2 Corinthians 3

2 Corinthians 3:1

Why should I again be forced to mention the uprightness of my dealing toward you, the orthodox-ness and purity of my doctrine, after the manner that is usual in the church in commending from one church to another those that are strangers to them? have I any need of commendations to you, or from you to other men?

[a] epistles of commendation] Συστατικαὶ ἐπιστολαί, and γράμματα, in this place, are an intimation of an ancient custom in the apostolical primitive church, which ordinarily gave their testimonies to all Chris-

2 Corinthians 3:2

The works of conversion that we have wrought among you, of which our own conscience gives us testimony, will serve us abundantly instead of letters commendatory from you to all others, who cannot but have heard the fame of it.

2 Corinthians 3:3

And you (that is, your faith) are most conspicuously an epistle of Christ, of the writing of which we have only been the instruments, the Spirit of God supplying the place of ink, and your hearts of the writing tables, and by this epistle, this testimony,

2 Corinthians 3:4

Thus confident am I by the strength of Christ to speak boldly, and in a manner to boast of my behaviour and happy success in my apostleship, ch. ii. 14, &c.

2 Corinthians 3:5

Not that we are able to do, or so much as to think or enter upon any thing of this nature, in order to the conversion of men, of ourselves, as by our own strength; but whatever we are able to do, it is of God, whose title that is, Isaiah xiii. 6, to be Shaddai, almighty or sufficient.

2 Corinthians 3:6

And that sufficiency of his he hath expressed in the powers and methods with which he hath furnished and to which directed us the preachers and dispensers of the new covenant, (see note on the title of these books,) that is, not of the law (see note [g] Matt. v.), written and brought down in tables by Moses, but of the gospel, called by this title of the Spirit, first, because it comes near to the soul, and requires purity there; secondly, because the Holy Ghost came down both on Christ and on the disciples to confirm this new way; thirdly, because grace is a gift of the Spirit, and now is joined to the gospel, but was not to the law: which administration of the Spirit and annexation of it to the word under the gospel, gives men means to attain eternal life, when the law is the occasion, and by accident the cause of death to them, in denouncing judgment against sinners, and yet not giving strength to obey.

2 Corinthians 3:7

And if the delivery of the law, which brought nothing but death with it, when it was written in tables of stone, (see note [g] Matt. v.) was with the appearance of angels, and a bright shining which cast such a splendour on Moses’s face that it would dazzle any man’s eyes to look on it, and yet now that glory and that law so gloriously delivered is done away:

2 Corinthians 3:8

How much rather shall the preaching of the gospel be matter of reverence to all? (See note [g] Matt. v.)

2 Corinthians 3:9

For if the delivery of the law, which could help men to condemnation, but could not absolve any man, were in so much glory, God by his angels appearing

2 Corinthians 3:10

For the law, though otherwise glorious, yet being compared with the gospel hath no glory at all in it, (as the moon compared with the sun is so utterly outshined by it, that it appears not in the presence thereof.)

2 Corinthians 3:11

For if that which was itself to be abolished, being but the cover that contained the true jewel under it, were yet delivered dreadfully and by a glorious appearance; then much more shall that which endureth for ever, that jewel itself, the gospel or substance contained under those coverings or shadows, and so which is never like to be abolished, and hath a durable fruit belonging to it, (grace, which the other had not,) deserve to be esteemed glorious.

2 Corinthians 3:12

Upon these grounds, I say, (mentioned from ver. 5. to this verse,) I cannot but speak boldly and confidently to you in vindication of my apostleship, ver. 4.

2 Corinthians 3:13

Having no need to imitate Moses, who veiled his face, which was a type of the dark, not clear proposing of the gospel, (which is the end or principal part of the law, and the jewel contained under that covering,) to them of old.

2 Corinthians 3:14

And accordingly so it continues remarkable to this present; the Jews see not Christ in the reading of the Old Testament, and so the cover still remains upon Moses’s face, as it were; but by the Christian clear doctrine, or by faith, is removed.)

2 Corinthians 3:15

For by our preaching the gospel we perform a very acceptable service to God, and bring in glory to his name, offer up a sweet-smelling sacrifice unto him among all sort of people, both among the penitent believers, which receive the faith and live according to it, and the impenitent unbelievers, that receive it not.

And so though they have heard it over and over many times, yet still they do not understand the true sense of the law.

