In the closing verses of the preceding chapter, the apostle might seem to have spoken too highly of himself and put in too high claims for his work. To do away with any such impression is the object of the first six verses of this chapter.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:1. ARE WE BEGINNING AGAIN TO COMMEND OURSELVES? OR [1] NEED WE, AS DO SOME, EPISTLES OF COMMENDATION TO YOU OR FROM YOU? (On these two questions see footnote on chap. 2 Corinthians 1:13.) In those times, when means of communication between distant places were both few and slow, such... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:2. YE ARE OUR EPISTLE. ‘Your conversion is our letter recommendatory' not needing to be carried about and produced with the hand, but WRITTEN IN OUR HEARTS. Cf. 1 Corinthians 9:2, “The seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.” No true servant of Christ will feel himself above the... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:3. BEING MADE MANIFEST THAT YE ARE AN EPISTLE OF CHRIST. Nearly all modern interpreters take this to mean, ‘an epistle of which Christ is the _author.'_ But with Chrysostom we cannot but think the meaning is, ‘an epistle of which Christ is the _subject-matter_,' as if he had said, ‘a... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:4. AND SUCH CONFIDENCE HAVE WE THROUGH CHRIST... NOT THAT WE ARE SUFFICIENT OF (‘from') OURSELVES TO ACCOUNT ANYTHING AS FROM (‘out of') OURSELVES as though we were the source of our own success; BUT OUR SUFFICIENCY IS FROM GOD;... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:6. WHO ALSO MADE US SUFFICIENT AS MINISTERS OF THE NEW COVENANT. The same word is in the original thrice repeated in different forms, and it might be rendered ‘not we are fit of our-selves... but our fitness is from God, who also fitted us to be ministers,' etc. The expression “able... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:7. BUT IF THE MINISTRATION OF DEATH that of the law, which by reason of our inability to keep it, becomes to us a ministration of death, written (_Gr. ‘_ in letters') AND ENGRAVEN ON STONES, CAME WITH GLORY with a glory expressive of the righteous claims of Jehovah on His reasonable... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:8. HOW SHALL NOT RATHER THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT of that which is “spirit and life,” be with glory?... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:9. FOR IF THE MINISTRATION OF CONDEMNATION IS GLORY the law is glorious, even though in our case its effect is condemnation, MUCH RATHER DOTH THE MINISTRATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS EXCEED IN GLORY. Mark how the true sense of the important word “righteousness” here fixes itself by the cont... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:10. FOR VERILY THAT WHICH HATH BEEN MADE GLORIOUS HATH NOT BEEN MADE GLORIOUS IN THIS RESPECT _i.e. ‘_ hath had its glory eclipsed,' BY REASON OF THE GLORY THAT SURPASSETH.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:11. FOR IF THAT WHICH PASSETH AWAY which was in its own nature but transitory, WAS WITH GLORY was ushered in with manifestations of awful glory MUCH MORE THAT WHICH REMAINETH the enduring economy IS IN GLORY. Now comes the application of all this.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:12. HAVING THEREFORE SUCH A HOPE in the exercise of such a ministry, WE USE GREAT BOLDNESS (or ‘openness') of speech. It is the same word as is used in Mark 8:32, where the reference is to our Lord's naked announcement of His death, which up to that time he had only darkly hinted. In... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:13. AND ARE NOT AS MOSES, _WHO _ PUT A VEIL UPON HIS FACE, THAT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SHOULD NOT LOOK STEDFASTLY TO THE END OF THAT WHICH WAS PASSING AWAY. Here again the reference is to what is said of Moses in Exodus 34:33-35. But as this is expressed with a little obscurity, crit... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:14. BUT THEIR MINDS (_Gr._ ‘thoughts') WERE HARDENED they were of blunted spiritual perception, FOR (_i.e._ in proof of this) UNTIL THIS VERY DAY AT THE READING OF THE OLD COVENANT (their own Scriptures) THE SAME VEIL REMAINETH UNLIFTED; WHICH VEIL IS DONE AWAY IN CHRIST He being “th... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:15. BUT though “the darkness is past and the true light now shineth,” what avails this for those who will not see? for UNTIL THIS DAY, WHENSOEVER MOSES IS READ, A VEIL (of voluntary obscurity) LIETH UPON THEIR HEART. Such is their spiritual obtuseness, that even after that which is p... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:16. BUT WHENSOEVER IT (_i.e._ their heart) SHALL TURN TO THE LORD to the Lord _Christ_ THE VEIL IS TAKEN AWAY the present tense, here used, signifying that it vanishes at once on their “looking on Him whom they pierced.”... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:17. NOW THE LORD the glorified Lord of the Church IS THE SPIRIT that quickening Spirit, who “by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” makes the Gospel “spirit and life” to “as many as receive Him” (John 1:12-13; and see 2 Corinthians 3:6 above). ‘Where Christ is (says Bengel) there i... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 3:18. BUT WE ALL, WITH UNVEILED FACE, REFLECTING AS A MINOR THE GLORY OF THE LORD the Lord Christ, ARE TRANSFORMED INTO THE SAME IMAGE, FROM GLORY TO GLORY, EVEN AS BY THE LORD THE SPIRIT. In the 12th verse the apostle had said, “We are not as Moses, who put a veil on his face, that th... [ Continue Reading ]