2 Corinthians 3 Discussion

You can feel the pressure to prove yourself everywhere: credentials, reputation, followers, even spiritual “wins.” We open 2 Corinthians 3 and let Paul dismantle the whole game. He refuses to build his ministry on self-commendation or external letters of recommendation, and instead points to something you can’t fake for long: a church changed by the Holy Spirit. If you’ve ever wondered what real spiritual credibility looks like, this chapter is blunt and freeing.

From there we dig into one of Scripture’s most vivid images, Moses’ veil and the fading glory. Paul uses it to contrast the old covenant’s real but temporary glory with the new covenant’s surpassing, never-fading glory in Christ. We talk about what the “veil” reveals about spiritual blindness, why the answer isn’t to ditch the Old Testament, and how reading the Bible through Christ helps us actually see what’s been there all along. Along the way, we connect Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians to something painfully modern: pouring yourself out for people who still criticize you, and learning to keep your confidence anchored in Jesus.

The chapter crescendos with hope: “from one degree of glory to another.” We unpack sanctification as a process, the Spirit’s role in transformation, and why beholding the Lord in Scripture changes us more deeply than endless self-focus ever can. We also sit with the promise that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” and what that freedom means for guilt, shame, hardened hearts, and the need to perform.

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Transcript

Outline Of 2 Corinthians 3

The Corinthians As Paul’s Letter

Pastor Plek 0:10

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleg. This is Pastor Holland. We're talking 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We're going to outline, observe, interpret it, apply it so that you can walk in freedom with Jesus Christ this day. So it starts off verses 1 through 3. We see Paul's letter of recommendation. He's rejecting the need for a self-commendation or external letters of recommendation, as some others use. Then you got verses 4 through 6. He's going to talk about the sufficiency and the competence from God for new covenant ministry. He's got his confidence is through Christ or God, not his own abilities. Then verses 7 through 11, you got the surpassing glory of the new covenant compared to the old. And he's going to point back to Moses and how his ministry was coming to an end. And he had to do a little face covering so that everyone couldn't see it. Then you got verses 12 through 18. You got this boldness, the veil removed and transformation in the new covenant. And so he said, like, listen, we speak with great boldness, unlike Moses, who veiled himself. And today, the Jews' hearts are hardened because they read the old covenant with a veil still on. All right. What observations are you seeing here?

Spiritual Parenting And Criticism

Pastor Holland 1:22

Uh, the way that he talks about the Corinthians, like they are a letter. Um, I think it's pretty cool. Yeah. He's basically saying he's he's defending his own apostleship, right? He had defended it before in previous chapters with the suffering that he went through and how God brought him through. He's like, clearly, God is, you know, confirming our ministry. And then he's like, another way God's confirming our ministry is you. You exist. If I wasn't an apostle, you know, how would you, how would this church even be planted? Obviously, like God has worked through Paul's apostolic ministry to bring about a true church where the Spirit of God has changed the hearts of these people.

Pastor Plek 2:02

It's so wild to me the amount of criticism that Paul has gotten from a church that he planted. Yeah. I I mean, talk about the most disheartening thing in the whole world. You just you sacrifice your life to get a church off the ground, and then the very ones. Oh, you suck Paul. Yeah, it's wild. So I think that's and so he the amount of humility that he has to endure, he has, and then the confidence in Christ he has to have to overcome that amount of critique. And and I and I think as parents, you have to this all the time. Like your kids aren't grateful that you bore them and raised them. They're just selfish, you know, beings. And you have to train them to be gracious and have gratitude and speak right and be honorable. And so you constantly have to train your kids, even though it feels like, shouldn't you just know that I love you and I care about you? Like, you don't love me, you hate me. Like how many times I've had to go through that conversation. And that's what Paul is doing here with them.

