2 Corinthians 3:6

King James Version (KJV)

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

Who hath made us able ministers - This is a more formal answer to the question, Who is sufficient for these things? προς ταυτα τις ἱκανος ; 1 Corinthians 2:16. God, says the apostle, has made us able ministers; ἱκανωσεν ἡμας διακονους, he has made us sufficient for these things; for the reader will observe that he uses the same word in both places. We apostles execute, under the Divine influence, what God himself has devised. We are ministers of the new covenant; of this new dispensation of truth, light, and life, by Christ Jesus; a system which not only proves itself to have come from God, but necessarily implies that God himself by his own Spirit is a continual agent in it, ever bringing its mighty purposes to pass. On the words καινη διαθηκη, new covenant, see the Preface to the gospel of St. Matthew.

Not of the letter, but of the Spirit - The apostle does not mean here, as some have imagined, that he states himself to be a minister of the New Testament, in opposition to the Old; and that it is the Old Testament that kills, and the New that gives life; but that the New Testament gives the proper meaning of the Old; for the old covenant had its letter and its spirit, its literal and its spiritual meaning. The law was founded on the very supposition of the Gospel; and all its sacrifices, types, and ceremonies refer to the Gospel. The Jews rested in the letter, which not only afforded no means of life, but killed, by condemning every transgressor to death. They did not look at the spirit; did not endeavor to find out the spiritual meaning; and therefore they rejected Christ, who was the end of the law for justification; and so for redemption from death to every one that believes. The new covenant set all these spiritual things at once before their eyes, and showed them the end, object, and design of the law; and thus the apostles who preached it were ministers of that Spirit which gives life.

Every institution has its letter as well as its spirit, as every word must refer to something of which it is the sign or significator. The Gospel has both its letter and its spirit; and multitudes of professing Christians, by resting in the Letter, receive not the life which it is calculated to impart. Water, in baptism, is the letter that points out the purification of the soul; they who rest in this letter are without this purification; and dying in that state they die eternally. Bread and wine in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, are the letter; the atoning efficacy of the death of Jesus, and the grace communicated by this to the soul of a believer, are the spirit. Multitudes rest in this letter, simply receiving these symbols, without reference to the atonement, or to their guilt; and thus lose the benefit of the atonement and the salvation of their souls. The whole Christian life is comprehended by our Lord under the letter, Follow me. Does not any one see that a man, taking up this letter only, and following Christ through Judea, Galilee, Samaria, etc., to the city, temple, villages, seacoast, mountains, etc., fulfilled no part of the spirit; and might, with all this following, lose his soul? Whereas the Spirit, viz. receive my doctrine, believe my sayings, look by faith for the fulfillment of my promises, imitate my example, would necessarily lead him to life eternal. It may be safely asserted that the Jews, in no period of their history, ever rested more in the letter of their law than the vast majority of Christians are doing in the letter of the Gospel. Unto multitudes of Christians Christ may truly say: Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life.

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Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

Who also hath made us able ministers … - This translation does not quite meet the force of the original. It would seem to imply that Paul regarded himself and his fellowlaborers as people of talents, and of signal ability; and that he was inclined to boast of it. But this is not the meaning. It refers properly to his sense of the responsibility and difficulty of the work of the ministry; and to the fact that he did not esteem himself to be sufficient for this work in his own strength 2 Corinthians 2:16; 2 Corinthians 3:5; and he here says that God had made him sufficient: not able, talented, learned, but sufficient ἱκάνωσεν ἡμᾶς hikanōsen hēmashe has supplied our deficiency; he has rendered us competent, or fit; if a word may be coined after the manner of the Greek here, “he has sufficienced us for this work.” There is no assertion, therefore, here, that they were people of talents, or special ability, but only that God had qualified them for their work, and made them by his grace sufficient to meet the toils and responsibilites of this arduous office.

Of the New Testament - Of the new covenant (note, Matthew 26:28), in contradistinction from the old covenant, which was established through Moses. They were appointed to go forth and make the provisions of that new covenant known to a dying world.

Not of the letter - Not of the literal, or verbal meaning, in contradistinction from the Spirit; see the notes on Romans 2:27, Romans 2:29; Romans 7:6. This is said, doubtless, in opposition to the Jews, and Jewish teachers. They insisted much on the letter of the Law, but entered little into its real meaning. They did not seek out the true spiritual sense of the Old Testament; and hence, they rested on the mere literal observance of the rites and ceremonies of religion without understanding their true nature and design. Their service, though in many respects conformed to the letter of the Law, yet became cold, formal, and hypocritical; abounding in mere ceremonies, and where the heart had little to do. Hence, there was little pure spiritual worship offered to God; and hence also they rejected the Messiah whom the old covenant prefigured, and was designed to set forth.

