Knowing The Word in 2 Corinthians: The Ministry of the Spirit, 3:7-11

The Ministry of the Spirit

7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

When Paul refers to the Ten Commandments, which represent the Law, as “the ministry of death,” he is making the case that the Commandments could not give the people of God the power to keep them. The Israelites were and remained a “stiff-necked” people under the guidance of the Law. The Holy Spirit changes everything. No longer is God’s word external but becomes internal through the indwelling Spirit. While the Old Covenant came to an end, the New Covenant will be everlasting with a “permanent glory.”

Give me, good Lord, a humble, lowly, quiet, peaceable, patient, charitable, kind and filial and tender mind, every shade, in fact, of charity, with all my words and all my works, and all my thoughts, to have a taste of thy holy blessed Spirit.

Sir Thomas More, 1478-1535