Will you please turn to 2 Corinthians? We will read the whole of 2 Corinthians 3.
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you?
Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men;
being manifested that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God;
not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh.
And such confidence have we through Christ toward God:
not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;
Who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.
But if the ministration of death, written, and engraven on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly upon the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which glory was passing away:
how shall not rather the ministration of the Spirit be with glory?
For if the ministration of condemnation hath glory, much rather doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
For verily that which hath been made glorious hath not been made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasseth.
For if that which passeth away was with glory, much more that which remaineth is in glory.
Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness,
and are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away:
but their minds were hardened: for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remaineth unlifted; which veil is done away in Christ.
But unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart.
But whensoever it shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
May we look to the Lord in prayer.
Our heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee for Thine unspeakable gift, even our Lord Jesus Christ. We do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast given Him to us. He is ours, and we are Thine forever.
We do praise and thank Thee because nothing can separate us from Thy love which is in Christ Jesus. So, as we come together this morning, we come with boldness. We come with confidence, knowing that Thou art toward us. We open ourselves to Thee and ask Thee to shine upon our hearts, that we may be transformed from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We have been considering together, a few times in the past, 2 Corinthians. I think probably we should be reminded that 2 Corinthians actually is the autobiography of Paul, a man in Christ.
We find that his whole life as a man in Christ is characterized by spirituality. If we want to learn what true spirituality is, we have to learn from Paul in this second letter to the Corinthians.
Now, in the past, we have mentioned what spiritual life is. There are three unmistakable signs of a spiritual life:
Now this morning, we would like to continue in this letter, and it concerns spiritual ministry. From 2 Corinthians 3 through 2 Corinthians 7, you will find that the subject is spiritual ministry.
We know that life and ministry are inseparable. There must be life, and then out of that life will come ministry. Ministry is something more than just gift. Ministry is gift backed by life. Our ministry is life coming through gifts.
Now, in 1 Corinthians, you find the church in Corinth was rich in gifts, and yet there was no ministry. Why? Because there was no building up. Instead of the church being built up, we find it being torn down. That is not ministry, because the purpose of ministry is to build up—to build the body of Christ.
Therefore, you find gifts alone do not constitute ministry. Gift must be supported by life. Life must be that which handles the gift, and then you begin to find ministry. That is why we find in 2 Corinthians the ministry of the apostle Paul. He had a ministry, and God used him to build up the body of Christ because he had not only gifts, but much life in him.
In a sense, there is a ministry which is special. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, “having this ministry,” there is a ministry concerned with the ministry of the Word of God—with those men whom God gives to the church as gifts.
As we find in Ephesians 4, God gives to the church some apostles, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints. Now, this is a special ministry, a ministry toward the body of Christ.
But aside from this special ministry, there is a ministry in which every member of the body of Christ is involved. This is the ministry of the body.
In Ephesians 4, we find that God gave these people to the church for the perfecting, or maturing, of the saints, with a view to the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.
Both Dr. Lightfoot and Bishop Ellicott, and Campbell Morgan, agree that the words “the ministry” in Ephesians 4 do not refer to the special ministry exercised by these four classes of people. Rather, the ministry there refers to body ministry—that is, a ministry that comes out of the body, ministered by all the members of the body.
It is through this body ministry that the body builds itself up in love. So, dear brothers and sisters, even though Paul may be speaking of this special ministry in which he was engaged, we know there is a ministry of the body in which all of us are engaged.
Therefore, the principles that govern the special ministry and the ministry of the body are the same. We can use what we find in 2 Corinthians 3 through 2 Corinthians 7—the principles that govern ministry—as applicable to all ministries.
Probably before we go into that, a word needs to be said. As members of the body of Christ, we all have a ministry to fulfill. Whether you are a big member or a small member, every member in the body of Christ is involved in this body ministry.
God has put you, set you in the body, as a particular member. With that particular membership, God expects a ministry to come forth. But for that particular ministry to come forth from every particular member, it requires a life with the Lord, plus exercising the gifts that God has given to each one.
