This week Jason Dukes, author of Live Sent, led a workshop based on one of my favorite verses, 2 Corinthians 3:3. As a publisher, my favorite version of this verse is found in The Message. “Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.”
The Apostle Paul wrote these words in defense of his ministry. Christ was transforming those to whom Paul had been preaching. Paul was a great missionary, but he knew that only God could make Himself visible in the lives of these believers. God’s mark on their lives was divine, a permanent mark, a life changing mark, a deep and abiding mark, so visible that Paul wrote, “You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you” (2 Corinthians 3:2 MSG).
So what was God carving into the lives of these believers? Most certainly, it was a new moral order with new desires, new relationships, and a new worldview. Most certainly, it was peace, love, and joy etched into their hearts, and as a result they exuded fairness, generosity, acceptance, forgiveness, compassion, honesty, humility, and work ethic like nothing seen before in their communities. Whatever was taking place, these believers were an open book for the world to read and their lives were so unique, so set apart in attitude and behavior, that the only explanation possible was the living Spirit of God carving God’s character into the depth of their souls.
This brings me to publishing. Books that have spiritual value are written by authors being transformed by God. When I look at a New Hope book, my mind doesn’t leap to the message of the book, but rather to the author who penned the book. If we have published someone’s book, it is because we saw evidence of the Christ-life in the author, and God’s living Spirit in the message the author was speaking and writing.
We publish what God is doing in and through His people. This is the value of a New Hope book. And I believe the only value of any book that claims to be “Christian” is found in what God has already done. Believers are who they are because of Christ. And Christian authors write books worth reading because God’s living Spirit has already written God’s message in their hearts.
