Relationships: The Faithfulness Factor - 2 Corinthians 3: 1 - 5: 10

I want you to know that I realize that I am using me, my and I far more than a writer maybe should, but it is for a cause that seems to be legitimate. Juanita and I are 85 and 86 and have been happily married for 66 years. There must be very few couples living that have spent more time in hospitals than we have, and very few have had more “tight-money days” than we have experienced, and we have moved into six new communities that required the forfeit of old close friends and re-adjusted living habits and conditions. All of these are conditions that often cause strained relationships between husbands and wives. We learned last week that strong marriages require integrity and now we add faithfulness as a factor that must be present on both sides. Evidently our integrity and faithfulness factors have been high enough to make our life together worth holding up as an example for weaker bodies to follow.

Paul is holding his life and his work up as an example for the Corinthians to use in their everyday lives. Some of his critics and false leaders had started carrying forged letters of recommendations to introduce their work, but Paul let the people know that his long life of service was all they needed. They had his life as proof of his worth, and he had the lives of the strong Christians in the church as the proof he needed to proclaim his job well done…first verses of chapter 3. No family is strong, and no witness is competent on their own but competency comes from the spirit of Christ.

There is a great truth here; it is both an inspiration and a warning—and that is that every man is an open letter for Jesus Christ. Every man, every woman, and every family whether you want to be or not, are an advertisement for Christ. You can believe that someone is reading your sign. Is it one that proclaims faithfulness to God and your fellow man?

Paul refers to Moses meeting God and receiving the writings in stone on Mt. Sinai, that was the law that even at that time was fading away and being replaced with the coming of Christ and the new covenant. Paul gave God the credit for all his accomplishments while the false teachers were boasting of their power and prestige. Without the Holy Spirit, our talent and abilities can carry us only so far—as Christ’s witnesses we need the character and special strengths that we can find only by trusting in God.

In 3:6, Paul explains we can not be successful by trying to keep the old laws but that we must depend on the new spirit of Christ for salvation. The law had its purpose; it was needed, and is needed today for it helps us know right from wrong. It makes us realize our sins. Now that all are sinners, they are made whole through the spirit, under the new covenant. Paul contrasts the glory of the Ten Commandments with the glory of the life giving spirit. The law led to death, so now the new spirit leads to life. The old covenant had its glory…so now think how much more beautiful is the new covenant that leads to life. To help his readers understand, he referred to Moses who had to hide his face when he had been in the presence of God. It was so bright that they could not look him in the face and he wore a vial. Paul also indicates that the vial was used to keep the people from seeing the glow as it faded away which may have caused unbelief.

Paul refers to the fact that the Ten Commandments were written on Stone, but that the new covenant is written only on willing and receptive hearts. He is emphasizing that these hearts must remain faithful. Every man is an open letter for Jesus Christ. We judge an artist by their paintings; a shoe cobbler by the quality of foot wear he makes; and a church by the quality of Christians produced; therefore men judge Christ by his followers. For these reasons I believe the greatest problem we have in our churches is caused by unfaithful members. Men who claim to be Christians who are living unsatisfactory lives are writing the wrong kinds of records in our churches.

Paul goes on to say something about four different kinds or sets of people. At first he talks about himself. He never looses heart and stays with the task he has been given. Two things keep him going and they are his consciousness of a great task and his vivid memory of all the mercy he has received. Secondly, Paul wrote something about his enemies, his slanderers. Paul continues talking about those that refuse to accept the gospel. He says that the God of this world [the devil] has blinded their minds so that they cannot believe. This is a very scary thought. If you have some doubts about the word of God being total truth, could it be that the devil has blinded your mind to the truth?

One thing is very important to those of us that have chosen the gospel way and that is that we must live a life of Christian endurance. In the last part of the lesson today, Paul deals with the secret of endurance in our lives. Here again we fine that the secret of endurance does not abide within our strengths but is afforded us because of our faith.

Excuse me again…but at my age I can tell you that all through life it must happen that a man’s bodily strength fades away but all through life it is the right thing that a man’s soul strength keeps growing. I would be a man most miserable if I could not tell you that my faith is growing faster in the last few years than in all the years before. I really believe that suffering that leaves a person weak in the body really strengthens the sinews of the soul.

Paul was convinced and he told us that anything he had to suffer in this world would be as nothing compared with the glory he would enjoy in the next world. If you can have the kind of faith that helps you believe this, then there is nothing ahead that can cause you serious problems—they will be only bumps in the road. I must not leave you thinking that the best is yet to come and that it requires no more of you and me. As the lesson heading indicates, there is always THE FAITHFULNESS FACTOR.

I have told my Sunday school class a thousand times that the most important work of a Christian is to keep His [God’s] commandments. Can you pass the Peter test? Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Peter answered yes. How do you answer? How do you know you love him? Christ told you how you could know. “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” That is keeping the faithfulness factor!