What Is the Significance of ‘Not the Letter but of the Spirit’?

You’re a bit put off by the entire thing. It feels confusing. You have no idea what anyone is saying or what has happened, but you’re assured by one of the dear saints in row 12 that this is a definite movement of God and that the Spirit has come down.

You open up to 1 Corinthians, and what you see about order and decency doesn’t seem to square with what you see with your eyes. So, you turn to your new friend and ask how these happenings square with what the text is saying.

At this grand indiscretion, you are thoroughly chided. Part of this tongue lashing you’re able to pick out a bit of 2 Corinthians 3:6.

…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.

You’ve been accused of being “of the letter” and “not of the Spirit.” If you were truly spiritual, you’d be able to discern this work of the Spirit, and you wouldn’t be using the letter to try to assess what is going on here.

Is that a proper use of 2 Corinthians 3:6? What does that verse mean in its original context?

What Is the Context?

In 2 Corinthians, Paul has to defend his ministry. A group of false teachers has entered Corinth, and they’re slandering Paul.

They are attempting to convince the Corinthians that Paul is a scoundrel only concerned with taking their money. “He doesn’t really care about you” is the argument.

Because of this, Paul spends the first few chapters of Corinthians defending his ministry for the sake of the gospel. 2 Corinthians 3 is still part of that defense.

Verse 6 is directly connected with verse 3. At the beginning of this chapter, Paul is asking them whether or not he needs to give them references. 

Do they need a letter of recommendation? “If so,” says Paul, “I’ll claim you as my reference.” It’s a genius move on his part. He’s calling upon them to recall their reception of the gospel under his ministry.

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.

In fact, they are a letter of Christ. Christ is the one writing this letter — not Paul. And He is writing this letter of recommendation upon their hearts.

It’s not a letter of recommendation written by human hands with ink and papyrus but rather the Holy Spirit upon their hearts. Seifrid says it well: 

“The Corinthians thus are not merely a letter written by Christ. They have been made to share in Christ. They are Christ’s letter in that Christ himself is present in and among them. For this reason, too, Paul is able to say, as he does already in v. 2, that the Corinthians have been written as a letter in his own heart” (Mark A. Seifrid, The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Second Letter to the Corinthians).

Paul’s confidence isn’t based upon his own credentials. It is based upon Christ — it is confidence given to him through Christ. His sufficiency for ministry isn’t determined by letters of recommendation or by others but by Christ Himself.

As we come to verse 6, the topic is still whether or not Paul’s ministry is qualified. Is he sufficient for this work? Is he an approved and appropriate apostle?

Paul points to Christ and essentially says, “ask him.” That’s what verse 6a means when Paul says that Christ “has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant.”

And once Paul mentions that “new covenant,” his use of “letter” takes on a deeper meaning.

What Is the Letter and the Spirit?

Many read this verse similar to how Origen did. Origen, who lived in the second and third centuries, believed this verse was teaching that there is a “literal” way to read and a “spiritual” way to read.

One is the way in which the Jewish people read the text and missed Christ; the other is the way in which a believer is able to see Christ in the text. Without the Spirit, you cannot understand Scripture rightly, would be the argument.

While there is some theological truth to what Origen was saying, that is not Paul’s point here. Neither is Paul’s point to say that there is a legalistic way to read the passage.

In this view, it would mean that there is a human and works-centered way of reading a passage of Scripture, handling theology, relating to God, and spiritually trusting in God's way. “Letter” then means having a twisted and inappropriate use of God’s Law.

Again, there is theological truth there. Such a statement isn’t necessarily theologically wrong — or even wrong in practice. But this is most certainly not what Paul’s point is here. I think Garland explains the meaning well:

“The ‘letter’ denotes what is merely written, and when Paul contrasts it with Spirit, he is contrasting an external code with an indwelling power that can transform believers into the image of God” (David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, vol. 29, The New American Commentary).

This connects with what Paul is saying at the beginning of the chapter. They are looking to assess his ministry with letters of recommendation. Paul is driving them to assess it by looking at the transformative work of the Spirit of God in their own life.

The “letter” kills because outward obedience is not what God is after. He is in the business of inward heart transformation. In contrast, the Spirit actually gives life.

Paul is leading us to verse 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.”

How Do We Apply This Today?

There is one sense in which the person using this verse to rebuke a critic is partially correct. We do not judge a ministry based on externals. But that cuts both ways.

We cannot judge by externals either positively or negatively. We are able to discern if something is “of the Spirit” by whether or not the transformation of lives takes place. Are people becoming “transformed into the image of Christ”?

That is the core of new covenant ministry — it is transformative through the power of the Holy Spirit. New covenant ministry is all about conformity to Jesus. Anything except this is "the letter” and will ultimately lead to death. Only the Spirit of God gives life.

For further reading:

Should Christians Follow the Book of the Law Today?

What's the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings Verse Tell Us about Jesus?

What Is Praying in the Spirit?

Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Graham

Mike Leake is husband to Nikki and father to Isaiah and Hannah. He is also the lead pastor at Calvary of Neosho, MO. Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and Jesus Is All You Need. His writing home is http://mikeleake.net and you can connect with him on Twitter @mikeleake. Mike has a new writing project at Proverbs4Today.

This article originally appeared on Christianity.com. For more faith-building resources, visit Christianity.com.