2Cor 2:17-3:6 | Geneva | STEP | For we are not as many, which {l} corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. (l) We do not handle it craftily and covetously, or less sincerely than we ought. And he uses a metaphor, which is taken from hucksters, who used to play the false harlot with whatever came into their hands.

2 Corinthians 2:17

For we are not as many, which {l} corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:1-6

For we are not as many, which {l} corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

(l) We do not handle it craftily and covetously, or less sincerely than we ought. And he uses a metaphor, which is taken from hucksters, who used to play the false harlot with whatever came into their hands. [Forasmuch as ye are] {a} manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ {b} ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the {c} living God; {1} not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

(a) The apostle says this wisely, that by little and little he may come from the commendation of the person to the matter itself. (b) Which I took pains to write as it were. (c) Along the way he sets the power of God against the ink with which epistles are commonly written, to show that it was accomplished by God. (1) He alludes along the way to the comparison of the outward ministry of the priesthood of Levi with the ministry of the Gospel, and the apostolical ministry, which he handles afterward more fully. And such {d} trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

(d) This boldness we show, and thus may we boast gloriously of the worthiness and fruit of our ministry. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our {e} sufficiency [is] of God;

(e) In that we are proper and able to make other men partakers of so great a grace. {2} Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the {f} letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

(2) He amplifies his ministry and his fellows: that is to say, the ministry of the Gospel comparing it with the ministry of the Law, which he considers in the person of Moses, by whom the Law was given: against whom he sets Christ the author of the Gospel. Now this comparison is taken from the very substance of the ministry. The Law is as it were a writing in itself, dead, and without efficacy: but the Gospel, and new Covenant, as it were the very power of God itself, in renewing, justifying, and saving men. The Law offers death, accusing all men of unrighteousness: the Gospel offers and gives righteousness and life. The administration of the Law served for a time to the promise: the Gospel remains to the end of the world. Therefore what is the glory of the Law in comparison of the majesty of the Gospel? (f) Not of the Law but of the Gospel.