2 Corinthians 3:1

1 Do you say that this is self-recommendation once more? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

2 Corinthians 3:1 Meaning and Commentary

2 Corinthians 3:1

Do we begin again to commend ourselves?
&c.] The apostle having asserted that he and his fellow ministers always triumphed in Christ, and made manifest the savour of his knowledge in every place; were a sweet savour of Christ to God, did not corrupt the word of God, as some did, but sincerely and faithfully preached Christ; some might insinuate from hence, that he was guilty of arrogance and vain glory; wherefore to remove such a charge, or prevent its being brought, he asks, "do we begin again to commend ourselves?" we do not; what we say, we say honestly, sincerely, in the simplicity of our hearts, without any view to our own glory and applause among men, or for any worldly profit and advantage, or to ingratiate ourselves into your affections; we have no such views: some read these words without an interrogation, "we do begin again to commend ourselves"; as we have done already, in this and the former epistles; and as it is but just and right that we should vindicate our characters, support our good name and reputation, and secure and maintain our credit, which some would maliciously deprive us of:

though we have no need, as some others, of epistles of commendation
to you, or letters of commendation from you;
our persons, characters, and usefulness are too well known, to require commendatory letters front others to you, or from you to others. The false apostles are here struck at, whose practice it was to get letters of commendation from place to place; which they carried about and made use of for their temporal advantage, having nothing truly good and excellent in them to recommend them to others. The apostle does not hereby condemn letters of recommendation, which in proper cases may be very lawfully given, and a good use be made of them; only that he and other Gospel ministers were so well known, as to stand in no need of them.

2 Corinthians 3:1 In-Context

1 Do you say that this is self-recommendation once more? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

2 Our letter of recommendation is yourselves--a letter written on our hearts and everywhere known and read.

3 For all can see that you are a letter of Christ entrusted to our care, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the ever-living God--and not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts as tablets.

4 Such is the confidence which we have through Christ in the presence of God;

5 not that of ourselves we are competent to decide anything by our own reasonings, but our competency comes from God.