Church in the New Covenant - Rev. Stephen Premba Lepcha

‘Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts’ (2 Cor. 3:1-3 NIV).

Letter of introduction were common in the early church (2 Cor.8:22, 1 Cor.16:10-11, Rom.16:1). Typically, the person commended was the bearer of the letter who would receive an appropriate welcome and hospitality on arrival. This recommendation letter referred in 2 Cor. 3:1 gave authority to Paul’s opponents to preach in any church and was instrumental in a running conflict between Paul and the leaders in Jerusalem.

Through Paul’s view expressed in this passage, we learn that these preachers were trying to impose Jewish tradition on the gentile churches. Paul takes a very strong view against the preachers from Jerusalem, and confronts them and the leaders, who have given the letter of introduction. These opponents blamed Paul for recommending his own self and his own theology.

They who insisted on the Mosaic Covenant in the Corinthian Church questioned both Paul’s authority as an apostle and his Theology. Most probably, the opposition group tended to impose or promote through their preaching the practice of circumcision among the gentile Christians. The group believed in Jewish tradition within Christianity and attempted to impose the tradition of the Jews on the church at Corinth.

As a result, the opponents of Paul promoted a “culture of fear” where salvation depends not upon faith in Jesus Christ alone but also in fulfilling cultural requirements of the Jewish Law. This view had their own supporters among the Christians in Corinth who probably were a diverse mix of Jews and Gentiles. On the other hand for Paul the central focus of life was belief in Jesus Christ. According to him, the church is the body of Christ (1 Cor.10:17, 11:29, 12:12-26) and he viewed himself as an apostle of the New Covenant.

Therefore, Paul established the Corinthian Church on the foundation of Christ with Christ as the center of the New Covenant. He did not emphasize any cultural requirement to become a Christian; rather, the Corinthian Church was the product of the New Covenant that was to be affirmed by a proper witness of Jesus Christ. According to Paul, faith was to be affirmed not with ink used in writing letters, rather by the spirit of the living God. The spirit of the living God as manifested in Jesus Christ was to be inculcated within the hearts of people who believe and place their faith in Jesus Christ. Here Paul compares between letters written on stone – the law and that written on “human hearts” – the new covenant in Jesus Christ, and records his preference to the New Covenant.

In all this, Paul in contrast to his opponents talks of a culture of freedom wherein, “‘in Christ’ all are free”, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free. Paul is aware that Christ’s teachings cannot be equated or contained by the Law and Jewish tradition. Rather, Jesus Christ manifested God’s grace by fulfilling the law through love. This love has the potential to bring people together rather than divide.

Thus for Paul, whether one was circumcised or uncircumcised there was no difference in witnessing to the love of Jesus Christ and being a part of the Church. Jesus Christ the symbol of unity in diversity accepted all, and cultural issues such as circumcision had no space in the church if it divided the people and created obstacles to experience the love of Christ in true fellowship (Gal 5: 6). Thus, Paul emphasizes on Christ transcending culture and reaching out to people, in the process making them his own. In our present context, the church is facing the question of culture and tradition. It is indeed good to incorporate our culture and tradition in order to show our identity.

One can agree to integrate cultural and traditional elements in the Church, but it should not divide our people. This is the danger especially in Churches, which has members of diverse cultural and traditional background. The Gospel itself contains elements of the culture of the Jews and of the Greeks. Even our own church traditions contain the cultural expressions of various missions that brought the message of Jesus Christ to us. We are the church of the New Covenant called to bear the example of Jesus Christ.

We are called to place our faith in Jesus Christ and build the Church on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Inculturation can only be possible if we first build our church firmly with Jesus Christ as the foundation. Inculturation is possible only when people participate in the process where hegemony of a few is rejected and attempts to take every section of the people is made. We should not impose a particular culture on different cultural groups within the church such that it leads to division. Friends, let us examine ourselves and see what kind of message we are giving to the world. Our faith expression has to transcend our limited cultural boundaries, reach out to people in need and make them Christ’s own where there is no domination of a few but rather the participation and involvement of many. The Church of the New Covenant needs to bear witness to Jesus Christ, who transcends cultural barriers and makes a difference in this World where clash of interests for survival is the order of the day!