Confidence in the Gospel

I liked the first part of today's passage because I feel it gives us a responsibility. When I think of letters of recommendation, I think of the letters that professors and teacher, etc write for someone to make that person look good. But the Christians back then, as Paul said, did not need them because we were their letters. And even today, there are the letters of recommendation in our hearts, because it is God who sent the Spirit into them. The covenant we have in our hearts is the real letter that shows how good we are. The goodness in our hearts is what is supposed to exude from us. We are the face of God, meaning what people see, so we must be emulators of Him. We are made in the image of God, so let us live up to it. At least try to, and that makes all the difference.

At first I didn't get the second part of the passage because it kind of goes around and around. But the gist of it is that there is glory in God and nothing in law. All that is going to matter is God's law only.. not the law of man. We worry about the world a lot and the things that are in it, but once we remember that those things aren't eternal the stress slightly goes away. School, jobs, friends, money are not eternal, so we constantly need to be reminded that glory is in the ministry that brings righteousness, not condemnation.