2nd Corinthians 3:1-6 | The Credibility and Sufficiency of Spiritual Leadership
If you remember from chapter 2, verses 1 through 11 talked about a true man of God’s heart. Then he also talked about Church discipline and how it’s supposed to hurt. Then in verses 12 through 17 and last week’s sermon or study, we saw the marks of the ministry. So the Apostle Paul has been kind of dealing with this theme starting in chapter two regarding the ministry and regarding those of us that are in ministry and in regards to spiritual leadership and things like that.
Tonight in chapter 3 he continues that and he talks about the ministry for the first six verses of the chapter and we’re going to cover that tonight. The next week we’ll do the latter part of the chapter and in the latter part of chapter he shifts gears a little bit. There’s a connection. And we’ll look at it next week. He talks about the New Testament versus the Old Testament in reference to the new covenant versus the old covenant. So we’ll cover that next week in our Bible study.
However, in these verses he talks about spiritual leadership. He talks about what we would call ordained leadership or leadership of a local Church. This would be primarily speaking to about a Pastor but it could also of course apply to a Deacon and an Evangelist. He talks about the credibility of spiritual leadership and then he talks about the sufficiency of spiritual leadership. I’ll show that to you here tonight.
2nd 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?”. In today’s world, we would probably use the word “recommend” instead of commend. Paul is asking, do we need to recommend ourselves? Paul is not speaking negatively about this idea of letters of recommendation. He is just asking if that is something that they need. Paul is stating that there are other people that do need these letters of recommendation. What Paul is talking about is the practice of letters of recommendation. I want you to kind of understand this idea of letters of recommendation. Go to Acts 9.
I want to talk to you about the first century practice of the letters of recommendation and then talk to you about the 21st century practice of the letters of recommendation. The first century practice is that when a believer would move around as they traveled for business or move to a new location, they would give letters of recommendation. Paul brings it up “do we begin again to commend ourselves or need we as some others epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you”. But if you think about it and you have read the New Testament you’ll realize that you often hear the Apostle Paul talking about the fact that he’s sending Titus or he’s sending Timothy or he’s sending certain individuals. He always sends them with letters. Now some of those letters were actually the epistles that ended up being part of our canon of scripture. But some of them are different letters that he wrote.
This seems to indicate that there’s this practice where they would take these letters of recommendation with them. If you’re wondering what the purpose for that is, we can understand how New Testament Churches could be suspicious or apprehensive of accepting unknown believers due to the persecution that first century believers would endure during the first century. We know that they received a lot of persecution from the Jews. We know that the Roman Empire would later on take on that persecution. So of course having someone just show up to Church one day and say they are from this other Church a hundred miles away or 500 miles away or whatever, people could be apprehensive about that. They could be suspicious about that because there’s so much persecution.
What the Churches would do is they would send them with a letter of commendation or recommendation saying yes this is a Church member in good standing. If you remember in the Book of Romans, he talks about certain believers. He says to treat them well and that they were a servant of Church. This would be an example of these letters of commendation. Let me give you an example of why you might need one or want one.
Acts 9:26 “26 And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.”. When Paul first got saved, they did not trust that he had actually gotten saved. It says he “assayed” to join himself. That word “assayed” means that he tried to join them. They were all afraid of him. Of course that’s with good reason because Saul has been wreaking havoc on the Church. He’s been bringing persecution upon the Church. At this point he’s already been saved, he’s already been part of another Church, he’s been serving faithfully. But when he gets to Jerusalem, they don’t know that. They just remember him as Saul and they were afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple. They thought he was there to cause problems and issues.
Verse 27 “27 But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.”. So here Paul didn’t have a letter of recommendation or a letter of commendation but Barnabas stood there and gave the commendation or the recommendation. Barnabas declares all of the great things that Paul had done and how he saw the Lord on the road to Damascus. Because of the bold preaching of Paul, he had received persecution. The disciples had to let him out of a window in a basket. He had to run away because of the persecution. Now he shows up in Jerusalem and they don’t trust him. So we see here an example of the first century practice of the letters of commendation or recommendation.