For the letter killeth - compare notes on Romans 4:15; Romans 7:9-10. The mere letter of the Law of Moses. The effect of it was merely to produce condemnation; to produce a sense of guilt, and danger, and not to produce pardon, relief, and joy. The Law denounced death; condemned sin in all forms; and the effect of it was to produce a sense of guilt and condemnation.

But the spirit giveth life - The spirit, in contradistinction from the mere literal interpretation of the Scriptures. The Spirit, that is, Christ, says Locke, compare 2 Corinthians 3:17. The spirit here means, says Bloomfield, that new spiritual system, the gospel. The Spirit of God speaking in us, says Doddridge. The spirit here seems to refer to the New Testament, or the new dispensation in contradistinction from the old. That was characterized mainly by its strictness of Law, and by its burdensome rites, and by the severe tone of its denunciation for sin. It did not in itself provide a way of pardon and peace. Law condemns; it does not speak of forgiveness. On the contrary, the gospel, a spiritual system, is designed to impart life and comfort to the soul. It speaks peace. It comes not to condemn, but to save. It discloses a way of mercy, and it invites all to partake and live. It is called “spirit,” probably because its consolations are imparted and secured by the Spirit of God - the source of all true life to the soul. It is the dispensation of the Spirit; and it demands a spiritual service - a service that is free, and elevated, and tending eminently to purify the heart, and to save the soul; see the note on 2 Corinthians 3:17.

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Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary

Even the appearance of self-praise and courting human applause, is painful to the humble and spiritual mind. Nothing is more delightful to faithful ministers, or more to their praise, than the success of their ministry, as shown in the spirits and lives of those among whom they labour. The law of Christ was written in their hearts, and the love of Christ shed abroad there. Nor was it written in tables of stone, as the law of God given to Moses, but on the fleshy (not fleshly, as fleshliness denotes sensuality) tables of the heart, Eze 36:26. Their hearts were humbled and softened to receive this impression, by the new-creating power of the Holy Spirit. He ascribes all the glory to God. And remember, as our whole dependence is upon the Lord, so the whole glory belongs to him alone. The letter killeth: the letter of the law is the ministration of death; and if we rest only in the letter of the gospel, we shall not be the better for so doing: but the Holy Spirit gives life spiritual, and life eternal. The Old Testament dispensation was the ministration of death, but the New Testament of life. The law made known sin, and the wrath and curse of God; it showed us a God above us, and a God against us; but the gospel makes known grace, and Emmanuel, God with us. Therein the righteousness of God by faith is revealed; and this shows us that the just shall live by his faith; this makes known the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ, for obtaining the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The gospel so much exceeds the law in glory, that it eclipses the glory of the legal dispensation. But even the New Testament will be a killing letter, if shown as a mere system or form, and without dependence on God the Holy Spirit, to give it a quickening power.

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SDA Bible Commentary (limited)
Volume 1-7

6. Made us able. In vs. 6-18 Paul sets forth the superiority of “the ministration of the spirit” (v. 8), which he represents, over “the ministration of death,” the now-obsolete Jewish system, represented by his Judaizing opponents. He draws this contrast by comparing the “glory” of the new covenant with that of the Mosaic period, and by exposing his Judaizing opponents as exponents of the letter of the law rather than of the spirit of it. He designates the Jewish priesthood as a ministry “of the letter,” in contrast with that of Christian ministers as a ministry “of the spirit.” A minister “of the letter” of the law administered a system of rules and regulations. His object was to secure conformity to external requirements. But God had made Paul a minister “of the spirit” of all God’s revealed will. He had been educated according to the rigid letter of the law (Acts 22:3; Phil. 3:4-6), but the spirit of life in Christ Jesus had set him free from that rigid system (Rom. 8:2). He had renounced the ministry “of the letter” for that “of the spirit.” (Rom. 8:1, 2; 2 Cor. 5:17).

The one type of ministry has sufficiency to save men from sin and to make them children of God, the other has not (Eph. 3:7). The one has the Holy Spirit, the other has not. The ministry “of the spirit” is able to convict of sin, the other is not (John 16:8, 9, 13; Eph. 3:7; 1 Tim. 1:11-16).

The ministry “of the letter”?the forms of religion?and that “of the spirit” (see on John 4:23, 24) need not have been mutually exclusive (see on Mark 2:21, 22; 7:6-9). But the ministry “of the letter” came to be, in actual practice, a perversion of the true gospel which had been revealed to Moses and to all the prophets (DA 29, 30, 35, 36).

