“Jesus bids us shine”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Thursday, June 1, 2023
2 Corinthians 3:1-18 (Forward, p. 34) CEV p. 1207
The apostle Paul makes a rather startling and audacious statement here today in his second letter to the church at Corinth. He suggests that the believers there are like letters, publicly accessible letters, that are seen and read by all and sundry. In other words, their conduct and their behaviour, as ordinary human beings are matters of public knowledge. Everyone sees and is aware of what they are like. Furthermore, such is their excellent reputation publicly that neither he nor anyone else needs to boast about them. They are themselves their own letters testimonial, their own reference letters.
Paul then goes on to say that none of this is of their own doing. It is entirely the work of the Spirit. “We don’t have the right to claim that we have done anything on our own. God gives us what it takes to do all that we do” (verse 5). Indeed, he says, it is that selfsame Spirit that makes us worthy to be servants of the new covenant, the new agreement between God and humankind. But that is not all: this new covenant has a glory, an unfading radiance, that transforms even the people to whom it was given. Thus, we too, as God’s people, have a certain radiance. “They [our faces] show the bright glory of the Lord, as the Lord’s Spirit makes us more and more like our glorious Lord” (verse 18b).
However, pretty well anyone, skeptic or believer alike, might well interject here and ask, “Well, does this really describe what most Christians are like? Is this the reality that we see around us? Certainly, we know what we are ‘supposed’ to be like, but do we really measure up to this? We know what the ideal is but, do we live up to it?
Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, said, ‘let your lights so shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16) or as Paul says elsewhere, “Among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). However, as the old children’s hymn, “Jesus bids us shine”, suggests, sometimes ‘our light grows dim.’
So, here, then we are desperately in need of the Lord’s help, the help of His glorious and indwelling Spirit. That is why being immersed in His word and continuing faithful in prayer, and being shaped, directed & transformed by both is so crucial. We simply cannot do this in or of ourselves, and so we most definitely need His help. Amen.
Forward notes: “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ” (verses 2-3a)
“In elementary school, were you ever entrusted with the sacrosanct responsibility of delivering an ‘I like you’ note from your friend to their crush? I took pride in being a love note courier—someone who could not only reliably deliver the message but also compellingly represent who the friend was and what they brought to the table. In that role, I became as important as the message itself—I became the letter.
“Paul and his team are confident that the message they have for the Corinthians is a message dictated by God and transcribed by them, a word imprinted by the Holy Spirit on the hearts of the believers in Corinth. The Corinthian Christians are the letter of God for the people around them, made such by the work of the Spirit through the ministry of Paul and company.
“Do you see yourself as being Christ’s letter to be known and read by all? Are there letters (that is, people) who are written on your hearts, whom you are preparing to be ministers of a new covenant?”
Moving Forward: “Can others ‘read’ Christ’s letter in you?”