2 Corinthians 3:2

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

2 Corinthians 3:2 Meaning and Commentary

2 Corinthians 3:2

Ye are our epistle
Here a reason is given why they stood in no need of letters of commendation, to or from the church at Corinth, because that church was their living epistle, and which was much preferable to any written one. The apostle calls them their epistle in the same sense, as they are said to be his "work in the Lord, and the seal of his apostleship", ( 1 Corinthians 9:1 1 Corinthians 9:2 ) they were so as persons regenerated by the Spirit and grace of God, in whose conversion he was an instrument; now it was the work of conversion in them, which was the epistle said to be

written in our hearts;
some think it should be read, "in your hearts"; and so the Ethiopic version reads it; and it looks as if it should be so read, from the following verse, and from the nature of the thing itself; for the conversion of the Corinthians was not written in the heart of the apostle, but in their own; and this was so very notorious and remarkable, that it was

known and read of all men;
everyone could read, and was obliged to acknowledge the handwriting; it was so clear a case, what hand the apostle, as an instrument, had in the turning of these persons from idols to serve the living God; and which was so full a proof of the divinity, efficacy, truth, and sincerity of his doctrine, that he needed no letters from any to recommend him.

2 Corinthians 3:2 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.