By: Rev. Lynwood F. Mundy
2 Corinthians 3:1-9
Christ’s Epistle
3:1 Do (2 Cor. 5:12; 10:12, 18; 12:11) we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, (Acts 18:27) epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?
2 (1 Cor. 9:2) You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, (1 Cor. 3:5) ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not (Ex. 24:12; 31:18; 32:15; 2 Cor. 3:7) on tablets of stone but (Ps. 40:8) on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
The Spirit, Not the Letter
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God.
5 [John 15:5] Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but (1 Cor. 15:10) our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as (1 Cor. 3:5; Eph. 3:7) ministers of (Jer. 31:31; Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20) the new covenant, not (Rom. 2:27) of the letter but of the (Or spirit) Spirit; for ( [Rom. 3:20]; Gal. 3:10) the letter kills, (John 6:63; Rom. 8:2) but the Spirit gives life.
The Glory of the New Covenant
7 But if (Rom. 7:10) the ministry of death, (Ex. 34:1; Deut. 10:1) written and engraved on stones, was glorious, (Ex. 34:29) so 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 [Gal. 3:5] the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry [Rom. 1:17; 3:21] of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Print.
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