2 Corinthians 3:3 English Standard Version (ESV) And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.^{[hearts of flesh]}

Given that His Word is true and this message is true and that we are a letter from Christ, to whom is our letter addressed?

In the generic sense we are addressed to the lost. As with any letter to be delivered it is the addressee that opens the letter and reads it. We do not address the letter. Jesus Christ has addressed the letter. It is up to us to show the letter to everyone.

Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit is at work preparing that lost soul’s heart to receive that letter and open it. We are not so much the letter as much as we are the envelope. The Spirit moves us in order to deliver the message of Christ in us. When they open our letter, they will discover that Christ can and does abide in the hearts of human flesh. The hope of glory is in seeing Christ in us, that they too can receive Christ into their own hearts.

The pious and self-righteous will not show Christ because they want to be seen. “Look at me, see me, do what I have done.” That is the message of vanity which is emptiness as to results. Humility allows Christ to reveal Himself through this veil of flesh; our envelop.

Hebrews 10:20 King James Version (KJV) By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Mark 10:8 English Standard Version (ESV) and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.

We are betrothed to Christ, our flesh is His flesh.

John 15:8 English Standard Version (ESV) By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

All that we have read about being a disciple of Christ can bring us to a point of forgetting where we began and the point being made. There is so much information to be digested. As a reminder, this is the third point to be made, God the Father is to be glorified.

Romans 16:27 English Standard Version (ESV) to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Over the decades that we have worshipped God it might be noticed that there are some of us that glory in themselves and their own accomplishments. This verse in Romans 16 is to be believed that God the Father can only be glorified through our obedience of faith in Jesus Christ. We can only glorify God the Father in the presence of the abiding Christ. This is why the words “in Christ” appear so often.

This is where Paul warned that the gospel can be preached out of envy. That does not mean that the gospel being preached will not have its full effect on the hearer of the Word. The effect of the gospel on the lost is the purview of God and God alone.

As disciples of Christ we should be aware of the biblical definition of glory and not steal God’s glory for ourselves. That is not a matter of salvation, it is a matter of relationship.

Vine’s Expository Dictionary on glory Strong’s number 1391 “glory” (from dokeo, “to seem”), primarily signifies an opinion, estimate, and hence, the honor resulting from a good opinion. It is used (1) (a) of the nature and acts of God in self-manifestation, i.e., what He essentially is and does, as exhibited in whatever way he reveals Himself in these respects, and particularly in the person of Christ, in whom essentially His “glory” has ever shone forth and ever will do, John 17:5, 24.

In the ways He reveals Himself is God’s glory.