The Most Important Epistle

When Paul was opposed by some in Corinth, apparently that he was not legitimate, he referred to “letters of commendation” that at the time were common to establish the credibility of some messenger.  He suggested that he didn’t need those, explaining to the Corinthians, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: 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” (2 Corinthians 3:1-3).  The student manual explains, “Paul then declared that the transformed lives of the Saints in Corinth already constituted the best kind of ‘letter of commendation,’ verifying that Paul had proper authority, for the Saints’ changed lives were like an epistle from Christ Himself.”  In other words, the best sign of Paul’s legitimacy was the way the gospel that he taught had changed the lives of the people of Corinth.  Their goodness was a living epistle of what Paul had taught; their changed Christian lives became the embodiment of his message.  We have many epistles today from Paul, but the most powerful “epistles” that he left were the people who became followers of Jesus Christ through his preaching. 

             As I pondered this idea, I realized that my most important epistles are my own children.  I can leave written words that will hopefully have some value, but the most important legacy I leave will be how well I have taken the gospel into the heart of my children.  The most important writing I will do will not be with the written word but through the Spirit upon the “fleshy tables of the heart” of my children.  That will come not just by what I say and directly teach but what I do and how I live the gospel with my children.  Jacob, for example, wrote his epistle on his son Enos who when he came to desire to receive a remission of his sins, remembered that his father “was a just man” and had taught him “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Enos 1:1).  Jacob’s testimony had made it to Enos’s heart, even if Enos hadn’t acted upon it immediately.  Alma similarly had his father’s testimony written on his heart, so that when he needed it most, “I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world” (Alma 36:17).  Though he had not previously “opened” this epistle from his father—the teachings of the gospel—it had reached his heart and he was able to pull it out when he most needed it.  I hope that I can work to get the gospel written in the hearts of my children so that they can be my own personal letters of commendation and witness of my testimony of the gospel.