Now, when Paul mentions this matter of spiritual ministry, I think we will use the same way as we did with spiritual life. We will try to find a few catching phrases, so that it will help us to remember.
A true ministry, a spiritual ministry, is writing Christ’s epistle—in other words, the letter of Christ.
Now, the occasion for it is this: Paul said, “Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some, commendatory letters to you or commendatory letters from you?”
Evidently, it was the custom at that time to write letters of commendation. As churches began to spring up in various parts of the world, servants of God traveled to different places. Even believers began to travel and visit different cities.
There seemed to be a need for letters of commendation. Why? Because they did not know each other. If a servant of the Lord went from one place to another where nobody knew him, it would be difficult for him to find fellowship and to minister.
The same thing was true with believers. As they traveled for various purposes from one place to another, they desired fellowship, and they needed some letter of recommendation in order to be received.
Therefore, during the first century, in the early church, it was the custom whenever a servant of the Lord traveled from one place to another, or a believer visited another place, for the church to give him a letter of commendation. They asked the churches in other places to receive them as of the Lord and to help them in any way they could.
With these letters of commendation, they could travel far and wide. Even in the New Testament, you find such things happening.
For instance, in Acts 18, Apollos came from Alexandria in Africa, and he came to Ephesus. There he ministered to the church with the Word of God.
But he had a desire to go to Achaia, to Corinth. He knew no one in Corinth, and no one knew him in Corinth. Therefore, the church in Ephesus wrote a letter of commendation, introducing him to the church in Corinth and asking them to receive him. There he went, was received, and helped them greatly with the Word of God.
Or, for instance, in Romans 16, Paul wrote to the church in Rome. In Romans 16:1-2, he recommended Phoebe, a deaconess in the church in Cenchreae. Phoebe had some business to attend to in Rome, so Paul wrote a letter recommending her to the church there. He told them not only to receive her, but to help her in every way they could, because Phoebe had been a great help to him and to the church in other places.
Not only that, but you find in Acts 15 that when the apostles and the church in Jerusalem wrote to the Gentile churches, they sent Judas and Silas, two leading brothers, with the letter. In the letter, they recommended these two brothers to the churches in other places.
In Paul’s writings, you find he often did that. He introduced Timothy to the church in Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 16, he said, “If Timothy should come, receive him. Do not make him afraid of you,” because Timothy was of a very timid nature.
Then also in 2 Corinthians 8, Paul recommends Titus to them. In the letter to Philemon, he recommends Onesimus. So it was the custom of that day to write letters of commendation.
But Paul said to the Corinthian believers, “Do I need to have a letter of commendation to you or from you?” Certainly, if people in other places did not know him, the Corinthian believers certainly knew him. Their very being in Christ was the result of his preaching.
So Paul said, “Do I need a letter of commendation from you, or do I need a letter of commendation to you? You are my letter. You are my letter of commendation, written upon our hearts, to be known and read by all men.”
As Paul ministered to the believers in Corinth, they in turn became his letter, to be studied and read by all men. Therefore, Paul said, “I do not need any letter of commendation.”
But Paul used that occasion to shift to something else. He said, “You are our letter, known and read by all men, being manifested to be Christ’s epistle.” From the letter of commendation, Paul shifts to the letter of Christ.
You are our letter. At the same time, you are the letter of Christ, ministered by us—not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not upon stones, but upon tables of flesh.
What is spiritual ministry? Spiritual ministry is writing the letter of Christ. You know how a letter is formed. When you write a letter, you use words, sentences, phrases, and clauses, and you use these things to form a letter.
So, in spiritual ministry, you are writing the letter of Christ: a word, a phrase, a clause, a sentence. But what you are writing is Christ.
It is not yourself. It is not the thought of Paul, the idea of Paul, Paul’s way and method, or Paul’s likes and dislikes. When Paul ministered to the church in Corinth, he was not putting down words of Paul, phrases of Paul, and sentences of Paul, so that when the letter was finished it would be Paul—the letter of Paul.
