2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 3 2 CORINTHIANS 3:1 To obviate the imputation of vain glory, Paul showeth that the gifts and graces of the Corinthians were a sufficient commendation of his ministry, 2 CORINTHIANS 3:4,5 the efficacy of which he ascribeth entirely to God. 2 CORINTHIANS 3:6 He proveth the superi... [ Continue Reading ]
Your Christianity, and embracing of the gospel of Christ, your fiath and holiness, are instead of an epistle to me, to let the world know, both with what faithfulness, and with what blessing of God, and success upon my labours, I have preached the gospel; and you are such an epistle as I do not carr... [ Continue Reading ]
He had told them before that they were his epistle, his epistle recommendatory, the change which God had wrought in their hearts did more recommend him than all the epistles in the world could; but here he tells them that they were THE EPISTLE OF CHRIST, it was Christ that wrote his law in their hea... [ Continue Reading ]
We are not infallible in the case; but I tell you what confidence we have, hoping in God concerning you, through the merits of Jesus Christ.... [ Continue Reading ]
I would not have you think that we judge ourselves sufficient to work a change in the hearts of men; we are so far from that, that we have no sufficiency so much as to think one good thought, which is the lowest human act. Though the subject, upon which the apostle is here discoursing, be a sufficie... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse plainly openeth what he had said before, and lets us know what sufficiency of God that was of which he there spake. He hath (saith the apostle) not found, but _made us_ sufficient. We were men before, and, through the creating power and providence of God, we had an ability to think and to... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle is manifestly comparing the ministry of the gospel with the ministry of the law, and showing the excellency of the former above the latter. In the former verse he had called the law, _the letter; _ and the gospel, in opposition to it, he had called, the spirit: here he calleth the minist... [ Continue Reading ]
How shall not that ministration, which is more spiritual, and the effects of which are much more spiritual, be accounted much more glorious? Thus the apostle doth not only magnify the gospel above the law, but he also magnifieth his offices in the ministration of the gospel; which ministration he re... [ Continue Reading ]
What the apostle before called _the ministration of death, _ he here calleth THE MINISTRATION OF CONDEMNATION; and therin gives us a reason why he called it the ministration of death, because it led unto eternal death, as showing men sin, so accusing and condemning men for sinful acts. If it pleased... [ Continue Reading ]
The law had in it something of intrinsic glory and excellency, as it was the revelation of the will of God to and concerning his creatures; there was an inseparable glory attending it upon that account: and it was made glorious in the ministration of it; as it pleased God that the giving of it shoul... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle, by another argument, proveth the ministration of the gospel to be much more glorious than the ministration of the law, because it is more durable and abiding. The strength of the argument dependeth upon this principle, that any durable good is more excellent and glorious than that which... [ Continue Reading ]
HOPE here signifieth nothing but a confident, certain expectation of something that is hereafter to come to pass. The term _such_ referreth to something which went before: the sense is: We being in a certain confident expectation, that our ministration of the gospel shall not cease, as the ministrat... [ Continue Reading ]
We have the history to which this passage of the apostle relateth, in EXODUS 34:33,35, where we read, that _when Moses had done speaking, he put a veil on his face._ The apostle here elegantly turns that passage into an allegory, and opens to us a mystery hidden under that piece of history. That shi... [ Continue Reading ]
Here the apostle expoundeth what he meant before by the mystical veil, viz. the blinding of the eyes of the Jews; of which we read often in the New Testament, MATTHEW 13:14 MARK 4:12 LUKE 8:10 1 THESSALONIANS 12:40 ACTS 28:26 ROMANS 11:8: see the notes upon all those texts. And (saith the apostle) t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE VEIL, mystically signified by the veil upon Moses's face, which hindereth them from seeing or discerning the Messiah to be come. But why doth he say, WHEN MOSES, that is, the books of Moses, or rather of the Old Testament, are READ? Possibly he thereby hinteth, that it was their duty, when in th... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN IT SHALL TURN, may be understood of the whole, or of the generality (at least) of the Jews; when they shall be converted to the faith of Christ, or when any particular person shall be converted to Christ, then THE VEIL SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY; not the veil with which God covered and veiled the myst... [ Continue Reading ]
The Lord Christ was a man, but not a mere man; but one who had the Divine nature personally united to his human nature, which is called the SPIRIT, MARK 2:8. But some think, that the article here is not merely prepositive, but emphatical; and so referreth to 2 CORINTHIANS 3:6, where the gospel (the... [ Continue Reading ]
Some by WE here understand all believers; others think it is better understood of ministers: but the universal particle _all_ rather guideth us to interpret it of the whole body of believers, of whom the apostle saith, that they _all_ behold _the glory of God with open face; _ that is, not under tho... [ Continue Reading ]