New testament. Literally, “new covenant” (see on Matt. 26:28). Paul contrasts the new covenant with the old, the one being identified with the spirit and the other with the letter. Under the old covenant, Jewish reverence for the simple “letter” of the law practically became idolatry. It stifled the “spirit.” The Jews chose to live under the dominion of the “letter” of the law. Their obedience to the law, to ritual, and to the prescribed ceremonies was formal and external. A Christian’s devotion and obedience will not be characterized by any mechanical method, by elaborate rules and requirements, but by the presence and power of the Spirit of God.

Not of the letter. The contrast between “letter” and “spirit” in Scripture is peculiar to the apostle Paul (see on Rom. 2:27-29; 7:6). The one is outward, the other inward. Both Jews and Christians are in danger of stressing the “letter” to the exclusion of the “spirit.” The OT, as well as the NT, constitutes an inspired revelation by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:15-17). God intended Judaism to have both “letter” and “spirit”?a record of God’s revealed will and certain prescribed forms, translated into a living experience (see on John 4:23, 24). The same is true of Christianity. Formal creeds, theoretical theology, and the forms of worship have no power to save men from sin.

In that it had come from God the “letter” of the law as recorded in the writings of Moses was good. But God had intended the “letter,” the written record of the law, to be only a means to the higher end of establishing the “spirit” of the law in the hearts of the Jews. But, as a whole, the Israelites failed to translate the “letter” of the law into the “spirit” of the law, that is, into a living religious experience of personal salvation from sin by faith in the atonement to be provided by the Messiah. The literal observance, alone, of the law “killeth.” Only the “spirit” of the law can possibly give “life,” whether it be to Jew or to Christian. The practice of Christianity can easily degenerate into a mere “form of godliness” without “the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:5), so that the “letter” of Christianity “killeth” those who rely on it for salvation.

In Paul’s day, Judaism had so far lost the “spirit” of true religion that its religious observances consisted only of the “letter.” As a system it had lost the power to impart life to its adherents (see on Mark 2:21, 22; John 1:17). On the other hand, Christianity was still young and virile, although in centuries to come it, too, was to become degenerate (see Additional Note on Dan. 7). Thus, when Paul wrote, Judaism was identified with the “letter,” and Christianity, in so far as it was free from the influence of the Judaizers, was identified with the “spirit.”

The argument of some that Paul here depreciates the OT and the Decalogue is without foundation in fact. Writing to Gentile Christians, Paul repeatedly affirms the biding force of the OT and the Decalogue upon Christians (see on Rom. 8:1-4; 2 Tim. 3:15-17; cf. on Matt. 5:17-19). Christ and the apostles had no other “scriptures” than the OT (see on John 5:39). The galaxy of the faithful whose names are recorded in Heb. 11, together with many thousands of believers in OT times, experienced the quickening work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, just as others did in NT times.

Every church and every creed has its “letter” as well as its “spirit.” The gospel of Jesus Christ has its “letter” and its “spirit.” Without the quickening power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel in any church inevitably becomes a dead letter. Thousands of professed Christians are satisfied with the “letter” and remain wholly without spiritual life. What God requires is not simply right action, but right action as the product and evidence of a right relationship with God and a right state of moral and spiritual being. To reduce Christian life and worship to compliance with a system of rules, rather than to make it a matter of reliance upon the living God, is to depend upon the service and ministry of the “letter.” The formal acts and ceremonies of religion, whether Jewish or Christian, are but a means to an end. If treated as ends in themselves, they immediately become a hindrance to true religious experience.

The same is true of the law of God, the Decalogue. Formal compliance with its precepts, in the endeavor to earn salvation thereby, is futile. Only when obedience follows as the natural result of love for God and one’s fellow men is it of any value in God’s sight (see on Matt. 19:16-30). In the Sermon on the Mount our Lord stressed the principle that obedience to the “letter” of the law without the “spirit” of obedience falls short of meeting His standard of righteousness (see on Matt. 5:17-22). Contrary to certain modern exponents of Scripture, the “spirit” of the law does not abolish its “letter.” For instance, Jesus enjoined His followers, on the basis of the sixth commandment, not to be “angry” with their brethren (Matt. 5:22), but He did not thereby give a man license to violate the letter of the commandment by taking his brother’s life. The “spirit” of the sixth commandment obviously does not replace its “letter” and tends to “magnify” it (see on Isa. 42:21); The same may be said of each precept of the Decalogue, including the fourth commandment (see on Isa. 58:13; Mark 2:28).

The letter killeth. The “letter” was good, but it had no power to rescue the sinner from the sentence of death. In fact, it condemned him to death. As originally given by God, the law was designed to promote life (Rom. 7:10, 11), and thus it is said to be “holy, and just, and good” (v. 12). But life came with obedience, and death with disobedience. The law thus put the sinner to death, for the “soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Eze. 18:4, 20). “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), but the gospel was designed to forgive him, and give him life (ch. 8:1-3). The law sentences the commandment breaker to death, but the gospel redeems him and makes him live again. (Ps. 51).