The interesting thing about the letters of recommendation or the letters of commendation is that this was actually a practice that had been practiced by local Churches even up until very recently. Even in my own life, I’ve been a part of Churches that practiced this idea of letters of commendation. Now I’m sure there are Churches that still practice this but they’re probably going by the wayside. The reason is that when I was growing up they would vote on members joining the Church. Now we don’t see that practice in the Bible so we don’t do that but it was a common thing at Churches I’ve been to before. When I was growing up in most Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches or most conservative type Churches, you would vote on members. Someone would come and they would walk down the aisle at the end of the service and they would say that this family wants to join the Church and they would vote on it. I’m not against Churches doing that but it’s not a practice we see in the Bible so it is not something we have practiced here. They would say that they are joining the Church by a recommendation of another Church or by proof of baptism at another likeminded Church.
In the Bible, in Acts 2 we see that they got baptized and joined the Church and those things went hand in hand together. So the Pastor would get up and say that this individual is joining the Church by baptism because they got saved here and baptized. However, when somebody would move from a different city and would join the Church and were already a member of a different Church, the Pastor would say that they were joining the Church by letter of recommendation from another likeminded Church. Back in the 70s, 80s or even in the 90s, Churches would call other Churches to ask them if the person joining their Church was saved and baptized. If they weren’t both of those things then they would obviously try to get them saved and baptized. So a Church would confirm that a new member was saved and baptized from their previous Church.
They would also ask the previous Church if that new person who wanted to join them was a member in good standing. The major reason for this is because Churches used to practice Church discipline. People used to believe that if someone was a fornicator or drunkard or one of the sins from the list in 1st Corinthians 5 that they would be kicked out of the Church. There is also the Matthew 18 process where someone could be kicked out of Church. That’s why Churches would ask for a letter of recommendation. Even in our Churches that fellowship with one another, there are a lot of idiots that have had to be thrown out of Church that are troublemakers. So sometimes we call the Churches they came from to ask if they recommend that person and sometimes they say “No, we kicked out that person due to fornication.”.
Up until recently, Church discipline was really common. This concept of throwing people out of Church is in the Bible. If you ever talk about that in today’s world, people this it is really strange. This is a practice from the Word of God. Most Churches don’t do it today. Within the New IFB, our fellowship of Churches, we do practice a form of letters of recommendation. Since there aren’t that many of us and we are friendly with one another, it is a little bit more of a casual approach to it. It’s more like a text of recommendation. However, if we end up having a lot more Churches like ours then the Pastor won’t all know each other and the “letter of recommendation” might come back in a more formal way.
Matthew 18:15-17 deals with this concept of Church discipline. Let me show this to you. Matthew 18:15-17 “15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.”. The Bible shows us that if someone has done you wrong, you first go to him privately to tell him his faults. You don’t go to Facebook. But then if he won’t hear you then you bring witnesses that way every word can be established.
I’ve always taught this that when you get to step 2 of having witnesses, you better involve me or my wife in the process. We need to be one of those witnesses. When we have to deal with the situation like in Matthew 18:17, usually we turn the live stream off to deal with it. When it comes to the point that someone is a heathen man and a publican, they are put out from the Church. This is not saying that the person lost their salvation and it’s also not saying that the person isn’t saved. However, as a result of the Church discipline, it means that going forward we are going to treat that person as though they’re unsaved. They’re not part of our fellowship. We’re going to disfellowship them. This is the process of Church discipline.
This is just one passage on the topic and there are many passages in the Bible. I’ve preached entire sermons on Church discipline. We have a Church membership class that goes through reasons for people being kicked out and what it means to be a member. This is the context we find before we get to verse 18. Now notice verse 18.