2 Corinthians 3:16

For though this sweet perfume to the obstinate impenitent hath been the most perfect poison, (as high perfumes sometimes are,) they have grown the worse for the gospel’s coming among them; yet to all that have forsaken their old courses of sin, and obeyed this call to a new life, it hath been the most comfortable vital savour that ever came to them. This is a weighty employment, and unless God did particularly enable us, we could never be fit for it.

But when Israel, ver. 13, or their heart, ver. 15, shall accept of the gospel of Christ, then they shall see and understand plainly what now is so obscure to them.

2 Corinthians 3:17

This we are sure of, that we have not designed any secular advantage to ourselves in preaching the gospel, as the Gnostic heretical teachers are observed to do, 1 Tim. vi. 5, but have sincerely revealed to you what we have been taught by Christ, without any other aim, God knows, than that we may perform faithful service to him.

CHAP. III.

DO we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, [a] epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?

Now Christ is, besides his human nature, indued with a divine Spirit, and the gospel of Christ is called the Spirit, ver. 6, and where the Spirit of Christ or the gospel is, there is freedom, and conse- ¹² was not so much as glorious, οὐδὲ δεδάξασται. glory, ἐν δόξῃ. ¹⁸ looked not, μὴ ἀτεινίσω. ¹³ put, ἐτίβει. ¹⁶ his own, ἑαυτοῦ. ¹⁷ so that, πρὸς τὰ. ¹⁹ Or, face: for the King’s MS. reads τὸ πρόσωπον.

[c] corrupt] That λόγος Θεοῦ, the word of God, signifies the gospel here, as it was by St. Paul made known unto men, the Christian religion preached by him, there can be no doubt. All the difficulty is, what is meant by κατηλεύειν, not that there can be any question of the native proper signification of that word, for it certainly signifies doing as κάπηλοι do, and those are little peddling merchants, that buy and sell to get gain; but because it is possible it may refer to some practices which such merchants are vulgarly guilty of, mixing, and dashing their commodities, and so deceiving others, that they may enrich themselves. But though the word may possibly by a figure signify this, yet the genuine proper notion, being very agreeable to the context, is in all reason to be preferred. We are not, saith St. Paul, ὡς οἱ πολλοὶ, as the many. This sure refers to the false teachers of his time, and those, we know, were the Gnostics, who, as they are said to serve their belly, to love the world, and to love pleasures, and so generally to design themselves advantages by their profession, and of all things hated the cross, renounced Christianity when it was persecuted, and brought any dangers or losses upon them; so they are particularly marked out, 1 Tim. vi. 5, (that chapter where the Gnostics are named, ver. 20, and their character particularly set down,) to be such as deem godliness gain, think the Christian profession brings men secular advantages of liberty, &c., and so cannot be so single-hearted, so wholly bent to approve themselves to God, as St. Paul here professeth to be. To this interpretation of the place I am inclined by two passages in the Epistles of Ignatius, which though they are omitted in the Laurentian copy are yet constantly to be found in others; and if they were put in by any interpolator, they may yet be of good use to us in this matter, there being no reason to suspect the hand that inserted them of any ill design, nor yet of ignorance either of the Gnostic heresy or of the use of the word. The former place is in the Epistle ad Magnessianos, where, speaking of the Gnostic Judaizers, “enemies of the cross, whose god is their belly, minding earthly things, lovers of pleasures, and not lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,” he adds, οἱ Χριστέμποροι, τὸν λόγον κατηλεύοντες, καὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν πωλοῦντες, “merchants of Christ, huckstering the word, selling Jesus,” going on to other parts of the character of the Gnostics, “corrupters of women, coveting what belongs to others, χρηματολαίλαπες, greedy lovers of money.” The second place is agreeable in Ep. ad Trall. “There are,” saith he, “some vain speakers and impostors,” οἱ Χριστιανοὶ ἀλλὰ Χριστέμποροι, ἀπάτη περιφέροντες τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ κατηλεύοντες τὸν λόγον τοῦ εὐαγγελίου—“not Christians, but merchants of Christ, carrying the name of Christ for deceit, huckstering the word of the gospel;” and who these are, he specifies in the process of that Epistle; “Simon the firstborn of Satan, Menander, Basilides, the unclean Nicolaitans, τοὺς ψευδωνύμους, those that are falsely named, that is, the Gnostics,” &c.