"Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart." (NKJV)
In a popular movie (National Treasure), it is said: "Death is the debt that all men pay." Death is the one appointment that none of us can delay, none of us can avoid, nor can any of us run away from it. At some point, unless we are alive at the Rapture, we will all die. It is an eventuality. The question becomes, at the time of our death, what do we leave behind? We all will leave a legacy. What will it be?
There are some who want to leave behind something they believe is "permanent." For example, two sculptors, Gutzon and Lincoln Borblum, left behind the majestic carvings of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln at Mt. Rushmore. For many people, those sculptures seem immortal; however, even now various efforts are being made to try to preserve the sculptures which are at the mercy of the weather and the earth’s movement. If this earth lasts long enough, the sculptures will eventually be gone.
Michaelangelo painted the beautiful frescoes on the Sistine Chapel in the 1400s. In the 1980s restoration work was done to continue to try to preserve the paintings. If a catastrophic event took place, such as a massive earthquake, the paintings could be destroyed in one fell swoop. If the earth lasts long enough, the paintings will eventually be gone, regardless of any attempts to preserve them.
This is the point. Everything here on this earth will eventually be gone. So what legacy do we leave behind?
Paul wrote: "You are our epistle . . . known and read by all men . . . written by the Spirit of the Living God." Paul understood that the greatest investment that anyone can make in this life is the investment of making disciplines. That is the investment that lasts forever. Paul didn’t need any kind of "letter of commendation" to justify who he was. He had already preached the gospel to the Corinthian church and made the disciples. They were his "letters of commendation."
When we die, what will we leave behind? Of course, initially, we would hope that we would leave family that loves us, people who would miss us. But quickly life simply rushes in and fewer and fewer people will mourn. Most will go on with their lives with only a thought here or there that they miss us. The initial great stab of pain at our absence will be mitigated with time and life for them will go on. So what will we actually leave behind?
I believe that Paul commends all believers to invest our lives, not in the things of this world that are all temporary, but into the lives of those around us with the first priority being to make disciples of them. Only that "living epistle by the Holy Spirit" has eternal significance. When we make disciples, we know without a shadow of a doubt that those are people we will see again, we will fellowship with again, we will live with again. There is so much more than just this life! As Christians, we need to live as if we truly believed this and then to put our efforts into making disciples so that everyone else can enjoy that eternal life with us.
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV).
While not everyone will be saved, but only those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it is God’s desire that everyone would be saved, that everyone would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When we witness, when we preach the gospel, when we disciple others, we are not doing so in vain. Rather we are acting on the very heart-throb of the Father! Our efforts, rather than being spent in other, more temporary duties, should—when at all possible—be spent on these eternal tasks! When we die, we should be able to say with firm conviction that we need no letter of commendation, no eulogy in newspapers or on the Internet, because we leave behind many in whose hearts are written the gospel because of our efforts.
© 2015 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
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