Read & explore together
Ministers of a New Covenant
These verses ask whether the speakers need written recommendations. They answer by pointing to the believers themselves, then explain that confidence and fitness for this work come from God through Christ and the Spirit.
Understanding the passage
The setting of these words
The passage begins with questions about letters of commendation. It then calls the readers “our letter” and “a letter of Christ”, described with contrasts about ink, stone and hearts. The passage ends by saying that sufficiency comes from God, who makes “us” servants of a new covenant.
2 Corinthians 3:1–6Main takeaway
This passage teaches that true fitness for serving the new covenant comes from God through Christ and the life-giving Spirit, not from self-commendation.
Follow the letter’s teaching
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Questions about commendationThe passage opens with two questions. “Are we beginning again to commend ourselves?” and “do we need...
Explanation
The passage opens with two questions. “Are we beginning again to commend ourselves?” and “do we need... letters of commendation?” The questions raise the issue of human approval and written recommendation. The speakers do not start by presenting credentials, but by challenging whether such letters are the real basis for recognition here.
02“You are our letter”Instead of producing a written reference, the speakers say to the readers, “You are our letter.”
Explanation
Instead of producing a written reference, the speakers say to the readers, “You are our letter.” This letter is “written in our hearts” and is “known and read by all men”. The image presents the readers themselves as a visible and personal testimony, rather than a document carried from place to place.
03A letter of Christ by the SpiritThe readers are further described as “a letter of Christ, served by us”. The verse then gives two contrasts: “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God” and “not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh”.
Explanation
The readers are further described as “a letter of Christ, served by us”. The verse then gives two contrasts: “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God” and “not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh”. The emphasis is on God’s living work in people, not merely external writing.
04Confidence through Christ, sufficiency from GodThe passage explains where confidence comes from: “through Christ toward God”. It also rules out self-sufficiency.
Explanation
The passage explains where confidence comes from: “through Christ toward God”. It also rules out self-sufficiency. The speakers are “not... sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves”. Instead, “our sufficiency is from God”. Their ability for this work is traced to God, not to personal adequacy.
05Servants of a new covenantGod “made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant”. The final contrast is between “the letter” and “the Spirit”: “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
Explanation
God “made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant”. The final contrast is between “the letter” and “the Spirit”: “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” In this passage, the main point is that God equips these servants, and the Spirit is described as giving life.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What do the opening questions suggest about letters of commendation in this passage?
Notice that the speakers ask whether they need such letters at all, then immediately point to the readers themselves as “our letter”.
02How does verse 3 describe the readers as a “letter of Christ”?
List the contrasts in the verse itself: not with ink but with the Spirit, and not on tablets of stone but on hearts of flesh.
03According to these verses, where do confidence and sufficiency come from?
Follow the wording carefully: confidence is “through Christ toward God”, and “our sufficiency is from God”.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
2 Corinthians 3:1–6
1Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as do some, letters of commendation to you or from you?
2You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men,
3being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.
4Such confidence we have through Christ toward God,
5not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God,
6who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.