“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today.” So St. Francis of Assisi is said to have said, and in today’s passage, Paul seems to agree. In fact, he says that the Corinthians themselves are a message from God, as their Spirit-filled lives bear witness to the fact that they belong to Christ (v. 3).

But when Paul goes on to contrast the work of the Spirit with the letter (v. 6), is he saying that we don’t need to read the Bible anymore? Of course not – he spends way too much time in all of his letters quoting from the Old Testament and explaining how it is fulfilled in the life of Christ for that to be the case. In fact, it is very likely that this passage is itself an allusion to Jeremiah 31, in which God says He will make a new covenant with His people: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (31:33).

Jeremiah thus helps us to explain what Paul means when he says that the ministry of the Spirit is more glorious than the Law which God gave to Moses. For while that Law may have been awesome to the people when they first received it, their desire to obey God gradually faded away, much as the glow of Moses’ face faded after he left the presence of God (3:12). The sad fact is that many people who say they respect the Scriptures still don’t really have any intention of doing what they say.

But how different is the life of a Christian who is filled with the Spirit of God! He no longer follows the Law out of fear, imagining that obedience to it is the only way he can save himself. Instead, living as he does in the freedom of forgiveness and grace that comes from trusting in Christ (v. 17), he studies and follows the Law of God because he wants to, because God’s desires are written on his heart (v. 3). In fact, all those who have been born anew in Christ are being transformed into the image of Christ (v. 18), as both our actions and our motivations become ever more closely aligned with God’s will as it is expressed in His Word.

So, as amazing as the written Word of God is, and as important as it is for Christians to read it, it’s even more important for us to live by it, and for the Holy Spirit thus to display the life and love of Christ in everything we say and do. For it’s a truly changed life that is the greatest testimony to the truth of the gospel, the best letter of recommendation anyone could possibly write (v. 2).

II Corinthians 3:1-18 (ESV)

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?
2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all.
3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end,
8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?
9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.
10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it.
11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,
13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.
14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.
15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.
16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.