushing with words and thoughts of the love of God. God takes the broken and makes it lovely.
Praise God for His thoughts, words, and actions within us that reveal the power of His love!
Vern