2 Corinthians 3:1

2 Corinthians 3:1-6. St Paul's Ministry no self-assumed task, but the communication of the Spirit

1. Do we begin again to commend ourselves? A charge had been apparently brought against St Paul that he had before (probably in 1 Corinthians 2:16; 1Co 3:10; 1 Corinthians 4:11-14; 1 Corinthians 9:20-27; 1 Corinthians 14:18) indulged in unseemly self-laudation. He supposes that the same charge will be brought against him for his language in ch. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17.

as some others The opponents of St Paul had no doubt come armed with letters of commendation from some Apostle (as the Judaizers in Galatians 2:12) or Church, and some of them had received similar letters from the Corinthian Churches on their departure, with a view to their reception by some other Church. St Paul appeals to the nature of his work among them as rendering such a proceeding on his part not only unnecessary but absurd.

epistles of commendation Tyndale and Cranmer, better, letters of recommendation, the word from its derivation signifying rather introductionthan what we now understand by commendation, i.e. praise, though it would seem to have come to this meaning in New Testament Greek. See last note but one. Instances of such letters commendatory are to be found in Acts 15:25-27; Acts 18:27; Romans 16:1; Colossians 4:10. They became a common, almost a necessary, feature in the life of the early Church, and were known as literae formatae.