2 Corinthians 3:1
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
The question was written to settle the minds of the Corinthians amid trouble and dissension caused by Judaizing teachers who exalted the law and ceremonies above the gospel and condemned Paul for not urging ceremonies that pointed to Christ and lost their value after His death. It answers the charge that he had commended himself in his former letter, asking whether he and his fellow laborers need letters recommending their Christian character like some others and newcomers who came to Corinth with recommendations from other churches. As founder of the Corinthian church and an apostle of Christ, he needs no such written testimony or endorsement.
The Corinthians themselves, led from idol worship to gospel faith, are all the recommendation he needs, and their conversion and reformation of life through his labor are visible to all. Their reception of the truth testifies to all nations, tongues, and peoples and gives him authority to counsel, reprove, exhort, and command as a minister of Christ. True ministers of Christ do not commend themselves and do not need written letters of commendation to or from the people they serve, as though human endorsement were essential; their commendation is the believers themselves won to Christ.
Those believers are his epistle written in his heart and manifestly declared to be the living epistle of Christ ministered through him, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone but in fleshy tables of the heart, known and read of all men. The conversion of sinners and their sanctification through the truth, seen in reformed lives zealous for the truth and harmonized with it with Christ formed within as the hope of glory, is the very best proof that God has called a minister, so when this fruit attends his labors he needs no other recommendation. The changed conduct of those who received the gospel recommends both the truth and the faithful ministers who preached it, while pride, worldliness, faultfinding, and other traits unlike Christ make their lives a damaging testimony and may indicate spurious conversions.
The question rebukes linking up with and exalting the one man under whose labors light was received, cementing to a human teacher in separate bundles and refusing harmony with brethren. Such men are only ordained as God's helping hand to plant and water while God gives the increase, laborers together with God building on the one foundation which is Jesus Christ. Such cementing to a human teacher proves they are not sanctified through the truth and need reconversion, or their claimed conversion is a stumbling block to sinners. Experienced ministers demonstrate true commendation by taking young men who desire to enter the ministry with them from place to place and showing them how to win souls in successful evangelistic work.