1 Do awe begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, bepistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?
2aYou are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, aministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not bon tablets of stone but con tablets of flesh, thatis, of the heart.
The Spirit, Not the Letter
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God.
5aNot that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but bour sufficiency is from God,
6 who also made us sufficient as aministers of bthe new covenant, not cof the letter but of the Spirit; for dthe letter kills, ebut the Spirit gives life.
Glory of the New Covenant
7 But if athe ministry of death, bwritten and engraved on stones, was glorious, cso that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,
8 how will athe ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry aof righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.
11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
12 Therefore, since we have such hope, awe use great boldness of speech—
13 unlike Moses, awho put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at bthe end of what was passing away.
14 But atheir minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.
15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.
16 Nevertheless awhen one turns to the Lord, bthe veil is taken away.
17 Now athe Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there isbliberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding aas in a mirror bthe glory of the Lord, care being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as1 by the Spirit of the Lord.
II Corinthians 3:1 The Two Covenants Compared SUMMARY OF II Corinthians 3: Paul's Letters of Commendation. The New Covenant and the Covenant of the Letter; or the Law and. the Gospel. The First Written on Tables of Stone; Is a Ministration of. Death; Was Glorious but Is Done Away. That Which Remaineth, the New Covenant, Far More Glorious. The Veil Over the Face of Moses a Type of Blindness of Israel. The Transforming Power of the Gospel. Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Paul had just spoken of his triumphs. Opposers, such as were in Corinth, might insist that he was boasting. Or need we, as some [others], epistles of commendation? No doubt there is a reference made to letters which the Judaizing teachers, who had come to Corinth, carried. They might need them, but he did not.
Other People's Commentary (NT) entries containing 2 Corinthians 3:1:
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