No. Paul said, “When I am writing that letter, I am writing Christ in you.” It is Christ in words, in phrases, in clauses, and in sentences. So, after the letter is finished, when people read that letter, they do not read Paul; they read Christ.
That is spiritual ministry.
Of course, because Paul was used by God to write a letter, it carried some characteristics of Paul—some style, some flavor of Paul. That is true. This is how the New Testament was written.
When you read the New Testament, you find that Paul’s letters always have the special flavor of Paul. You know it is Paul who was used by God in writing that letter. But the contents of the letter are not Paul; they are Christ.
Or if you read a letter written by Peter, you find Peter’s flavor is always there. You can recognize that it is Peter, and yet it is Christ. It is not Peter who is the content of the letter being incorporated and organized in the lives of believers.
It is the letter of Christ.
When we minister, if we minister ourselves to the people, then the letter will be our letter. But when we minister Christ to the people, then that letter will be the letter of Christ.
I think it is an unmistakable sign. You can easily see whether your ministry is spiritual or carnal, whether your ministry is of the Spirit or of yourself. You can find it in the lives of the people to whom you minister.
Is it Christ who appears in their lives? They are the epistle of Christ. They should make people know and read Christ. Now, if they only read of you, then you have failed in ministry.
If they can read Christ in the lives of the people to whom you minister—or, to put it another way, if as you minister the life of Christ is increased in them, developed in them, and incorporated in them—then you know this is spiritual ministry. Otherwise, it is not.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, spiritual ministry is the impartation of Christ.
Spiritual ministry is not something you can do merely by study or research. It is not something that comes merely from books. It is not something that you try to analyze and organize so that you can present certain sermons and messages which reach the mind of man.
If that is all there is to it, it is not spiritual ministry. Spiritual ministry is the impartation of Christ.
In other words, it is the Christ whom you know by experience, the Christ whom you know intimately, the Christ whom you have experienced. It is not something in your mind, but the Christ you know by heart.
When you minister to other people, you impart the Christ in you to them. As you do that, you find the words and the letter are of Christ and not of you. You are writing the letter of Christ.
This is the reason why spiritual life is so basic. If our spiritual life is lacking, there is not much of Christ that we can impart.
Suppose you are rich in gifts. You are able to say things or to do things because you have gifts. But if you are lacking in life—that is, in the life of Christ in you—then it is like sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. You make a lot of noise, and yet there is not much substance that you can truly impart to other people.
It is for this reason that, if we want to minister in a spiritual way, we need to go to the Lord and really seek His face, that His life in us may be enriched and increased. With that, we are able to write the letter of Christ.
What is written is Christ. But of course, we know the writer is you or me. We are used by God to write the letter of Christ.
Not in the sense of being scribes. In Old Testament times, and in the time of Christ, there was a class of people called scribes. These scribes were raised up mainly to copy the Old Testament.
Of course, later on they did something more, but the work of a scribe was to copy the Word of God. They learned to copy it with great exactness. If you study the custom of that time, you find that when a scribe copied the Old Testament, the Word of God, he did it with such reverence.
Whenever they came to the name of God, they had to wash themselves before they would write down that word. They were filled with reverence. But scribes were people who simply copied.
In other words, we are not just copying the letter. In the New Testament sense, we are ministers of the new covenant. It is true that we are writing Christ upon the lives of other people, but we are not merely doing copying work.
We ourselves are very much involved. It is not a passive work; it is an active work.
By passive work, I mean that you might take 2 Corinthians, put it on the table, take a pen, and copy it word for word. You may copy it with reverence, and you may copy it exactly, with nothing wrong. But this is not spiritual ministry. This is still ministry of the old covenant, of the letter.
But to be writers of the letter of Christ, we are not just doing it passively, copying. We must do it actively.
That is to say, the Christ, the Word of Christ, or the message of Christ that we are going to give to our brothers and sisters must not only be that which is recorded in the Scripture, but it must be living and real in us.
We may give a message out of study, and we may give it exactly as it is recorded in the Word of God, but that will be letter. It will not be Spirit.
