2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Butler's Commentary

SECTION 1

It Dooms The Soul (2 Corinthians 3:1-6)

3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; 3and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. -Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, 6who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:1-3 Ineffective: Legalism is an almost constant problem for preachers. The problem is either his own legalism or that of members of the congregation he serves. It is probably the most productive tool of the devil to thwart the work of the church on earth! It is a sin much more insidious than sins of the flesh. It damns more souls than fornication and thievery put together! Legalism is a problem, not only for those inside the church, but for millions of impenitent sinners seeking to be justified before God by some meritorious code devised by their own self-righteous arrogance. Legalism is fundamentally an attitude. It manifests itself in behavior designed to conform to specific codes or rules. And those codes of conduct are almost as numerous as there are human beings! Legalism is the attitude that demands justification from God on the basis of having behaved in conformity with an established set of regulations or rulesusually regulations established by the individual. The Pharisees took the law of Moses, made their own code of behavior as interpretations (called, traditions of the elders) and declared they were justified before God because they had kept the law.

Followers of the Pharisees were everywhere in the first century world of Paul. Many of them had infiltrated the Christian churches established in the Roman provinces. Paul called them, false brethren (Galatians 2:4) and dogs (Philippians 3:2). They were the Judaizers who insisted that before any Gentile could become a disciple of the Messiah (Christ) he had to be circumcised according to the law of Moses and keep the traditions of the elders.

Someone in the Corinthian church had impugned Paul's credentials as an emissary of God because he had no commendations from the Judaizers. Some had come to the Corinthians with letters of commendation-' from the Judaizers and were received. These Judaizers were there, as in Galatia, Philippi, Colossae, Rome, Jerusalem, and other places, to undo Paul's work and regiment the Corinthian Christians into little cells of legalistic Judaism. They undoubtedly carried with them introductory letters from the Sanhedrin to accredit them. Once upon a time even Paul had had such letters himself (Acts 9:2).

Paul's argument is that no amount of letters of accreditation from the Judaizers will produce eternal life or the Christian freedom cherished by the Corinthians. That is because legalism is totally ineffective in clearing the conscience (see Hebrews 10:1-4). It cannot produce life in the heart (mind) of man. The law of Moses produces condemnation, judgment, and eternal death. So do all traditions and codes of legal justification invented by men, no matter how liberal the code may be (see Romans 2:12-16). Man's conscience tells him he has sinned and defaulted on his own standards, let alone God'S! The only way sinful man can have a consciousness of life is through a dispensation of divine grace. Grace is dispensed through Christ.

The apostle contends that the converted heathen Corinthians were living credentials of his ministry. They proved he was the properly authorized emissary from Christ. Paul had written on their hearts the eternal gospel. They had become persons with a consciousness of immorality. They looked to the things that are unseen. eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Their mind-set and lifestyle was known and read by all men. (2 Corinthians 3:2). That was Paul's letter of commendation from God. The Greek philosopher Plato had said 400 years before Paul, that the good teacher does not write his message in ink that will fade; he writes it upon men. And that is the way the gospel of Christ operates. It becomes fixed upon the character, the personality, the spirit of the humble and contrite person. Christ's word is eternal. It shall never pass away. It never returns to him void but always accomplishes that for which it is sent (see Isaiah 55:11). Christ had written his character, through his servant, Paul, upon the hearts of the Corinthian Christians, not with that which was destined to fade (the law)but with the eternal Spirit of God. Their relationship to Christ was Paul's accreditation (see 1 Corinthians 9:2). It is an awesome thought that every Christian, whether he likes it or not, is at once a living letter known and read by his contemporaries. Christians represent Christ to the world. Men judge the church by its members. The honor of God is in the hands of believers (see Romans 2:24; John 13:35; 1 Thessalonians 1:7-8).