Pastor Holland 3:01

Yeah, right. And Paul refers to himself back in 1 Corinthians as a father to the Corinthian church. He says in 1 Corinthians 4 15, you have countless guides in Christ, but you do not have many fathers. I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Luke, I am your father. Yeah. And he's like treating them like they're his spiritual children, basically. And so he's disciplining them, he's having to train them. I'm not against you, I'm for you. Um, these other guys who you are flocking to are actually um deceiving you, and they're false teachers. And um, so he's having to defend his own ministry, um, kind of like how a father has to tell their children, I don't hate you, I love you. Here's here's the evidence of why I love you.

Moses’ Veil And Fading Glory

Pastor Plek 3:46

Isn't it wild that Moses had a fading glory? Yeah. Like you don't think of Moses as like, ah, the glory's wearing off. You know what? Keep the veil on so nobody thinks it's wearing off.

Pastor Holland 3:58

Yeah. Yeah. What uh why do you think he brings that up here? What's the significance of Moses and the veil?

Pastor Plek 4:04

And uh, you know, the that's represented the old covenant. Its ministry had re had a real glory, but it had the glory that fades, whereas they have a glory that will never fade. It's there is no it that was a temporary God living in the midst of the Israelites in the tabernacle was a temporary thing. Now it's even better, he lives in their heart. They are now mobile tabernacles. Everywhere they go, they carry the light of Jesus, they carry the Holy Spirit with them, whereas the tabernacle carried um it in the center of the camp, and you could only go and visit. And when you did, you you got glory for a little bit, but then it faded, and this glory never fades.

Reading The Old Testament Through Christ

Pastor Holland 4:46

Yeah, and so he talks about um their minds were hardened, verse 14. And he says, For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that veil remains unlifted. Only through Christ it is take is it taken away. Um you need to read the old covenant. What's that? Need to read the old testament. Yeah, well, I mean, he's saying the Jews, that's all they would read, right? Right. Yeah, and he's saying they're they're missing it though.

Sufficiency Comes From God

Pastor Plek 5:13

The veil is in other words, what I'm saying is like I think sometimes we have this propensity to go, don't read the old testament. Oh, I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's saying, No, no, do read it. And especially because you have the Holy Spirit, now you can see Jesus all throughout the Old Testament, and that can make you wise for salvation. Exactly. Exactly. All right, uh, shall we get into the truth about people? Yeah. Um, how about people are not sufficient in and of themselves for spiritual ministry or righteousness? Um, that only comes from God. Look at verse five, uh, where not that we are sufficient ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. And He's made us competent to be ministers.

Pastor Holland 5:56

Um Yeah, I think this idea of a veil, too, um is just in general that our human nature is that we are spiritually blind. Um and you know, so we unless God removes the veil, we're not gonna see the truth. Yeah. Um as Jesus said, uh, you know, you can't see the kingdom of God unless you're born again. Um, same idea.

Unveiled Transformation One Degree At A Time

Pastor Plek 6:22

And I like that verse 18. Now we all with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord, are being transformed. That if you're a Christian, you get that experience of looking at the Lord with unveiled face and beholding his glory, and then that's going to transform you in the same image from one degree of glory to another. And that's awesome. And that comes from the Lord who is the Spirit, which I love that.

Pastor Holland 6:45

Yeah. Yeah. And the being transformed, I love when it says from one degree of glory to another. So, you know, one degree at a time is uh it's a process. Yeah, you're not instantly transformed to be all that you'll ever be, you know, like sanctification goes one degree at a time. Yeah.

Pastor Plek 7:04

Uh how about uh character of God here? Um God's the one that makes the pastor or minister competent and sufficient. Uh it's not through your human ability, but by his power qualifying them for a new covenant of the spirit.

Pastor Holland 7:21

Yeah. Well what do you think about uh the Trinitarian stuff we see here? The last verse? Um yeah, the this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. So is that what is that?