Therefore, we who are to write the letter of Christ must be personally involved in the word, the phrase, the sentence, and the clause that we are going to write. We must ourselves experience it. Out of our experience, God can use us to write that letter.
Whatever Paul wrote, he experienced. The reason God could use him to write such letters is because he had such experience of Christ. He was actively engaged, not passively engaged.
Thirdly, it is not of letter; it is of Spirit.
The old covenant is written in letter, with ink. But the new covenant is written by the Spirit of the living God.
Moses went up to the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. These ten words were engraved upon stones. When they entered the promised land, they put the Ten Commandments on stones by the mountain, so everybody could see them and read them.
It is in letter, for the letter kills. Why? Because the Ten Commandments represent the perfect will of God. It is spiritual. It is true. Nothing is wrong with that.
If people could keep it, then they would live. But the problem is that no power and no life were promised or given. Because of the weakness of the flesh, they could not keep the Ten Commandments. So the letter killed them.
But the new covenant is not written with ink. It is written with the Spirit of the living God. Because of that, it gives life, because the Spirit is the Spirit who gives life.
Dear brothers and sisters, as we minister to other people, we may minister as ministers of the old covenant. In other words, we may try to write with ink and in letter. If we do that, we only bring people into bondage, and it kills.
How often we try to give rules, regulations, and laws to people. We try to tell people what is right, what they ought to do, and what is the right thing to do.
Now, there is nothing wrong with that. If they can do it, they can live. But the problem is that the letter kills. We bring them under bondage. The more we minister to them in that way, the more dead they become. It is a ministry of death. It is a ministry of condemnation.
That is not my word; it is Paul’s word. Paul said that before he knew the law, he was alive. But when he knew the law—“Thou shalt not covet”—then he died.
That is exactly what is happening. Brothers and sisters, sometimes we try to minister to others. We know it in our minds: this is knowledge; this is correct. But as we try to minister to them, we bring them into bondage and death.
Do you know why? Because we are ministering letter, not Spirit. We are writing with ink, not with the Spirit of the living God.
But what a difference it will be, brothers and sisters, when we ourselves have experienced the new covenant and are able to minister in the Spirit of the living God.
As we minister, outwardly there may not seem to be much difference in words, and yet what a difference there is. When people are ministered to, they are quickened into life.
It is the ministry of righteousness. It is the ministry of life. It is the ministry of the Spirit.
If we want spiritual ministry, remember: it must be in Spirit and not in letter. We must minister with the Spirit, in the full power of the Holy Spirit. As we minister in the power of the Holy Spirit, life will be given to those who are being ministered to.
Furthermore, it is not graven on stones; it is written upon hearts.
Stone is cold, hard, unresponsive, and dead. But the heart—a fleshy heart, a heart of flesh—is tender, soft, responsive, and warm.
We are not writing that letter upon stones. We are writing that letter upon hearts.
If what we minister does not reach the heart, we fail in our ministry. If we are only able to reach people’s minds, we fail.
If it comes out of our mind, it can only reach another person’s mind. But if it comes from our heart, it can touch another person’s heart.
Whether it is in prayer, in speaking, or in fellowship, if it does not come from our heart, remember, you are engraving on stones. You may wonder why people do not seem to be touched.
People may afterwards say, “Well, you gave a good message. Good thought.” Oftentimes that is a temptation to one who preaches. After you preach, someone says, “It is a good message. Good thought.” That is a failure, because it only reaches people’s minds. What use is that?
If people are convicted, if their hearts are touched, then it is spiritual ministry.
Brothers and sisters, we are members of the body of Christ. We are expected to minister to one another. Do not think that you have no ministry.
You should develop your ministry. You may not have it now, but you need to develop it, because this is expected of every child of God.
Whatever your special area of ministry may be—whether you are to help, to speak, or to do things—in whatever area it may be, in the church, in the home, or in the world, there is a ministry we need to fulfill.
Especially in the church, this is for the building up of the body of Christ. Every part, every single part, has to play its part. Therefore, it is very important that we know what spiritual ministry is and learn to develop that ministry.
