QT 4 Aug 10

2 Cor 3:1-3 (NIV) Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

NOTE: God provides the results, yet the people, Paul says, are result of Paul's ministry. Their lives, are known and ready by everybody. What is not clearly stated is the role of free will. Since, a person who chooses not to obey Paul's instruction is not an indictment against Paul, then accepting instruction is not an endorsement of Paul either. The fact that anything happens does indicate Paul labored with the people, that he was obedient to the task God gave him. The rejection or acceptance of the message is between the individual and God. That was Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 1. I think the point he is making here is not that his ministry is measured by the performance of the Corinthians, but that their lives are indication that others (including him) have labored among them. Individuals exercise free will and choose to believe; God gives the growth; and laborers toil in obedience to God. The commendation from God, "well done," will be the ultimate reward some day. But until that day comes, our spiritual offspring are an incomplete measure of our obedience (not our ministry -- in my opinion). Likewise, our children will exhibit characteristics of our teaching and influence, but ultimately as individuals with free will, standing before God, the choices they make in life are between them and God, and only, very poorly, a reflection of their parents. People, redeemed by God, can have terrible parents and become godly saints. Do we then say that they reflect their parents? Of course not, but yet we want to say the same thing when children of godly parents become godly saints. Yes, we have an influence -- "train a child in the way he should go, and in the end he will not depart" -- is a proverb incidentally, not a promise or guarantee. It does indicate that parents and spiritual leaders have influence, but the ultimate choices are still made by individuals, before God, and not because of someone else's effort. "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God (John 1:12-13)." The verse is very clear in regard to salvations decisions, why would it not be as clear in sanctification decisions.