Matthew 18:18 “18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”. What this means is that God himself in heaven acknowledges Church discipline. He says that if a brother trespasses against you then to tell him his fault between him and him alone. If they don’t listen to you then take 2 or 3 witnesses with you. If they don’t listen to you then tell it before the whole Church. After that is disfellowshipping them.
God says that if you bind it on earth then he will bind it in heaven. Let me also say that if they get right with God and want to come back to Church, if you loose it on earth then it is loosed in heaven. God himself will get on board with and acknowledge Church discipline. Therefore other Churches should acknowledge Church discipline as well. For that reason, here at Verity Baptist Church, we ask for text messages of recommendation when people come from other Churches. Here is the thing, we uphold the Church discipline of other Churches. Please understand this, we don’t only uphold the Church discipline of other new IFB Churches which is our fellowship of Churches. We will acknowledge it from many Old IFB Churches also. The sad thing is that this practice of Church discipline has gone by the wayside.
We kicked out a couple for fornication at our Church that refused to get the sin right and refused to get married. They started going to a new Church and that Church called me to ask about it. I explained why they were kicked out and said they had to get married before they would be welcome. Then the next Sunday, they became members of that Church and are serving in their ministry. I thought to myself, why did you even call me? The point is that we actually believe the Bible at Verity Baptist Church and we actually will follow the Bible. We’ll throw people out of Church and we’ll ask for letters of commendation. This is a practice from the word of God. So this is what the Apostle Paul is referring to.
Go back to 2nd Corinthians 3. So he isn’t speaking of letters of commendation in a negative way. He’s stating it to the Church of Corinth because he had gotten many of them saved and didn’t need to prove anything to then. In verse 2, he shifts to this idea of the legitimacy of his ministry. Verse 2 “2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:”. Here’s what he says. If you need a letter of recommendation, just look at yourself. You’re my letter of recommendation. What he is saying is that the legitimacy or credibility of a spiritual leader can be seen in their fruit. How do you know if somebody’s a legit leader? Look at their fruit. Paul tells them that if they need proof of his ministry then they can just look at themselves. If you want to know the credibility of a spiritual leader, you need to look no further than the fruit that they produce.
There is another idea here. The life of a Christian may be the only thing unbelievers ever really know about God. Think about that. Someone said it this way “Your life may be the only Bible an unbeliever ever reads.”. Your unsaved relatives and friends and coworkers and neighbors probably aren’t going to read the Bible on their own. As much as you try to give them documentaries, videos to watch, invite them to Church, invitations to read, they might never listen. Our life is the only thing that they will ever really read.
Many Christians have miserably failed in this area of life. Often unbelievers will say they don’t come to Church because Church is filled with hypocrites. They look at Christians as being hypocrites. I’m not trying to hurt your feelings but sometimes people can’t get their family or friends saved because their own personal testimony is a stumbling block to their loved ones. Matthew 5:16 “16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”. The Apostle Paul says that they are epistles of Christ and God known and read of all men. They see you and hear you and examine you, what do they see? Let your light so shine before men.
Then in verse 17 he explains why you should want to have good works. Matthew 5:16 “16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”. They will glorify your father in heaven. Look, if your family wonders why you go to Church 3 times a week, you’re out soulwinning, you don’t drink or watch bad movies or listen to bad music, that’s a good thing. We are a peculiar people. If they don’t want anything to do with you because you are too strict then that is between them and God.
1st Peter 2:11 “11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;”. Notice verse 12 “12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.”. He says that you want to live your life in a way where you have a great testimony. You’re the most honest person at work. If you are known as the laziest person at work who shows up late and leaves early then you are bringing reproach to the name of Christ. If people criticize you because of your beliefs then that is fine but if they criticize you because of low character then you are bringing shame to Christ. Here’s a question. Does your life bring glory to God? Does the way you act at work bring glory to God? Does the way you act with your unsaved family members bring glory to God or does it give them a reason to not want to serve God? Paul says “ye are our epistles written in our hearts, seen and read of all men.”.
