Chapter Three
2 Cor. 3:1. Do we really need to introduce ourselves to you again?
Since he said many great things about himself, he says: will not someone say: what is this, Paul? By saying this about yourself, you are praising yourself. He removes this objection with the following words.
2 Cor. 3:1. "Do we really need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?"
He says this with force, making his speech more expressive. He hints at the false apostles, who, having nothing in their deeds that could make them known, composed letters of commendation, presented them to whomever they wished, and in this way recommended themselves and brought themselves into prominence. His words, spoken with force, have this meaning: would anyone really say that we must present to you letters of commendation in order to become known through them among you, or present such letters from you to others? Then he adds with feeling.
2 Cor. 3:2. You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men.
What, he says, letters would have done, in which you would have commended and glorified us, that very thing you accomplish by your life of faith, which everyone sees and hears. And wherever we go, we carry you with us everywhere, because you are written in our heart, and we proclaim your virtue to all. Thus, since you are for me a letter of commendation to others, I have no need of other letters from you in order to become known to those who do not know me. Likewise, since I have you in my heart, I have no need for others to recommend me to you. Letters of commendation are needed for strangers, not for acquaintances, and you are so written in my heart that you cannot leave it. Here he testifies not only to his love for them, but also to their virtuous life, that is, that they were able to demonstrate before all people the worthiness of their teacher, for the virtue of disciples serves as an adornment for the teacher.
2 Cor. 3:3. You show yourselves that you are an epistle of Christ,
In what way? In that the law of Christ and His commandments, like written letters, abide and are preserved in you.
2 Cor. 3:3. through our ministry, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on fleshy tablets of the heart.
Having taken the opportunity to compare the Law with the Gospel, he makes here such a comparison: as Moses was a minister of the Law, so we too are ministers of your faith in the Gospel, and as he engraved on stone tablets, so we engrave on your hearts; the Law was written with ink, but the Gospel is written in you by the Spirit. Therefore, as much as the Spirit differs from ink and the heart from stone, so much does the New Testament differ from the Law. Since hardened people have hearts of stone, he called the hearts of believers fleshly, because they are receptive to the word.
2 Cor. 3:4. Such confidence we have in God through Christ,
2 Cor. 3:5. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves,
Since he showed that the New Testament is above the Old, and it was natural to conclude that we too — the apostles, ministers of the New Testament — are above Moses, who served the Old Testament, but this seemed arrogant, he says: nothing is ours, but our "confidence," that is, our boasting is "in God through Christ." For Christ is the reason that we boast in God, and nothing is ours, not even the slightest thing. This very thought he expresses with the words: "we are not sufficient to think anything of ourselves."
2 Cor. 3:5. but our sufficiency is from God,
2 Cor. 3:6. He made us sufficient to be ministers of the New Testament,
Our strength, he says, is from God: He made us "sufficient," that is, He strengthened us, made us capable of serving this great divine work — the New Testament.
2 Cor. 3:6. not of the letter, but of the spirit,
And the Old Law is spiritual, that is, given by the Spirit; but it did not bestow the Spirit, as the New will bestow Him. So the meaning of the words is this: we have been entrusted to impart not the letter, as Moses did, but the Spirit. For the apostles not only taught spiritual and divine things, but also imparted the Spirit through the laying on of hands.
2 Cor. 3:6. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
The Law, he says, subjects to punishment when it notices someone sinning even in what would seem the very least matter, such as gathering wood on the Sabbath (Num. 15:32–36), while the Holy Spirit, receiving those who have committed innumerable iniquities, justifies them in the bath of baptism and gives life to those dead through sin.
2 Cor. 3:7. If the ministry of deadly letters, engraved on stones, was so glorious,
Having shown above the difference between the New and Old Testaments, which consists in the fact that the latter is written with ink, while the former with the Spirit, the one on stones, and the other on hearts, and also that the latter kills, while the former gives life, he now wishes to show that the glory of the Gospel is also greater. Since the law had a sensible glory, that is, glory in the face of Moses, while the New Testament has an intelligible glory, which no one sees with the senses, he demonstrates the superiority of the evangelical glory by means of reasoning, saying that the law was a minister of death. He did not say "author of death," so as not to give occasion to the heretics, but "minister." For the author of death was sin, while the law administered the punishment. Moreover, the law was only a letter and did not provide those who struggled with any help, as baptism does, but imposed punishments that could not be erased. For this minister of death was engraved on stones. If, therefore, the law, with such a character, was so glorious, how much more glory does grace have, which incomparably surpasses it?
2 Cor. 3:7. that the children of Israel could not look upon the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was passing away,
He covertly accuses the Jews. They, he says, were so crude that they could not gaze even upon the sensible glory. He did not say that the law and the tablets had glory, but the face of Moses; for it was Moses who was glorified, not the tablets of the law. But he also diminishes the very glory of Moses, calling it passing away. Notice, however, that he did not call it bad, but having an end and ceasing.