2 Corinthians 3 explained: Written on Hearts, Not Stone

A living reference letter (vv. 1-3)

Some teachers had arrived in Corinth with letters of reference, a normal practice then, but Paul says the believers there are his reference, plain for anyone to read. Writing on hearts instead of stone recalls the Ten Commandments carved in stone and the prophets' promise that God would one day put his ways inside people, in a heart made soft and new.

Ability that comes from God (vv. 4-6)

Paul says his fitness for this work is God's gift, and he serves a 'new covenant,' the new agreement between God and people promised in Jeremiah. His line that the written code brings death while the Spirit brings life is usually read to mean that rules alone expose failure and its penalty, while God's Spirit changes people from within.

Two kinds of brightness (vv. 7-11)

Paul recalls how Moses' face shone after meeting God at Mount Sinai, so brightly that the people were afraid to come near. If the law on stone came with that much glory, he argues, the lasting new arrangement brought by the Spirit is far more glorious.

The veil over Moses' face (vv. 12-15)

In Exodus Moses covered his shining face with a veil, and Paul reads this as hiding a brightness that was fading; Exodus itself does not give that reason. He then uses the veil as a picture of not seeing Christ when the books of Moses are read, speaking as a Jewish man about many of his own people.

Unveiled and being changed (vv. 16-18)

Just as Moses removed the veil when he went in to speak with the LORD, Paul says anyone who turns to the Lord has the veil taken away and finds freedom. What 'the Lord is the Spirit' means exactly is debated, and the Greek word in verse 18 can mean either looking at or reflecting God's glory, but the picture is of people slowly being changed to share it.

Key verse: 2 Corinthians 3:18

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on what 'the letter' that kills means and so on how the law of Moses relates to the new covenant: some read it as the law itself now set aside, others as the law kept only as outward rules without the Spirit, with its moral core still in force.

Something to think about

Have you ever been more convinced by how someone's life changed than by anything they said about themselves?