1
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
2
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.
3
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.
4
Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.
5
Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
6
He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.7
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was
engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites
could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was,
8
will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
9
If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
10
For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary -- www.christnotes.org)
"Chapter Contents
The preference of the gospel to the law given by Moses. (1-11) The
preaching of the apostle was suitable to the excellency and evidence of
the gospel, through the power of the Holy Ghost. (12-18)
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 3:1-11
Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is
painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to
faithful ministers, or more to their praise, than the success of their
ministry, as shown in the spirits and lives of those among whom they
labour. The law of Christ was written in their hearts, and the love of
Christ shed abroad there. Nor was it written in tables of stone, as the
law of God given to Moses, but on the fleshy (not fleshly, as
fleshliness denotes sensuality) tables of the heart, Ezekiel 36:26.
Their hearts were humbled and softened to receive this impression, by
the new-creating power of the Holy Spirit. He ascribes all the glory to
God. And remember, as our whole dependence is upon the Lord, so the
whole glory belongs to him alone. The letter killeth: the letter of the
law is the ministration of death; and if we rest only in the letter of
the gospel, we shall not be the better for so doing: but the Holy Spirit
gives life spiritual, and life eternal. The Old Testament dispensation
was the ministration of death, but the New Testament of life. The law
made known sin, and the wrath and curse of God; it showed us a God above
us, and a God against us; but the gospel makes known grace, and
Emmanuel, God with us. Therein the righteousness of God by faith is
revealed; and this shows us that the just shall live by his faith; this
makes known the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ, for
obtaining the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The gospel so much
exceeds the law in glory, that it eclipses the glory of the legal
dispensation. But even the New Testament will be a killing letter, if
shown as a mere system or form, and without dependence on God the Holy
Spirit, to give it a quickening power."
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