North End Church of Christ

By: Roger Rush

“You are epistles written in our hearts, known and read by all men; you are manifestly an epistle in 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.” (2 Corinthians 3:2,3)

I’ve told the story on more than one occasion about a preacher who called on a farmer to invite him to worship. The farmer rejected the invitation reasoning that he could see no difference between himself and some of the church members he knew. In fact, there were some church members who engaged in activities that even the farmer found objectionable.

A few weeks later the preacher made a second call on the farmer. This time he had come to buy a pig. The farmer showed him his most recent litter, out of which the preacher picked the runt. “You don’t want that one,” the farmer protested. It’s the runt of the litter.” But the preacher insisted. They agreed on a price, and as the preacher was loading the pig into his car he told the farmer, “Everywhere I go today I’m going to show folks this pig and tell them it came from you!” “You can’t do that,” the farmer protested. “It’s the runt of the litter. You can’t judge the whole litter by the runt.” “That’s exactly my point,” said the preacher, as he drove away!

I am confident you understand the lesson of that brief story, but do you also understand that everyday people are still judging the Lord’s body by the “runts?” Paul emphasized the fact that others are watching us and judging Christ and His church by what they see. One bad example can do untold harm to the cause of Christ! We judge a shopkeeper by the kind of goods he sells. We judge a craftsman by the kind of articles he produces. We judge a church by the kind of men it creates; thus men judge Christ by His followers.

The Old Law may have been written upon stone, but the New was to be impressed upon the hearts and minds of Christians (Heb.8:10; 10:16). It is not enough simply to know the word of God, it must chart, guide, and animate our very existence! Each of us is a living letter for Christ. What are we writing?