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Nov 14, 2025 06:00am

What’s Your Letter of Recommendation?

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“Please accept this recommendation …”

Applications were rolling in. It was time once again to begin our selection process for our elite summer program. The applicants were the best of the best when it came to academic achievement. But it wasn’t just that. The students excelled in extra-curricular activities such as sports, band, choir, and clubs. And they had countless volunteer hours with local community organizations and service projects.

And to top it all off, they all came with recommendation letters.

One year, one of the selection committee members noticed a recommendation letter for a student that had been sent by a state representative. They immediately, without reading the recommendation, said this student was in.

Why?

What did that recommendation letter say? Did they even know the student? Or was it just a friend of the family pulling some strings to look impressive?

I expressed my opinion that our students should be selected based on their merit and their reputation. An impersonal letter didn’t tell me a thing about that student, his work ethic, her ambitions in life… it just told me that someone had typed up a letter on government letterhead and had the representative sign it.

I looked through the stack of applications and pulled out a handful that I had met personally. They had participated in other programs we offered, some I had met when I visited their class, others I had interacted with them when they volunteered at our offices. I knew them. I knew their character. I knew that this program would be a game changer for them. I encouraged our committee to look at the student as a whole and not just based on some letter that didn’t even include the student’s name.

2 Corinthians 3:1-3
“Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Are we like others, who need to bring you letters of recommendation, or who ask you to write such letters on their behalf? Surely not! 2 The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. 3 Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This ‘letter’ is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.”

False doctrine. False teaching. False recommendations.

The church at Corinth was in the middle of a pagan-centered culture. Worldly influence had infiltrated the church with false teachers. Paul had warned them. He told them to be watchful. And now, some of these false teachers knew that to be accepted they would need recommendation letters. They started carrying with them forged letters of recommendation to earn the trust of the people and authenticate their authority.

Paul said he didn’t need letters of recommendation. The people themselves were his proof that he truly was an apostle of Christ.

How?

His message was the gospel—the truth of Jesus Christ—His death, burial, and resurrection, and the promise of the Holy Spirit.

If they wanted proof of Paul’s authority and teaching, they had to look no further than themselves. These people had received the Holy Spirit and had been changed. Their transformation was undeniable. It could only come from God Himself—the very One Paul had preached to them about.

The Holy Spirit testifies within all of us that Christ is real, that His promises are true. Are we reflecting that truth? Do we live in such a way that the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is evident?

Galatians 5:22-23
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

Let the light of Christ shine within you today! Our lives are a testimony to His redeeming work. Glorify Him today!

Want to know more about following Jesus? Go to follow.lifeword.org!