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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - 2 Corinthians 3
Verse Commentaries:
Chapter Level Commentary:
It's Importance
FOLLOWING THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S INTENT AT THE PARAGRAPH LEVEL
This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
Read the chapter in one sitting. Identify the subjects. Compare your subject divisions with the five modern translations. Paragraphing is not inspired, but it is the key to following the original author's intent, which is the heart of interpretation. Every paragraph has one and only one main subject.
1. First paragraph
2. Second paragraph
3. Third paragraph
4. Etc.
CONTEXTUAL INSIGHTS
A. The emphasis of this chapter is very similar to the emphasis of the Book of Hebrews. It is a comparison between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. How are sinful humans made right with God.
1. performance of the Mosaic Law
2. faith in the atoning work of God in Christ?
This comparison is used by Paul to defend his gospel and himself against the Jewish-oriented false teachers who have arrived in Corinth.
B. This chapter's use of the term "spirit" is highly ambiguous. There has been much discussion over 2Co_3:6; 2Co_3:8; 2Co_3:17-18. Are they relating to the "Holy Spirit" or the concept of "the spiritual"? There seems to be an intentional fluidity between the two. The new age is the age of the Spirit (cf. Jer_31:31-34; Eze_36:22-38), which inaugurates a spiritual relationship with God versus a legal, performance-based relationship.
C. Paul's use of the term "law" (see Special Topic at 1Co_9:9)
1. law = wrath; Rom_3:20; Rom_4:15; Gal_3:10-13; Col_2:14
2. law = spiritually good; Rom_7:14
3. contrast between Rom_1:5; Rom_2:13; Gal_3:12; and Rom_3:2 or 2Co_8:7; 2Co_3:6; Gal_3:21
4. Paul uses Abraham and Moses as two typological symbols of the relationship between "faith" and "law"
The Law is good. It is from God. It served, and continues to serve, a divine purpose (cf. Rom_7:7; Rom_7:12; Rom_7:14; Rom_7:22; Rom_7:25). It can not bring peace or salvation. James Stewart in his book A Man in Christ, shows Paul's paradoxical thinking and writing:
"You would naturally expect a man who was setting himself to construct a system of thought and doctrine to fix as rigidly as possible the meanings of the terms he employed. You would expect him to aim at precision in the phraseology of his leading ideas. You would demand that a word, once used by your writer in a particular sense should bear that sense throughout. But to look for this from Paul is to be disappointed. Much of his phraseology is fluid, not rigid. . .'The law is holy,' he writes, 'I delight in the law of God after the inward man' (cf. Rom_7:12-13) but it is clearly another aspect of nomos that makes him say elsewhere, 'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law' (cf. Gal_3:13)" (p. 26).
D. Paul uses three major metaphors in this chapter:
1. letters, 2Co_3:1-3
a. letters of recommendation, 2Co_3:1
b. they are letters, 2Co_3:2
c. OT tablets, 2Co_3:3
2. Old and New Covenants, 2Co_3:6-11
a. written versus spiritual, 2Co_3:3; 2Co_3:6
b. kills versus gives life, 2Co_3:6
3. veil, 2Co_3:7; 2Co_3:12-16
a. Moses, 2Co_3:12
b. Jews of Paul's day, 2Co_3:14
c. believers, 2Co_3:14-16
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.
1. Describe the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant?
2. Why is the OT said to be death? Does this mean the OT is evil?
3. What is the relationship between the OT and the NT?
4. Does this passage speak of the Holy Spirit or the spiritual realm?
5. What is the metaphor of "the veil" trying to communicate to modern day Christians?