Brother Oliver just told me about an article he noticed. He answers our calls and recently we have been getting more hate messages than before. 1st Peter 4:14 “14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.”. There’s no such thing as bad publicity. If your publicity comes because you’re doing right, then the truth is that God is being glorified and the publicity is actually a good thing.
Verse 15 “15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.”. Here’s what he’s saying. If they’re going to write bad articles about you, let them write bad articles about you because you’re actually preaching the Bible. Don’t let them write bad articles about you because you stole from the Church or you’re doing all sorts of things you shouldn’t be doing. Verse 16 “16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.”. You say “Pastor, are you embarrassed that if we googled your name all these bad articles come up about you?”. I’m not ashamed. If we are reproached for the name of Christ, that’s a good thing.
Go back to second Corinthians. He talks about the credibility of spiritual leadership. He begins by talking about this idea of letters of recommendation. Then he connects it. He says that they are his letters of recommendation. He says they are the legitimacy of his ministry. We need to understand that the life of a Christian may be the only Bible that unbelievers read. But secondly, let me say this: The life of a follower is the best way to know the legitimacy of a minister.
2nd Corinthians 3:3 “3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”. Manifestly means to be shown or revealed. He said that they are the proof of his ministry. The best way to know the legitimacy of a spiritual leader is by looking at what they produce, their fruit. Matthew 7:16 “16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?”. People try to use this verse and say things like “If you’re really saved then there will be evidence or fruit of that salvation”.
What does this verse actually mean though? Let’s look at the context. Who does the Bible say that we can know their fruit? Verse 15 “15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”. How do we know if a Pastor is a good guy or a bad guy? There are lots of ways. One thing is listen to their sermons and doctrine to see if it lines up. Another thing is look at their fruit. Verse 17 “17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”.
What does that mean? Here’s what it means. If you want to know if Pastor Jimenez is a good Pastor, a good spiritual leader, look at his fruit. Ask the members here what they believe about the King James Bible, eternal security, salvation, the reprobate doctrine, etc…Obviously when a Church is a decent size, not everyone will be fully on board with everything. We should be longsuffering about that. With the 12 following Jesus, Judas was one of them. But you should be able to talk to the average Church member and they understand salvation and basic doctrines. That’s the fruit.
We send out 100 soulwinners every week to preach the gospel and we do unofficial surveys of the Churches in our area. Because when you knock on a door and someone is from a specific Church and they always answer wrong about salvation, it tells you they are being taught the wrong salvation. We’ve run into a lot of people from Calvary Christian and none of them were saved. Number one, the credibility of spiritual leadership.
Then secondly, let me just show you really quickly. The sufficiency of spiritual leadership. 2nd Corinthians 3:4 “4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:”. Again the subject is spiritual leadership. He’s talking about Pastors. Verse 5 “5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;”. Here’s what he’s saying. We as spiritual leaders, as Pastors, Deacons, Evangelists, ordained ministry, we are not sufficient of ourselves.
1st Corinthians 15:9 “9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”. He said “I don’t have the sufficiency to be called an apostle. I don’t have that ability within myself.”. Look at verse 10 “10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”. So i want you to notice that when we talk about the sufficiency of spiritual leadership, the first idea is that we are not sufficient of ourselves for the ministry. No one is sufficient. No one is enabled. Nobody has what they need for the ministry. Why? Because this is a spiritual work that must be done in the spirit of God, by the spirit of God.
2nd Corinthians 3:5 “5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”. Let me just share a few thoughts with you really quickly about this. We’ll finish up.
Notice what says in 1st Timothy 1:11 “11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. 12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;”. 2nd Corinthians 3:6 said “6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 1st Timothy 3 gives us the well-known characteristics of a Pastor. “This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;”. All of these things are characteristics that all Christians should have but then he said “apt to teach”. We are not sufficient of ourselves but God makes us sufficient.
