Daily Lesson for Sunday 30th of August 2026
Read 2 Corinthians 3:1-9. In what sense can we be an epistle of Christ?
Letters of recommendation were common in the Greco-Roman world. However, Paul did not bear such letters. The Spirit’s transformative power in the lives of the Corinthians was proof of his authentic ministry. Yet, Paul was sure that it was not through his intelligence or efforts that the church in Corinth came into being (2 Corinthians 3:4-6). He was not involved in self-promotion (2 Corinthians 3:5, 1 Corinthians 2:2).
Image © Jim Howard at Goodsalt.com
Paul speaks about his ministry by briefly discussing the two covenants: the old one represented by Moses and the new one represented by Paul and his colleagues. A hasty reader may think that the old covenant gave no hope of salvation, but this is untrue. Salvation was available in the old as in the new covenant. The old covenant was the gospel in advance. “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed’ ” (Galatians 3:8, NKJV).
In 2 Corinthians 3:1-18; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, we can see that the old covenant is used to symbolize the legalistic experience of those who depended upon their own works of obedience as the means of pleasing God. The new covenant, however, represents the experience of those who rely completely on God’s grace to do all that God has promised to do for them and in them.
Paul is talking about two different responses, by believers and unbelievers, to the gospel. He is not talking about different gospels, one in the Old Testament and a different one in the New—for there is only one gospel, offered by God, “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” (2 Timothy 1:9, NKJV).
“This is not to deny that 2 Corinthians 2:14-17; 2 Corinthians 3:1-18; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 contains some historical elements.”—Skip MacCarty, In Granite or Ingrained?: What the Old and New Covenants Reveal about the Gospel, the Law, and the Sabbath (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2007), p. 120. But Paul is using that history to make the point that some among them “are being saved” and some “are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15, NKJV). Because of the reaction, that of unbelief and lack of faith toward Moses’ ministry, his ministry can be viewed as a ministry of condemnation and death. Because the church at Corinth believed, Paul’s ministry among them proved to be a ministry of righteousness, a ministry of the Spirit who gives life.
This experience of salvation of the church in Corinth is the evidence of Paul’s authentic ministry.