The possessive pronoun in the Greek text is hemon and should be translated our. Some ancient Greek manuscripts (among them the Siniaticus) have humon for the pronoun which would read your. Evidently the RSV translators chose the pronoun humon even though the preponderance of manuscripts show hemon. For Paul to say, You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all men. does not make sense and does not fit the context. Unless Paul's sentence could be separated this way: You yourselves are our letter of recommendation to be known and read by all men, and you are written on our hearts. Another commentator has suggested that Paul means the hearts of all Christians, in general, not Paul alone. That is, Paul's credentials are written on all our hearts to be known and read by men, you Corinthians, too. But Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 3:3, and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us. so he is referring to that which is written on their hearts. The RSV translation seems in keeping with the context. They were Paul's verification: they were read by all men.

The Greek verbs in this passage are instructive. The perfect tense participle eggegrammene, having been inscribed means what Christ had written on their hearts through Paul had been done in the past with a continuing result. And the present tense participles, ginoskomene (being known) and anaginoskomene (being read) indicate that the Corinthians were continually being known and read by all men. Furthermore, the present participle phaneroumenoi (being shown) indicates they were continually showing that they were Paul's recommendation.

2 Corinthians 3:4-5 Insufficient: The Judaizers went to Corinth with letters from the fathers at Jerusalem, no doubt. But no human being is sufficient to produce in man what God desires. Paul would not even claim that sufficiency on his own. He would have the Corinthians understand that his confidence is through Christhis sufficiency is from God. Legalism is insufficient because it does not come from God. God gave the Law. But God never intended the Law to be used in a legalistic, self-justifying way. The Law had a holy and good purpose (see Romans 7:7-12). It was actually intended to teach just the opposite from what the Judaizers taught. The Law was to bring all who knew it to a consciousness of condemnation and total inability to be justified by it. It is not the law which is insufficientit is legalistic perversion of the law which is insufficient. The Law is sufficient for its purposeto produce awareness of sin, the need for grace, and tutoring unto faith.

Paul would not even take credit for what had been produced in the Corinthians through him. He gave all the credit to Christ and God. That is another of the glaring insufficiencies of the legalistic spirit. It dare not be honest and give credit where the credit is due. The legalist is a legalist because he wants all the credit for himself. Grace, unmerited favor, is anathema to him! Let all preachers and congregations beware of legalism. It is ineffective and insufficient. In fact, it produces exactly the opposite of what God's powerful word produces. Stay with the Word. Preach the wordleave traditions and codes to the legalists.

Like it or not, right or wrong, people generally manifest what they have been taught or what they have learned. Teaching and learning is a character-building process. People become books to be read by all those with whom they associate. The apostles were read as having been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). That is how people become letters of recommendation. Paul told the brethren at Thessalonica they were his joy and crown of boasting (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4).

2 Corinthians 3:6 Incriminating: Legalism dooms men under the judgment of God even more so than the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses was given by God and provisions were made in it for having faith reckoned as righteousness (see Genesis 15:6; Hebrews 11:1-40). But legalism takes the Law and prostitutes it into a system of human self-justification. But by the law shall no flesh be justified (Galatians 2:16).

Paul reminded the Corinthians that his credentials testified that he had been qualified by God to be a minister of a new covenant, not in a written code which kills, but in the Spirit which gives life. Law condemns to separation from God (death) because man cannot, does not, keep the Law. Man is guilty. God's penalty for breaking his Law is eternal banishment. But from the very first violation of his Law, God started preparing to forgive and justify men by a totally gracious deed of his own. All who believed in that in the O.T. were justified by God's gracious deed (redemptive work of Christ). The new covenant was prophesied, typified and proclaimed in the O.T. All those in the O.T. who refused to trust in the coming grace of God through the Messiah (and there were many), but trusted in their legal standing according to Law, never had the salvation of God. Paul plainly says that the new covenant was a manifestation of the righteousness of God apart from law, although the law and the prophets had borne witness to just such justification by faith (Romans 3:21-26).

In this letter to the Corinthians the apostle wants it understood that he has been qualified to be a minister (dispenser) of the new covenant which is all about life. The new covenant does not condemn or sentence anyone to death. It holds forth the word of life. Of course, anyone who does not enter into the new covenant will die forever because all who refuse the gospel must accept lawone kind of law or another (see Romans 2:12-16). And to trust in law for justification is the very essence of legalism. Legalism incriminates and kills. The Spirit of God, given gratis (by grace), brings justification and life.