Our Heart - A Letter from Christ

When was the last time you received a letter in the mail? In the modern age of email, Twitter and Facebook, most of us are getting fewer and fewer letters than we used to. But in the time before the electronic exchange of messages, almost everything was done by letter over long distances. It was and still is very simple; a sheet of paper, a pen to write with, an envelope and a stamp, that's all you need.

In the time of the apostle Paul, on the other hand, writing letters was far from easy. Writing required papyrus, which was expensive and unavailable to most people. Because papyrus is durable, even indefinitely if kept dry, it is excellent for composing important letters and documents.

Archaeologists have been sifting through mountains of ancient rubbish containing hundreds of papyrus documents; many were written around 2000 years ago, so date to the time of the Apostle Paul and other New Testament writers. Among them were many private letters. The style of writing in these letters is exactly the same as that used by Paul in his writings. The letters of that time always began with a greeting, followed by a prayer for the health of the recipient and then thanksgiving to the gods. Then followed the actual content of the letter with the messages and instructions. It ended with a farewell greeting and personal greetings to individuals.

If you look at Paul's letters, you will find exactly this pattern. What is important here? Paul did not intend his letters to be theological treatises or scholarly essays. Paul wrote letters as was customary among friends. Most of his letters dealt with urgent problems in the recipient communities. Nor did he have a nice, quiet office or study where he could sit in a chair and ponder every word in order to get everything right. When Paul heard of a crisis in a church, he wrote or dictated a letter to address the problem. He didn't think of us or our problems as he wrote, but dealt with the immediate problems and questions of his letter recipients. He did not try to go down in history as a great writer of theology. All he cared about was helping the people he loved and cared for. It never occurred to Paul that one day people would consider his letters to be scripture. Yet God took these so human letters of Paul and preserved them to be used as messages to Christians everywhere, and now to us, to address the same needs and crises that have befallen the Church for centuries.

You see, God took ordinary pastoral letters and used them in a wonderful way to preach the good news of the gospel in the church as well as in the world. «You are our letter, written in our hearts, recognized and read by all people! It has become manifest that you are a letter of Christ through our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh of hearts" (2. Corinthians 3,2-3). Likewise, God can wonderfully use ordinary people like you and me to be living testimonies of their Lord, Savior and Redeemer in the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

by Joseph Tkach