1.
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
Verse 1
Do we begin? must we begin? is it necessary?
2.
Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
Verse 2
The meaning is, that the feelings of attachment and regard which subsisted between Paul and the Corinthian church were universally known.
3.
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.
Verse 3
The epistle of Christ ministered by us; the work of Christ, performed by our instrumentality.--Tables; tablets.
4.
And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
Verse 4
Such trust; such confidence.--Through Christ to God-ward; in God through Christ.
5.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6.
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.
Verse 6
Not of the letter; not of the written law, that is, of the Old Testament dispensation.--Of the spirit; off the gospel, which had yet been communicated thus far chiefly by direct spiritual influences, and not by written records.--Killeth; denounces death.
7.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
Verse 7
The ministration of death; the ministration of that covenant which denounced death.--In stones; referring to the two tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written.--Was glorious; in respect to the circumstances of its first promulgation. Allusion is here made to the account recorded in Exodus 34:29,Exodus 34:30.--Was to be done away; was temporary and transient.
8.
How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
Verse 8
The ministration of the Spirit, that is, of the gospel promulgated by the agency of the Spirit.
9.
For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10.
For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
Verse 10
No glory in this respect; that is, in comparison with the glory of the new dispensation.
11.
For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
12.
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13.
And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
Verse 13
Put a veil over his face; symbolical of the mystery under which spiritual truth was veiled, in the old dispensation; so that the children of Israel could not understand the true end and design of these temporary ordinances, which were enjoined upon them.
14.
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
Verse 14
Which veil is done away; which mystery is solved.
15.
But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
16.
Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
Verse 16
When it shall turn; that is, when the heart of the children of Israel shall turn.
17.
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Verse 17
That Spirit; the spirit spoken of in 2 Corinthians 3:6,--namely, the spiritual dispensation. The Lord is the foundation and support of it.--Liberty; freedom from the darkness and bondage in which the soul had often been enveloped under the old dispensation.
18.
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.