Well, probably you will say, “Who is competent?” We are ministers of the new covenant. Who is competent? Who is able to write the letter of Christ upon other lives? Who is able to do it in the Spirit and not in the flesh?
That is the reason why Paul said, “Our sufficiency is of God.”
Even Paul realized the seriousness of ministry. Brothers and sisters, on the one hand, we should be eager to minister. But on the other hand, we should be afraid to minister.
We should be eager to minister because this is God’s will. If we love the body of Christ, this is what we ought to do.
Yet, on the other hand, when we are to minister, brothers and sisters, let us realize the seriousness of it. It is not a small thing. Writing a letter of Christ is not a small thing.
What if all that comes out is ourselves, with little or even none of Christ?
Therefore, when we come to ministry, there should be a sense in us that we are totally incompetent.
Brothers and sisters, if you have not yet come to this point, probably the Lord has to bring you to that point through testings and trials.
For instance, Moses spent forty years in a palace in Egypt, mighty in words and in deeds. He desired to minister to his people. He was eager to do that.
He went out thinking that he was competent, that he was able to deliver his brethren. You find that he was a total failure. He had to flee to the wilderness, and there he spent forty years dying.
But when he was eighty, and God called him to that ministry, he said, “Lord, who am I? I cannot do it. I cannot speak. I am nothing.”
Moses himself considered that he was dead, because in Psalm 90 he said the lifespan of a man is threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength, eighty years. Moses was eighty. He considered himself as dead.
But it was at that point, when he realized he was incompetent, that he came to see that his competency was in God.
So, brothers and sisters, I encourage every one of you to seek for ministry. By ministry, I mean body ministry—all-inclusive ministry.
God may call you to do this and call another one to do something else, but we all have a ministry to fulfill. I do feel that everyone should look for a ministry that will build up the body of Christ.
But one thing is important: we must realize that we are totally incompetent.
Not because we are incompetent, therefore, do we not minister. We are totally incompetent; therefore, our competency is of God. We need to look up to Him, because He is able. He is able.
If we are all ministering with that attitude, brothers and sisters, there will be very few problems. You will find all the ministries coming together and truly building up the body of Christ.
As we minister to people, we are bringing people to Christ, that they may behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. As they behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, they will be changed from glory to glory according to His image, even as by the Lord the Spirit.
This is spiritual ministry. Spiritual ministry is leading people to the Lord.
Their hearts may turn to the Lord. The veils may be taken away. They may behold the glory of the Lord, and as they behold the glory of the Lord, transformation will follow.
Put it another way: in one sense, we are not able to bring people to Christ. We are not able to incorporate Christ into their lives. We are not able to change or transform them. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Only the Holy Spirit is able to do such a work. But if we cooperate, if we depend upon the Holy Spirit, we will be used by God to help people turn to Christ.
We will be used by God to help people have their veil taken off their face. It is only when their hearts are turned to the Lord and the veil is taken away that the Holy Spirit does the work.
He transforms them. He conforms them to the image of Christ. So the end result is the letter of Christ. Christ is being known and read.
This is spiritual ministry. So may the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee because Thou hast called us into this ministry of the body.
Thou dost desire that every one of us should function and minister to the building up of the body of Christ. But Lord, do show us what true and spiritual ministry is, that we may not in any way do a lot and accomplish little, or even nothing.
Lord, deliver us from just activities. Deliver us from ourselves. We pray that, by Thy grace, we may know Thee in such depths that we may have much to impart to Thy church.
May we truly minister Christ to one another, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. O Lord, we do pray that Thou wilt use us to help other people, to lead them, as it were, to Thee; to take off their veil, that they may look to Thee and be transformed by Thy Spirit, and truly be conformed to Thy image.
O, we do pray that we may be those who are writing the letter of Christ. This will be our letter of commendation: that we do not just write our letters, that people will not just read us and fail to read Christ. O, forbid.
We ask Thee, O Lord, have mercy upon us. We know we are incompetent, Lord, but we are not discouraged. We look to Thee because we know Thou art our competency.
Thou art well able to use us to write that letter. May Christ be glorified. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.