Pastor Plek 7:34

That sounds like because this is where someone could go, see? It's not, it's Jesus is the Lord, and he's on earth, and now he's Jesus, the Holy Spirit. You could go that direction. In fact, some people do. However, I don't see it that way. I see it as the Lord is the Holy Spirit, and then it's triune nature.

Pastor Holland 7:59

Yeah, well, and in verse 17 it says the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. And so you see you see this idea of like um oneness, the Lord is the spirit, and distinguish uh distinguish um persons here of the spirit of the Lord. You see two different persons and yet one God. Right. Um yeah. It's good.

Pastor Plek 8:31

Okay, uh what else?

Pastor Holland 8:34

Um God is glorious. Um we behold the glory of the Lord, and it's by beholding him that we're transformed. And so Man.

Pastor Plek 8:43

I feel like that needs to be said more because what I think we think we're transformed is by navel gazing, by like, oh God, I process all my trauma. And I don't, I'm not saying that's wrong to process your trauma, but what I am saying, if it ultimately leads to you're being triggered by everything that you kind of come up against and you're not looking toward the goodness of God, like the goodness of God overrides any of the trauma that you've experienced. I don't care how bad it is. I don't want to minimize your pain. I want to maximize how great God is so that even when you've had a lot of struggle in your life, it's looking and gazing upon the Lord and his glory and his righteousness that makes everything else pale in comparison to how great he is.

Pastor Holland 9:18

Yeah. And how do we behold the Lord? Well, like remember what the context of this, it says for to this day, when they read the old covenant, how do it's reading the scriptures is the primary way he's talking about here that we behold the glory of God in his word. Yeah. Um, and so when we when you spend time in the word and you see how all of it points to um Christ, points to um the hope of the gospel, points to the glory of God. We're beholding things uh about God, beholding the glory of God in a way that actually transforms our hearts. Nice.

Pastor Plek 9:53

Okay. Um, where were we? Are we on application now? I think so. Yeah. All right. So uh let's take a look at application. That's gonna be a sin to avoid or confess, a promise to claim, an example to follow, command to obey, or knowledge to believe. How about sin to avoid, avoid self-commendation or relying on external credentials, like throwing out your resume to say that this is why you should have confidence in me when you really know people? Like the like they it's not like he didn't know them. It's like we need it. It's weird to say, I need to know that you're from the Lord when you're the one that led me to Christ.

Pastor Holland 10:30

Right. Yeah. I think um knowledge to believe, just that we can be transformed um from one degree of glory to the next. Like God is always working on you. God doesn't quit on you. Um, He is transforming you to be more like Jesus. And um sometimes though, it's like it's it's just it feels like it should be faster. Yeah. Feels like I should be further along right now. Um and you know, the the timetable is up to God, but the knowledge to believe is that he does transform us one degree at a time.

Pastor Plek 11:08

Um, what I love is just the example of Paul's example follow me, Paul's humility. He's got this unbelievable confidence in the glory of who God is, even when he's just getting hammered by the people they should love him the most. Yeah. And I I think that, man, I I love this joy um that he has in the spite of opposition. And again, I can't reiterate enough. Like when you are betrayed by people, it affects you. And he's saying, it does affect me, but it doesn't affect me so much so that I'm unable to minister and love you guys because Jesus has saved me, and what I have in him is so great.

Pastor Holland 11:50

Mm-hmm. I love that. Another uh knowledge to believe where the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom. That's awesome. Um, there is God's spirit brings freedom, brings freedom from um the the minds being hardened in verse 14, brings freedom from uh the veil over our eyes, um, brings freedom from sin, freedom from you know, the just all of the the weight of our guilt and our shame, freedom from our inability. Like the Spirit of God animates us and moves us and guides us um to live truly free and joyful lives.

Pastor Plek 12:28

I love that. Um, man, I I I think I can end on that. That was really great. Um, how about maybe the simple one is uh verse 16 turn to the Lord and have the veil removed. There you go. Turn to the Lord. Hey, thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.