ACC ~ 2 Corinthians 3 v1 - 4

OVERVIEW:

The Corinthians themselves are all the recommendation Paul needed. They are like a personal letter from Christ (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, ORIGEN, BASIL, AMBROSE), written with the Spirit of God, unlike letters written in ink, which fade (AMBROSIASTER, PELAGIUS, CHRYSOSTOM, SEVERIAN OF GABALA, THEODORET OF CYR). This is the basis of our confidence in God (JEROME).

3:1 | Needing Commendation?

COMMENDING OURSELVES? DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Paul gently expresses his surprise that the Corinthians are still unaware of the implication of his apostleship. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

AVOID SEDUCTION. PELAGIUS: Paul is not saying this in order to boast but so that the Corinthians will not be seduced by others. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 3.

NO MORE REMINDERS. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul is telling the Corinthians that they should have been commending him without any reminders of this kind. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 301.

3:2 | A Letter of Recommendation

EVIDENCE OF SALVATION. AMBROSIASTER: Evidence of salvation is an epistle in itself. The salvation of the Corinthians was in Paul’s heart and in the hearts of those who were with him, for he was always thinking about it. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

A LIVING LETTER. CHRYSOSTOM: “If we needed to be commended to others,” he says, “we would have produced you before them rather than a letter.” HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 6.1.

3:3 | Written on Human Hearts

WRITTEN WITH THE SPIRIT. AMBROSIASTER: The things which are promised are eternal and are therefore said to be written with the Spirit of God, unlike temporal things written in ink, which fades and loses its power to record anything. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

RECEIVING THE SPIRIT. PELAGIUS: It was clear to everybody that the Corinthians owed their conversion to Paul’s teaching, which the Holy Spirit had confirmed. We know that we belong to Christ if we have received the Spirit. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 3.

HUMAN HEARTS. CHRYSOSTOM: Here Paul bears witness not only to their love but also to their good works, since by their behavior they can demonstrate to everybody the high worth of their teacher. What letters would have done to gain respect for the apostle, the Corinthians achieve by their life and behavior. The virtues of disciples commend the teacher more than any letter. They are an epistle of Christ, having the law of God written in their hearts. God wrote that law, but Paul and his companions prepared them to receive the writing. For just as Moses hewed stones and tables, so Paul shaped their souls. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 6.1-2.

GRACE HIGHER THAN LAW. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: Paul shows how much better the grace of the Spirit is than the law and how much higher the preaching of the apostles is than the dispensation of the prophets. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

THE TWO TESTAMENTS. THEODORET OF CYR: Forgetting the false teachers, Paul goes on to the heart of the matter and expounds the difference between the two Testaments. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 302.

THE LAW OF GOD ON HUMAN HEARTS. AMBROSE: But with the Word of God before us we are able to formulate opinions on what is good and what is evil. One of these we naturally understand we should avoid as evil, and the other we understand has been recommended to us as a good. In this respect we seem to be listening to the very voice of the Lord, whereby some things are forbidden and other things are advised. If a person does not comply with the injunctions which are believed to have been once ordained by God, he is considered to be liable to punishment. The commands of God are impressed in our hearts by the Spirit of the living God. We do not read these commands as if they were recorded in ink on a tablet of stone. Hence, in our own thought we formulate a law. … There is something, therefore, like the law of God which exists in the hearts of men. PARADISE 8.39.

THE FINGER OF GOD. AMBROSE: By this finger, as we read, God wrote on the stone tablets which Moses received. For not with a finger of flesh did God make the forms and elements of those letters which we read; by his Spirit he gave the law. And so the apostle said: “For the law is spiritual, which indeed is written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart.” For, if the letter of the apostle is written in the Spirit, what stands in the way of our being obliged to believe that the law of God was written not in ink but in the Spirit of God, which surely does not stain the secrets of our heart and mind but illuminates them? THE HOLY SPIRIT 3.3.13.

THE SPIRIT AS SCRIBE. BASIL: As the pen is an instrument for writing when the hand of an experienced person moves it to record what is being written, so also the tongue of the just man, when the Holy Spirit moves it, writes the words of eternal life in the hearts of the faithful, dipped “not in ink but in the Spirit of the living God.” The scribe, therefore, is the Holy Spirit, because he is wise and an apt teacher of all. And the Spirit writes swiftly, because the movement of his mind is swift. The Spirit writes thoughts in us, “not on tablets of stone but on fleshy tablets of the heart.” In proportion to the size of the heart, the Spirit writes in hearts more or less, either things evident to all or things more obscure, according to the heart’s previous purity. Because of the speed with which the writings have been finished, all the world now is filled with the gospel. HOMILY 17 ON PSALM 44.

THE TABLETS OF THE HEART. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: These are the laws of reason, words that impart inspiration, written by the hand of the Lord, not on tablets of stone but inscribed in the hearts of men, provided only that those hearts are not attached to corruption. Therefore, the tablets of the hard of heart have been broken, that the faith of little ones might be formed in impressionable minds. Both laws served the Word as means of educating humanity, the one through Moses, the other through the apostles. But what a means of education is the one given through the apostles! CHRIST THE EDUCATOR 3.12.94.

THE PENCIL OF CHRIST. ORIGEN: Now we have not received this longing from God on the condition that it should not or could not ever be satisfied. … So when even in this life men devote themselves with great labor to sacred and religious studies, although they obtain only some small fragments out of the immeasurable treasures of divine knowledge, yet [they gain this advantage, that] they occupy their mind and understanding with these questions and press onward in their eager desire. Moreover they derive much assistance from the fact that by turning their mind to the study and love of truth they render themselves more capable of receiving instruction in the future. For when one wishes to paint a picture, if he first sketches with the faint touch of a light pencil the outlines of the proposed figure and inserts suitable marks to indicate features afterward to be added, this preliminary drawing with its faint outline undoubtedly renders the canvas more prepared to receive the true colors. So it will be with us, if only that faint form and outline is inscribed “on the tablets of our heart” by the pencil of our Lord Jesus Christ. … It is clear, then, that to those who have now in this life a kind of outline of truth and knowledge there shall be added in the future the beauty of the perfect image. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.11.4.

3:4 | Confidence Through Christ

A PREPARING MINISTRY. AMBROSIASTER: Paul’s purpose was to show that the ancient prophets did not have this position of trust in God’s eyes, because theirs was a preparing ministry. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE DIVINE SUFFICIENCY. JEROME: The apostle Paul, after describing in a few words the benefits of God, states in conclusion: “And for such offices, who is sufficient?” Whence he also says in another place: “Such is the assurance we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything, as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. He also it is who made us fit ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” Do we still dare to boast about the free will and treat with insult the benefits of God the Giver, when the chosen vessel [Paul] also writes very clearly: “But we carry this treasure in vessels of clay, to show that the abundance of our power is God’s and not ours”? AGAINST THE PELAGIANS 3.9.