Please don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say. I’ll do my best to explain it. Many years ago I was part of a Church that had a Pastor that was a man of God. He had issues but you could tell that the Spirit of God was upon him. He could speak and rule the Church. He had the respect of the people. He met the qualifications. However, he was very sickly and would miss Church a lot for health-related things. There were various men that would step up and fill in to preach but eventually those men started their own Churches. There was a faithful man who would fill in to preach at this point and he was devoted and a good man that loved God but he could not preach well. He did the majority of the preaching but he we would just go out of duty because the sermons were so bad. He was a good man and a godly man. One day they announced that he was going to get ordained to be a Pastor. He became the Pastor of a Church a few hours away. They had 40 or 50 people at the Church and he was there for a year and he completely killed the Church. People stopped coming and they closed the doors and sold the building. They
I’m telling you this because there are Pastors, Independent Fundamental Baptist Pastors of Churches all across this country. I’m not saying this in a negative way and I hope that the Lord helps you understand my heart in how I say this. There are men who stand behind pulpits all across the country that have no business being there. I’m not saying they are bad men. I’m talking about good men who love God but they are not apt to teach. They do not have the ability to teach. These are good men that could be a great asset to a Church but shouldn’t be the one preaching. There is something about being a Pastor and a spiritual leader where God gives you the ability. He enables you. He gives you the aptitude. He gives you the gift.
Romans 12:6 “6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;”. We are given different gifts from God. It mentions prophesy. Do you understand that speaking and preaching is actually a spiritual gift? Romans 12:7 “7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; 8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.”.
Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. There are good men but they don’t have the ability to communicate, to cast a vision, to stir people up, to motivate. They’re not bad people but they have no place being in the pulpit. When we send someone out there are various requirements. They have to read the Bible a certain amount of times. They need to be faithful. We also have to be honest and ask ourselves if this person really has the aptitude to do this.
When we are looking to send people out to start a Church or run a ministry, we are looking for 2 things. One of them is that they can communicate the word of God, the truth of God’s word, they can speak well. It’s part of the job description to stand up in front of people and preach. We’re not here to entertain and put on a show. However, to some extend you have to be able to speak and actually communicate the truth of God’s word. They have to be able to communicate and speak well. They need to be able to organize and structure. I often say it this way “They must be able to motivate and mobilize.”. Why did we send Brother Stucky to start a Church? Because he can preach and organize. Why did we send Pastor Pozarnsky to start a Church? Because he can preach and organize.
The Bible says that we as Pastor are an example for everyone to follow. I think everyone should try to follow all of those qualifications. 1st Timothy 3:1 “This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;”. We should all try to meet those qualifications are part of our spiritual lives but the “apt to teach” is something that not everybody has.
Ephesians 4:11 “11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:”. God gave a Pastor to help teach, edify and mature you. We are together at this Church to try to accomplish something. Hopefully you’re growing and learning and becoming well-rounded. Verse 13 “13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”.
I’m just telling you that there’s credibility of spiritual leadership. What is it? It’s the followers. By the way, you can be ordained as Pastor but if you fail as a Pastor then you are no longer the Pastor. For example, the person I mentioned earlier who was a good person but ran the Church down to 0 people was no longer a Pastor. Why? He didn’t have any sheep. You can meet all the qualifications but at some point there has to be something God gives you to help you motivate and mobilize and lead others. God has given us a Church to do the work of God together. God has allowed me and my wife to minister to you in the ministry. God has brought you here for the perfecting of you, the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, the edifying of the body of Christ.
2nd Corinthians 3:2 “2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:”. Our goal is that people can say about us and our Church and our members and leaders and staff that they bring glory to God. We need to live our lives in a way where others see us and maybe they criticize us for our beliefs or standards. However, if they reproach us for the name of Christ, Christ is glorified. Our goal is to be an epistle that would be known and read of all men.
Let’s pray.