Living Letters of Recommendation
Study note
Paul responds to critics who question his credentials by declaring that the Corinthian believers themselves are his letter of recommendation, written not on stone tablets but on human hearts by the Spirit. He humbly attributes all competence to God, who has made him a minister of a new covenant characterized not by the death-dealing letter of the law but by the life-giving Spirit.
1 Are we bragging about ourselves again? Do we need recommendation letters to show you, or from you, like some other people do? Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 You are our recommendation letter! You are written on our hearts, and everyone can see you and read what God has done. Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 It is obvious that you are a letter from Christ, delivered through our work. It was not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. It was not carved on stone tablets but written on human hearts. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 This is the kind of confidence we have before God because of what Christ has done. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 It is not that we can do anything on our own. Everything we are able to do comes from God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 God is the one who made us capable of serving under a new agreement with him -- an agreement that is not about written rules but about the Spirit. Written rules bring death, but the Spirit brings life. Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
The Surpassing Glory of the New Covenant
Study note
Paul draws a dramatic contrast between the fading glory that accompanied the giving of the law at Sinai and the surpassing, permanent glory of the ministry of the Spirit. He explains that a veil remains over the hearts of those who read the old covenant apart from Christ, but when anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. The chapter culminates in the transformative promise that all believers, beholding the Lord's glory with unveiled faces, are being progressively transformed into his image.
7 Now, the old system of rules carved into stone brought death. Yet it still came with such brightness that the people of Israel could not even look at Moses' face. It was shining so brightly, even though that glow was already fading. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 If the old system came with that kind of glory, imagine how much more glorious the work of the Spirit must be! How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 The system that brought guilt came with glory. So the system that makes people right with God must overflow with even greater glory! For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 In fact, the old glory has lost its shine completely, because the new glory is so much brighter. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
11 The thing that was fading away came with glory. So the thing that lasts forever must have even greater glory! For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
12 Because we have this hope, we speak with total confidence. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 We are not like Moses. He put a cloth over his face so the people of Israel would not see the brightness fading away. And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
14 But their thinking became stubborn. Even today, when they read the old agreement, that same covering stays over their minds. It has never been removed, because it can only be taken away through Christ. But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.
15 Even now, whenever the writings of Moses are read, a covering lies over their hearts. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.
16 But the moment anyone turns to the Lord, that covering is pulled away. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
17 Now, the Lord and the Spirit are one. And wherever the Lord's Spirit is, there you find freedom. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 All of us, with nothing covering our faces, reflect the Lord's glory like mirrors. Step by step, we are being transformed to look more and more like him in his glory. This transformation comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.