Giveth life. Literally, “makes alive.” The ministry of the “spirit” imparts supernatural power. The sentence of death imposed by the law is superseded by the gift of life in Christ (1 John 5:11, 12). When brought to the conscience of a converted man, the standard of God’s righteousness becomes the occasion of obedience and life. But when the law of God is brought to the conscience of the unregenerate man, it condemns him to death.

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SDA Bible Commentary (limited)
Volume 1-7

The ministry “of the letter”Ã¢â‚¬â€the forms of religionÃ¢â‚¬â€and that “of the spirit” (see on John 4:23, 24) need not have been mutually exclusive (see on Mark 2:21, 22; 7:6-9). But the ministry “of the letter” came to be, in actual practice, a perversion of the true gospel which had been revealed to Moses and to all the prophets (DA 29, 30, 35, 36).

Not of the letter. The contrast between “letter” and “spirit” in Scripture is peculiar to the apostle Paul (see on Rom. 2:27-29; 7:6). The one is outward, the other inward. Both Jews and Christians are in danger of stressing the “letter” to the exclusion of the “spirit.” The OT, as well as the NT, constitutes an inspired revelation by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:15-17). God intended Judaism to have both “letter” and “spirit”Ã¢â‚¬â€a record of God’s revealed will and certain prescribed forms, translated into a living experience (see on John 4:23, 24). The same is true of Christianity. Formal creeds, theoretical theology, and the forms of worship have no power to save men from sin.

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Ellen G. White
The Acts of the Apostles, 327-8

There were those who had charged Paul with self-commendation in writing his former letter. The apostle now referred to this by asking the members of the church if they thus judged his motives. “Do we begin again to commend ourselves?” he inquired; “or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?” Believers moving to a new place often carried with them letters of commendation from the church with which they had formerly been united; but the leading workers, the founders of these churches, had no need of such commendation. The Corinthian believers, who had been led from the worship of idols to the faith of the gospel, were themselves all the recommendation that Paul needed. Their reception of the truth, and the reformation wrought in their lives, bore eloquent testimony to the faithfulness of his labors and to his authority to counsel, reprove, and exhort as a minister of Christ. AA 327.1

Paul regarded the Corinthian brethren as his testimonial. “Ye are our epistle,” he said, “written in our hearts, known and read of all men: forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” AA 327.2

The conversion of sinners and their sanctification through the truth is the strongest proof a minister can have that God has called him to the ministry. The evidence of his apostleship is written upon the hearts of those converted, and is witnessed to by their renewed lives. Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. A minister is greatly strengthened by these seals of his ministry. AA 328.1

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Ellen G. White
The Great Controversy, 191

Thomas Munzer, the most active of the fanatics, was a man of considerable ability, which, rightly directed, would have enabled him to do good; but he had not learned the first principles of true religion. “He was possessed with a desire of reforming the world, and forgot, as all enthusiasts do, that the reformation should begin with himself.”—Ibid., b. 9, ch. 8. He was ambitious to obtain position and influence, and was unwilling to be second, even to Luther. He declared that the Reformers, in substituting the authority of Scripture for that of the pope, were only establishing a different form of popery. He himself, he claimed, had been divinely commissioned to introduce the true reform. “He who possesses this spirit,” said Munzer, “possesses the true faith, although he should never see the Scriptures in his life.”—Ibid., b. 10, ch. 10. GC 191.1

The fanatical teachers gave themselves up to be governed by impressions, regarding every thought and impulse as the voice of God; consequently they went to great extremes. Some even burned their Bibles, exclaiming: “The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” Munzer's teaching appealed to men's desire for the marvelous, while it gratified their pride by virtually placing human ideas and opinions above the word of God. His doctrines were received by thousands. He soon denounced all order in public worship, and declared that to obey princes was to attempt to serve both God and Belial. GC 191.2

The minds of the people, already beginning to throw off the yoke of the papacy, were also becoming impatient under the restraints of civil authority. Munzer's revolutionary teachings, claiming divine sanction, led them to break away from all control and give the rein to their prejudices and passions. The most terrible scenes of sedition and strife followed, and the fields of Germany were drenched with blood. GC 191.3

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Ellen G. White
This Day With God, 162.5

Many are falling into the sin of sacrificing their religion for the sake of worldly gain, preserving a form of piety, yet giving all the mind to temporal pursuit. But the law of God must be considered first of all, and obeyed in spirit and in letter. Jesus, our great exemplar, in His life and death, taught the strictest obedience. He died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, that the honor of God's law might be preserved and yet man not utterly perish.... TDG 162.5

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