Verse 3
Paul’s ministry and the ministry of all Christians consists of being the instruments through whom Christ writes the message of regeneration on the lives of those who believe the gospel. He does this by the Holy Spirit.
"The Corinthian church is a letter of which Christ is the author; Paul is either the messenger by whom it was ’delivered’ (Gk. diahonetheisa, ’ministered’ or ’administered’) or perhaps the amanuensis who took it down; it was ’written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God.’ This contrast between ’ink’ and ’Spirit’ reminds Paul of the contrast between the old covenant and the new, but in view of the material on which the Decalogue, the old covenant code, was engraved, he thinks not of parchment or papyrus (which would have been suitable for ’ink’) but of ’tablets of stone’ as contrasted with ’tablets of human hearts’ (lit. ’tablets, hearts of flesh’) on which the terms of the new covenant are inscribed." [Note: Bruce, pp. 189-90. Cf. Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26.]
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