2 Corinthians 3:2

2 You're our letter of recommendation written in our hearts that everyone knows and reads.

2 Corinthians 3:2 Meaning and Commentary

2 Corinthians 3:2

Ye are our epistle
Here a reason is given why they stood in no need of letters of commendation, to or from the church at Corinth, because that church was their living epistle, and which was much preferable to any written one. The apostle calls them their epistle in the same sense, as they are said to be his "work in the Lord, and the seal of his apostleship", ( 1 Corinthians 9:1 1 Corinthians 9:2 ) they were so as persons regenerated by the Spirit and grace of God, in whose conversion he was an instrument; now it was the work of conversion in them, which was the epistle said to be

written in our hearts;
some think it should be read, "in your hearts"; and so the Ethiopic version reads it; and it looks as if it should be so read, from the following verse, and from the nature of the thing itself; for the conversion of the Corinthians was not written in the heart of the apostle, but in their own; and this was so very notorious and remarkable, that it was

known and read of all men;
everyone could read, and was obliged to acknowledge the handwriting; it was so clear a case, what hand the apostle, as an instrument, had in the turning of these persons from idols to serve the living God; and which was so full a proof of the divinity, efficacy, truth, and sincerity of his doctrine, that he needed no letters from any to recommend him.

2 Corinthians 3:2 In-Context

1 Do we have to show you our qualifications again? Do we, like some people, need letters that recommend us to you or letters from you that recommend us to others?

2 You're our letter of recommendation written in our hearts that everyone knows and reads.

3 It's clear that you are Christ's letter, written as a result of our ministry. You are a letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, a letter written not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Christ gives us confidence about you in God's presence.

5 By ourselves we are not qualified in any way to claim that we can do anything. Rather, God makes us qualified.