2 Corinthians 3:5 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

NIV: Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.

NASB: Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

CSB: It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.

NLT: It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.

KJV: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

NKJV: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

In the previous verse, Paul referred to the absolute confidence he has that his ministry of representing Christ is from God. Now he makes clear that his is not a confidence built on belief in himself or his own skills, abilities, and knowledge.

At one time, Paul would likely have placed great confidence in himself based on those things. He wrote this in Philippians 3:4–6, "If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless."

But when he came to Christ, Paul lost all that earthly, religious confidence, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ" (Philippians 3:7). Now he writes that any selfish version of self-confidence is gone. He does not believe he and his co-workers are sufficient in themselves to take any credit. They are not ultimately responsible for delivering anything of value to the Corinthians. Instead, their sufficiency comes from God. It is by God's power they deliver God's message to the people God wants to reach.

Second Corinthians 3:1–6 poetically describes the only letter of recommendation Paul needs for his legitimacy as an apostle: the Christians in Corinth. Paul and his friends delivered Christ to them. The Corinthians are a letter written by Christ not with ink but with the Holy Spirit, not on tablets of stone but on human hearts. God is the one who has empowered Paul for the ministry and who sent him and his friends into the world to do it.

Second Corinthians 3 begins with Paul's insistence that Christ's presence in the hearts of the Corinthians should be all the evidence they need that his ministry is true. He compares the limited glory revealed by the Old Covenant between God and Israel with the far greater glory revealed by Christ to all who come to Him by faith. That glory is revealed only when the veil of unbelief is removed through Christ by the Holy Spirit's power. Those who see God's glory in Christ begin to be changed to become like Him.

Earlier chapters described the Corinthians' response to Paul's earlier instructions. Here, Paul once again defends the legitimacy of his role as an apostle of Christ. He then compares the old covenant of the law of Moses with the new covenant of faith in Christ. The old covenant revealed human sinfulness, God's condemnation, and the death required to pay for sin. The new covenant brings God's forgiveness for sin to all who trust in Christ, making it possible to look on His glory and to begin to be changed by it into the image of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. This launches Paul into a description of the value of the gospel, in contrast to the struggles of earthly life.

Second Corinthians returns to similar themes as those Paul mentioned in his first letter to this church. Paul is glad to hear that the church in Corinth has heeded his advice. At the same time, it is necessary for Paul to counter criticisms about his personality and legitimacy. Most of this text involves that subject. The fifth chapter, in contrast, contains comforting words which Christians have quoted often in times of hardship. Paul also details his expectations that the church in Corinth will make good on their promise to contribute to the needs of suffering believers in Jerusalem.