2 Corinthians 3:1-6
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?
2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people,
3 revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of 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 we have toward God through Christ.
5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
The Proof of the Apostleship
Things that are not proof
In today’s passage, Paul argues that he has proof of his apostleship. First, let us look at three things that do not constitute proof. (1) Financial motives do not constitute proof. This is also part of what Paul meant when he said, “For we are not like the many, peddling the word of God” (2:17). In fact, Paul had ministered to the Christians in Corinth without placing any financial burden on them (ref. 1 Cor. 9:12-19). (2) Self-commendation also does not constitute proof. Among the believers in Corinth, there were many who criticized Paul’s claims about his own authority as self-commendation (ref. 5:12). But Paul clearly states that he is not commending himself. (3) Furthermore, letters of recommendation from churches do not constitute proof. These were something the false teachers eagerly desired. For Paul, the very existence of the Corinthian church, which had come into being through his ministry, was itself a letter of recommendation.
The Spirit is the proof of the apostleship
The Corinthian church is a letter of recommendation written on Paul’s heart, known and read by everyone. Here Paul compares the Old Testament and the New Testament and speaks of the nature of his ministry. (1) In the Old Testament, the terms of the Sinai Covenant were written on tablets of stone (Ex. 24:12). (2) In the New Covenant, the law of Christ is written on the human heart by the Holy Spirit (Jer. 31:33). At that time, through the Holy Spirit, the human heart is changed from a hard heart of stone into a soft heart of flesh (Ezek. 11:19). (3) Through Paul’s ministry, God, by the Holy Spirit, changed the hearts of the Corinthian believers into soft hearts of flesh and wrote the New Covenant (the teaching of the gospel) on them. That in itself is the letter of recommendation proving that Paul is an apostle. (4) What has been said above is not a display of his accomplishments, but the confidence Paul has before God. Even today, whether a person has been called to be a pastor or evangelist can be confirmed by the same principle. (1) Whether that person’s ministry is bearing fruit. (2) Whether that fruit has been produced by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Today, let us go forth with a letter of recommendation from the Holy Spirit.
Today's prayer
Father God of Jesus Christ, please make me one who serves the Holy Spirit, is used by the Holy Spirit, and bears the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.