2 Corinthians 3:8 Commentary and Bible Study

The letter is contrasted with the spirit. This is not a contrast between the literal reading of Scripture and the ‘more enlightened’ figurative reading, as if the latter delivered an entirely different and superior meaning. As always when Paul makes this contrast, it is a comparison between the law and the gospel as his language makes clear. It is the difference between letters written on the stone tablets held in Moses’ hands and the writing on the hearts of men and women by the Spirit of God on a spiritual entity: the soul. That writing only takes place when the Spirit of God causes us to be born again and to have spiritual life within us. The language of Scripture may be literal or figurative according to the nature of the passage we are reading, and it needs to be interpreted accordingly. It is because the gospel writes a message on human hearts and not just on inanimate tablets of stone that it is so much more glorious. To write on stone, nothing more needs to be done than the inscribing of letters in dead material. To write on human hearts, the writing must be understood, loved and appreciated, yielded to and assimilated into our very being. The one changes a block of stone; the other changes human beings with an eternal future.